This morning I read a news article that was disturbing on so many levels. Part of me wishes that I would have never paid attention to it because it has upset my spirit so much. The other part of me can’t help but feel an absolute urgency to write about it, and express my thoughts and feelings.
The article can be found here if you are interested in reading it; http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865676113/Police-testimony-Teens-conspired-to-get-rid-of-14-year-old-girl-who-was-messaging-them.html
The story is about two 16 year old boys that shot a 14 year old girl intending to kill her, because they were tired of her messaging them on social media. They discussed their plan as they were playing video games, and then followed through with it.
The first thing I would like to address is video games. I know that I might make some enemies with my stance on this issue, but I feel very strongly about this. I also know that I don’t have all of the facts from research, but I couldn’t care less about research right now. This is a serious problem! I have never been a fan of violent video games, I feel so uncomfortable thinking that someone would play a game where the goal is to kill people. With modern technology, these games are so life like, and portray violence in an awful way. In my opinion; these games desensitize young people to the violence, making it easy for them to witness (and in some cases contemplate and or follow through with violent acts of their own.) I am NOT a fan of violent video games. I feel like there is no place for them in our homes, especially when I hear about grown men spending WAY too much time playing them. Wake up Dad, you need to be spending time with your children, helping your wife, developing good relationships, and this doesn’t happen on video games. SORRY!!
I really could go on and on about violent video games, and the aspects that I dislike about them; time waster, social skills inhibitor, and I also feel like they encourage disrespectful attitudes in young kids; but enough about that (for now).
Referring to one of my earlier blog posts; I think that it totally unnecessary that any of these teenagers had the immediate access to social media that they did. I am assuming they were using the “snap-chat” (that the article refers to) on their smart phones. WHY?! Parents; why are we putting these kind of distractions in the hands of our youth?! Don’t they already have enough to deal with, and we hand them a device with all the information in the world at their fingertips and expect them to be able to control themselves? Seriously? And we wonder why violence is going up, or why more and more teens are addicted to pornography, or why our children are struggling to focus in school. Do you know the average child witnesses pornography as early as age 8 or 9. OK, again; I could continue on this subject, but let’s move on.
Next I need to talk about kindness. Where has it gone? Several years ago, I coached a little girls volleyball team, 10 and 11 year olds. I was SHOCKED with the amount of bullying. I can’t even imagine treating someone with this amount of unkindness, let alone to their face. When, where, why has this become acceptable for young people to behave like this? Are we not teaching our little ones what it means to be kind? It just blows my mind that these teenage boys are tired of this girl bothering them, so they think the best thing to do would be to kill her!? We have let Satan into our society TOO much!
I have so much sadness in my heart for all three families of these teenagers. What an absolute tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with them; and with all of us as we do our best to raise a righteous generation.
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