CNN has a story on ‘The Demise of Guys’: How video games and porn are ruining a generation. The book is The Demise of Guys: Why Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It and it is by retired Stanford psychologist Philip Zimbardo and Nikita Duncan. The book builds on a TED Talk that argues that:
- The statistics show that guys are underachieving.
- Guys are shyer than before. Few guys know how to talk to women.
- Guys prefer homosocial situations which Zimbardo calls Social Intensity Syndrome.
- All this is caused by computer games and internet porn.
“Boys’ brains are being digitally rewired for change, novelty, excitement and constant arousal. That means they’re totally out of sync in traditional classes, which are analog, static, interactively passive.” (Zimbardo)
Compare this to Hanna Rosin: New data on the rise of women who argues that “the global economy is becoming a place where women are more successful than men.” She argues that there has been a hollowing out of the middle-class jobs men held for service jobs that women do better. Could the shift from a manufacturing to a service economy be responsible for the “demise of guys?”
Fairly ridiculous. Rather than look at young boys, look at the male American middle class for the last 20 years. Quotas in the workplace mean white males cannot get hired because of minority requirements. Only the best and brightest are hired – and only if they are as cheap as their worldwide counterparts in other countries. As a result, middle-class American male workers had little choice but to either strive to win another year in an increasingly competitive marketplace or reinvent their careers every 5-7 years. As corporations fly from tax zone to tax zone the average family has little choice to tag along, selling a 30-year mortgage only 3-7 years into equity because their main breadwinner’s job has left the state they are in. Telecommuting went global, and outsourced many male jobs. But female spouses and unmarried women are getting hired, leading to gender reversal and dissatisfaction.
Meanwhile, the American justice system has bent over backwards in favor of breaking up the family and putting all the financial responsibility on the traditional husband. American women have learned that in divorce, they can still have the same lifestyle or even a much better one with alimony and child support. Where does that money come from? The divorced husband, who is now shackled to a debt he can not finalize for 18 years or more. Lifelong welfare also nullifies the need for a husband in the family. This means no strong male father figure for the children.
Computer games are distraction, not causation of these problems. The real reasons are the hostile workplace and disadvantaged judicial system. Google “Men Going Their Own Way” for more. Men are isolating themselves out of defense, not because they can’t talk to girls.