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Correlations between video games and violence
Concluding the relationship between video games and aggression
Do video games inspire violent behavior
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Video games have been around for a long time now and they are intended to entertain people. As the years went on the technology in video games have become more graphic; it has gone from looking like cartoons to looking like the real world. People are now saying that as games look more real and become more violent, it is causing the youth to become more aggressive. Seeing these images also causes them to desensitize the violence of the world like they are just looking at a video game which causes them to hurt someone and thinking they could press the restart button and everything will be ok. Even though kids can become violent by video games, there is no links between violent video games and aggression.
When I was younger, I played video games all the time and a lot of them were violent. I know that these games weren’t real and it didn’t cause me to become a violent person. As I was reading Christopher Ferguson article he contends that “More recent research has not found that children who play VVG are more violent than other kids, nor harmed in any other identifiable fashion.”(Ferguson, 2011).Basically, Ferguson is saying that with all the negativity surrounding violent video games; according to research children who play these games aren’t more violent than children who don’t. This idea is important because people have been using violent games to explain why children are more aggressive, but according to research there is no correlation between kids acting aggressive by playing video games.
Video games are meant to be for enjoyment and entertainment. People who don’t understand video games see children acting up, are first to blame it on violent video games for their behavior. As I continue to read Fergusons article he reveals ...
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... more real and become more violent, there will always be critics that will blame video games to the youth’s bad and aggressive behavior. As research has found that there is no relationship between violent video games and aggression. Video games were made to entertain, not put violent images in people minds. If you have a concern with the violence of games just look at the rating before you buy and if it’s not age appropriate don’t buy it for your children. Continue to teach your children right from wrong and let them play because as long as they know what’s real and what’s not everyone will be fine.
References
Ferguson, C. (2011, December 07). Video games don’t make kids violent. Retrieved from http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/07/video-games-dont-make-kids-violent/
ProCon.org. (2014, March 12). Video Games ProCon.org. Retrieved from http://videogames.procon.org/
Now a day every video game has something violent going on. Such as in 2010 the top 20 games out in the market were violent related. When a kid sees in a video game that he can beat someone else up and get away with it they think they can do that in real life. This will increase bullying and kids are being taught not to bully. Every kid plays video games even if it’s a racing game or a shooting game. In 2008, 97% of kids from the age of 12-17 played video games. Most M rated games have sexual violence and when a kid sees that in a game and then beats the girl up. The crime rate for rape will increase as it has. A study in 2009 found that it only takes a child four minutes of playing a game to make him have aggressive and violent thoughts going through his head. The critics of violent video game has that bully has increase 32% because of violent video games. Also in the study when a child sees blood when beating up or killing someone in a game he will have more aggressive thoughts than normal.
Children that play violent video games at such a young age will have a bad effect on them. “Not everybody who plays these games will become murderers, just as not everybody who smoke gets cancer” (Quittner, J). Every day people play with these games will have an effect on the way they look at things, they will begin to have aggressive thoughts, and they will begin to have a change in behavior. On average boys spend thirteen hours per week and girls spend five hours on video games. This amount of time a week will have a major effect of these children minds. “Violent video games effect people. They increase aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and physical arousal symptoms.”(Rollins 1)
People have always been looking for a reason why horrible things happen. The media is quick to blame video games as the target and cause of many shootings that have occurred, ever since Columbine and Quake. People have been blaming video games for violence for years now, ever since violent video games have been made. News reports blame video games more and more for each shooting, telling the public how this person played video games for x amount of hours a day, and that video games caused him or her to shoot people, and how video games encourage and reward violence. Anti-video game lobbyists have been campaigning to have violence removed from video games, citing resources that they themselves have created as reasons for such, poorly done studies where they confirm that kids are more aggressive through how much hot sauce they put on someone’s fries. While unbiased studies of video games and their links to violence are hard to come by, recent research has shown that video games do not in fact have a casual link to violence, and may even have the opposite effect. Violent video games have nearly no link to violence in teens or adults.
Many kids get angry at these games when they lose and can take it out on others. These games are promoting these kids to have more violent urges. Jill Adams, the author of “Effects of Violent Video Games”, states:
The future is a mystery that human beings can’t figure out because the mindset ideal of the future. A step to get close to the future has been the revolution of technology. It has changed society individually and mentally for the reality for the future. However, technology has change entertainment in the manner of video games. Development to create games has been a phenomenal. Making beautiful digital graphics, wonderful story-lines, and human graphic characters that can talk to an individual through certain scenarios. Although video games are a great revolution for the future it has brought negative influence upon people of all ages in high problems leading into transition behaviors like addiction, violence, and signs of aggression.
For the most part, however, it has been demonstrated that the concern of video games turning players into violent individuals that aggress against others in the real world is not a supported theory by these studies.
