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Essay on the dangers of gaming addiction
Media violence effects on society
Video games and their effect on society
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Many of the young people of today’s generation have played video games, whether it is Candy Crush, Flappy Bird, Mario, Sonic, Call of Duty, Minecraft, or Skyrim. Almost every electronic device is capable of running games. As advancement in technology increases, the video game industry will also advance. More and more of the next generations are bound to be affiliated with video games. There is a debate whether video games cause people to be violent, especially in adolescents. There has been much research done to come to a conclusion to this question. Not only did Armadi Tansal write an essay to help answer this question, but there has been an online debate about it also. These two pieces of writing may differ in many ways, such as purpose, audience, style, language, appeals, and credibility, but they both help to justify if videos games cause violence.
Analyzing Different Genres
Personal Essay
Armadi Tansal wrote an essay titled, “Modern Warfare: Video Games’ Links to Real-World Violence.” This essay can be found in the textbook “Writing: A Guide for College and Beyond” (Tansal, p. 342). The name itself informs the reader what the essay is about. It compares the violence from Modern Warfare to real-world violence. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a first person shooter video game published by Activision. Tansal starts off talking about his friend “John” a college student who plays extensive hours of video games that are rated M for mature. Tansal compares John to research conducted by Craig Anderson. According to Tansal, violent video games have no affect on his friend. He claims that John is surprisingly calmer than before he would play violent video games. Anderson on the other hand disagrees. He conducted a research where he ...
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...s differ in many ways, they both have the same purpose. Their purpose was to establish if video games cause violence. The use of language, style of writing, appeals, credibility, and intended audience all differ because of the type genre they both are. Different genres are used to help others understand a purpose in a different way. Not everyone is same. Everyone is different and they all have their own ways of understanding. The more genres there are, the more variety of people will understand the same purpose.
Works Cited
Anonymous. [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.debate.org/opinions/do-violent-video-games-cause-behavior-problems
Faigley, L. Tansal, A. (2011). Writing: for college and beyond. Modern warfare: video games’ link to real-world violence. (pp.342-345)
Lamb, J. Society opinions [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.debate.org/about/
Jones, Gerard. “Violent Media is Good for Kids.” Analytical Writing: A Guide to College Composition 1. M. Clay Hooper.,D. Marzette., Beth Wade. Cengage Learning, 2011. 285-88. Print.
Children today are exposed to more graphic violence in video games compared to any past generations. This is because the media finds that making a profit, surpasses the lives of the adolescents that play these games. However, over time two set of views formed from the violence in video games. James D. Sauer, is a graduate of the School of Phycology. In his article, “Violent Video Games: The Effects of Narrative Context and Reward Structure On In-Game and Postgame Aggression,” Sauer, describes that adolescents gain forms of aggression and violence after playing certain games. Not every video game causes post game aggression, but documented in his article, “Players who enacted in-game violence through a heroic character exhibited less postgame
In the article “Why we need violent video games,” Gilsdorf draws attention to the fact that violent video games are not the reason for aggressive behavior amongst youths; rather he suggests that they are an outlet for people’s aggression (Gilsdorf, 2013). Ethan Gilsdorf started out in journalism as a Paris-based travel writer and he is the author of the travel memoir investigation Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms. He is known to be a writer, journalist and a critic (“About Ethan Gilsdorf”, n.d.). The author’s purpose in this article is to inform the readers that violent video games are not always related to the violence in reality. This is a timely argument as the article assesses the relation between violence and video games
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.
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.
According to Valadez and Fergusion (2012), “The effects of violent video game exposure, both positive and negative, on various behaviors are still highly contested within academia and the general public” (p. 608). Violence in video games is often wrongfully perused as a topic of extreme criticism pertaining to an individual’s act of violence in today society. Examples of such would include the shooting that occurred in April 2007 at Virginia Technical College; where Jack Thompson and Philip McGraw asserted that violent video games were the ultimate cause of the tragic incident, but further investigation suggested that Seung-Hui Cho had never played any such games (Valadez & Fergusion, 2012). Since the early days of mankind, society has often enlisted the service of a scapegoat in the attempt to correct the unethical or immoral conduct of a few individuals; violence in video games is no exception to this type of social misconduct. Possibly, one may want to consider human nature and its unyielding desire to be competitively better than the next person; compared to an individuals need to be excessively violent regardless of visual representation of violence in the first place. Although many will argue the effect that violent video games have on the human psyche; the research is far too inconclusive for one to make an educated assessment of the provided information.
At this day in age we bask in the luxury of having easy access to advanced technology at our disposal. From the World Wide Web, to cell phones, music, movies and video games the human race has thought of any and everything to keep us entertained. Over the years studies have shown reasonable concerns regarding the long-term effects of video games. These games can desensitize gamers to real life violence, which is usually seen in the younger crowd. The studies especially hit on the games containing player-on-player violence. Though these games are extremely entertaining and can get kids to settle down for a while, if not properly supervised, they can produce adverse effects. Other studies have shown that video games can be used as way to yield positive outcomes such as, good problem solving skills, cooperation in a group and the ability to flow. Although there has been psychological research on children learning through the actions of others some believe that children are automatically able to distinguish between what is just a game and what is reality. The longer they are allowed on their game system the more they become convinced that their games are real. Some researchers believe violent video games can channel the aggression of the child but the parents are to blame for what happens to the child after playing an excessive amount over a period of time. Children can become preoccupied with these violent video games which have been proven to be the cause of poor social skills, uncontrollable aggression and a false reality.
In 1998, the US software industry sold $6.3 billion worth of video games (see Unknown). Not bad for an industry that didn't exist 25 years ago! Yet despite its continued growth, all is not well in the video game industry. School shootings in Littleton, Colorado; Pearl, Mississippi; Paducah, Kentucky; Conyers, Georgia and many other towns have shocked the nation (see Malcolm). Understandably, grieving parents and sympathetic citizens are searching for a cause for this "outbreak" of youth violence. It is natural to assume, "when children, the symbol of innocence, commit the severest of crimes, then something must be going wrong with society." (see Maker)
Violence has been around for quite a long time. Fights and wars are the interest of today’s society of entertainment. People are more likely to see a movie, where protagonists kill bad guys, over a romantic movie, where a typical girl finds her “knight in shining armor.” This also applies to how teens feel when playing games. Teens have a sweet tooth for violent games, such as Call of Duty: Black Ops, Kill zone, Infamous, and other violent rated games. These games are like vocabulary words in a teens’ language. A recent discussion has been brought up from the Industry of Coombes Class (ICC). A worker has noticed a few news reports stating that games have influenced shooting sprees or murders in the community. Not only that but also parents are being persuaded to ban their children from playing games. The question is “Are games really influencing teens’ bad behaviors?” Well, violent games have been said to be the cause of teens’ violent acts, but this is not true. Many times this has been proven wrong by scientists and psychologists.
I can see where the adults are coming from when they say that these games are more violent, because they are more graphic. The increase of graphic violence is also a factor that has been looked at. Now that computers are “evolving” the amount of things they can do with games also increases. As c...
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.
4. “The Link Between Video Games and Violence” by Rahul Massey. Published by Schorlarly Research Paper 2009. Published by Find Knowledge NY V127900. http://www.grin.com
With the development of technology, violent video games invaded every house, and now it played by every teenage in every family, whether on mobile phones, computers or gaming devices. Some people do not believe that those violent video games effect on the children, while others believe that the government should prevent the selling of these games. However, violent video games made a negative influence on everyone, on children brain like thinking skills, which made their behavior aggressive, on their physiological energy and feeling leading to segregation and violence between siblings in the same family, also on the parenting role of the parents, who are do not know anymore what they should do with their children.
In a society driven by technology, video games are becoming more popular each and everyday. People of all ages enjoy video games in their free time; these games allow the player to become an athlete, a soldier, or a professional fighter at the tip of their fingers. The biggest problem with these video games is that they are becoming too violent. In today’s society, children often brag about the new video game they bought, and the number of people they have managed to kill while playing these games. Video games have become realistic, causing them to intrigue a larger amount of children. Many of these violent video games encourage killing and fighting of enemies, or strangers in the game. Each year a new game system, and hundreds of video games are released, and millions of kids go out and buy them and spend hours playing. Video games have a large effect on school performance and time spent with family. Children would prefer to play their games than sit down and talk with their parents (Saleem, 2012).
In the 2014 editorial, “Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence?”, Steven Markoff supports the claim violent video games cause violent behavior. He speaks to a curious audience of all ages. The article uses logos throughout creating a set opinion on the topic.