... methodologies and the intrusion of ideology and scientific dogma” (Ferguson 11). Violent Video Games do not cause increased violent tendencies in youth and adolescents due to the fact violent video games have been around for years and in those years violence caused by teens have actually been dropping rather than increasing. Also, violent video games have been shown through research that the negatives are highly outweighed by the positives. Also, with the introduction of interactive gaming there are a new range of possibilities for violent video games. Such as sending a message to children about healthy activities by getting them off of the couch. So hopefully in five years violent video games will have moved to full interactive gaming so that it looks more real-life, but more importantly that it will still be a form of media that helps to relive personal stress.
Since the 1970 video games have become more popular than ever before. Generating 11.7 billions of dollars of sells every year or more, the video game industry is considered one of the largest industries in this century. However, video games have been a topic of controversy. With the sales of violent video games going up and the increased violence in schools and teenagers, video games are always to blame. Many people speculate that video games are the cause on why many teenagers have developed aggressive and violent behavior, are desensitize to violence, and the increase violence in schools and public places. In contradiction, video games have little or no fault in teenagers’ violent behavior and shouldn’t always be blamed.
The allegation that videogames cause violent behavior in children has been present as long as videogames themselves. Some researchers said that the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, was one intense gamer. “Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech Shooter was seen by his roomates as odd because he never joined them in video games.”(Beresin) This debate will continue to go on in this country as long as there are horrific crimes that occur. There is much written in the research regarding this issue, and many differing views. The research that is presented in the next few paragraphs supports the theory that it is not the graphic video games that produce aggressive behavior, but other factors in a child’s life that create violent actions.
Video games have gotten a lot of negative attention in the media as a scapegoat for what is wrong with children. Are video games really as bad as they are made out to be? Alice Park, writer of “Little By Little, Violent Video Games Make Us More Aggressive” published on time.com, believes that video games are making people more aggressive. But within her article there are many flaws with her arguments; it makes a poor attempt to blame video games for events like the columbine shooting, racism, and hostile behavior. Park makes poor unsupported claims about the quantity and quality of games being played by children and the effects these games are having on them.
There have been so many experiments and studies to try and figure out if video games have a negative or positive effect on our children. A growing body of research is linking violent video game play to aggressive cognitive, attitudes and behaviors (D.A. Gentile, 2004). The 'Path of the 'Path of the 'Path of the 'Path of the 'Path of the 'Path of the 'Path of the 'Path of Video games can obviously be dangerous for our children, causing aggression, bad performances in school and obesity. Although we cant blame all of these problems on the use of video games, there have been many studies to prove so.... ...
One article points out that video games have a big impact on children’s lives and that many of the games played are violent. Researchers have found that “nearly all children spend time playing video games” and studies have found that “8th graders spent an average of 17 hours per week playing video games” (Tamborini 336). Moreover, 68% of the most popular video games contain violence (Tamborini 336). So it is clear that many children have access to violent video games and they have a big impact on their lives simply because of the amount of time spent playing them.
“As video games have become more violent and more sophisticated and the sales of video games has skyrocketed in the last few decades, youth violence has plummeted,” Ferguson says, citing evidence compiled by various federal agencies (Adams 3). Violence in video games is not a new issue. It has been debated and argued since the release of the first violent video game. As time has progressed, so has the evolution of violence and strong language within video games. Ratings have become more relaxed, and the lines between T (Teen) and M (Mature) rated games has gotten closer together. Violent games are becoming the normal and accepted of all games, and are being demanded by the gaming industry more heavily. Parents have always shied away from these games for their children, regardless of age. However, kids are getting these games whether they are the correct age (17+) or not. Young kids, less than ten years of age are playing horribly violent games and parents are fearing the repercussions. But video games are not to be blamed for child violence. Violence in video games does not cause children to become violent people later on in life.
Over the past years, video games have been a way to escape reality for some people. Video games vary from fantasy, romance, and role playing games to violent games. However, vicious video games have been blamed for school shootings, growths in bullying, and violence concerning women. Various people argue that these games numb players to violence, recompense players for imitating violence, and educate children that violence is a suitable way to resolve conflicts.
...ct violent video games to have a greater effect than violent television, and most of the reasons why one would expect them to have a lesser effect are no longer true because violent video games have become so realistic, particularly since the late 1990s. Controlling an avatar during video games has a much larger influence on the audience’s behavior, thoughts, and beliefs than that of a movie. Children grow up killing others in video games, seeing it in a movie doesn’t have nearly as large of a impact on them as its does when they do it in a video game. Since video games are interactive and you’re fully engaged in the game, it has a larger impact on people as opposed to simply watching a movie. While most parents (88%) report regularly supervising their children's use of television, only about half report regularly supervising their children's use of video games.