A Word on Video Games Causing Violence “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth,” said Marcus Aurelius, co-emperor of the Roman Empire from 161 to 180 A.D. It’s almost as if the guy could predict what human society would turn into by the twenty-first century. In more modern terms, this is Aurelius going full Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode (look it up) on the modern press and other public media. It seems that every major news outlet has at least one story attempting to link this particular video game to that particular crime or that particular video game to this particular crime. There’s a point where all the media bias becomes too ridiculous and-according to a scientific (that’s right, …show more content…
Modern media outlets are all too willing to create a link between video games and violent crime. Moreover, society is even more willing to believe whatever garbage Fox News shovels down its ignorant gullet. In this world, seeing is no longer believing. Subjectivity and personal thoughts are running rampant in the news and it just needs to be stopped before everything gets even more out of hand. First things first, video games causing violence is objectively wrong. Mental health and past experiences have to be taken into account when determining the cause for violence. Take Adam Lanza and the Sandy Hook shooting. Lanza was a twenty year-old who was diagnosed with Asperger’s in 2005. According to Pilkington’s article on theguardian, investigators found “photocopies of newspaper articles on shootings of children dating back to 1891” and “a spreadsheet recording mass murders over the years.” It was also stated in the article that Lanza was “obsessed with mass murder.” Pilkington’s article goes on to say that, although Lanza had been diagnosed with Aspergers, “he declined to take any medication for his condition and would not engage …show more content…
Minecraft, a game which has sold over nineteen-million copies-not counting all the purchases made on smartphones and gaming consoles-has been out of the development stages for four years. Nineteen-million over four years is a lot when the game was designed by a relatively small company in just under sixty hours, according to Tom Cheshire’s article about Markus “Notch” Persson and Mojang, the company behind Minecraft. Minecraft isn’t a game where the player goes around from area to area mindlessly killing like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. No, Minecraft is about creation and survival. The player base of the game is constantly making it more challenging, adding more elements, or developing a new way to build massive structures to fuel that creativity and survival instinct. When Mojang made the game open source and invited modders to come in and change their game however they saw fit, that was when the game began to capture the hearts of millions of players. If someone says that video games in general cause violence in youth, said someone is also stating that a game that encourages community and creativity is also causing violence. In Andrew Leonard’s article on video games not being the main case for antisocial youth, he goes into “how being part of a community of gamers can generate as much satisfaction and
In the cases of school shootings that took place at Columbine High School, Sandy Hook Elementary, Virginia Tech University and Northern Illinois University, the media highly publicized the fact that the perpetrators were avid video gamers, but why is this important? The media want’s your attention and they are more than willing to say almost anything to get it. They reported that the perpetrators were avid gamers with the implication that there is a well establish connection between the two when there is not. They exploit the fear of parents and concerned citizens by not including relevant corresponding information in order to leave you more interested lea...
The article “Do Video Games Kill” written by Karen Sternheimer addresses the widespread question; are video games the cause for “young killers”? (220) Sternheimer believes concern for the influence of video games may have on youth is spiraling out of control. She puts most of the blame for this out of control concern on the media. She also writes some about the politicians and the Juvenile Justice System. Sternheimer suggests that there are other factors to blame for violent behavior: poverty, the neighborhood, unemployment, family violence, divorced parents and mental illness (218). While it may be that juvenile crimes have declined, and personal backgrounds effect actions, it cannot be proven that video game violence has no to little effect on
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.
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.
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.
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)
People say that video games make people violent but really people are already violent. The author Belanger Craig states that he does not want to blame video games for any of the violent actions rather he wants to understand them more. Most people just see the cover and blame it on that they do not bother to search the so called victim. People can be corrupt, yes there are violent video games but there are also violent people. Some Just believe the article in front of them. For example Lee, M. wrote a article on video games stating “...in Korea, a couple who left their four-month-old daughter unattended in their apartment for five straight hours while they went out to play video games at a nearby cafe came home to.” People who blame stories
The article also mentioned about many other shootings such as the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings and how the shooter involved also played lots of violent games and that could have sparked his violent nature and that led to him shooting. The article also mentioned the mass shooting at the Connecticut movie theater and how the person involved also played violent games and there are lots of speculation and lots of people correlating playing violent video games and real life violence. Personally I don’t believe that playing violent video games has a correlation between the shootings. From my experience I too have played lots of games and some that would be considered violent but I don’t feel an urge to be violent, or have tendencies to act aggressive because of a game that's considered violent . I also read about how most of the people involved in the mass shootings had some type of emotional stress and psychological problems prior to the actions that followed afterwards. I known lots of people who play violent games as well they aren't inclined to go on killing sprees, I feel that it depends more so on the mental state of the person and if they are having some sort of issues already,
“Contrary to the claims that violent video games are linked to aggressive assaults and homicides, no evidence was found to suggest that this medium was a major (or minor) contributing cause of violence in the United States.” (Markey, 290)
The debate about media violence has been going on for hundreds of years. The newest form of media being scrutinized is videogames. I will be taking you through this debate and sharing with you some things that you may find surprising. This is not a new topic and has ...
There is no doubt that the media can spin a story into a shocking and scary account produced solely with the intent to sell. This information, force-fed to the public, can cause fear and hatred to develop within our country and result in gun violence and bloodshed. One reason for the amount of youth violence in America is the violent content in many video games. The average adolescent spends a major part of the normal week watching or interacting with some form of the media’s products. Video games are one of these media-based mediums and have become increasingly popular since the 1980’s.
One of the first steps to changing our gun culture is to take gun violence out of the media. Kids are exposed to violence in television, video games and movies everyday. Dr Norman B Anderson of the American Psychological Association says there was a link between Adam Lanza’s (the gunman of the Sandy Hook shooting) violent video game obsession and his killing spree that cost far too many innocent lives. A study done at Brock University showed children and teens who played violent video games over a long period of time showed increased development of aggressive behaviors. This goes without saying that there must be a decrease of violence in the media. The kids watching violence on television are the future of society. They cannot all be aggressive, violent people who believe that shooting civilians is okay or stealing cars is something to take lightly. We must change this by
Restriction on video games will not decrease the amount of violent acts occurring around the world. Violent acts occur due to the access of weapons, unstableness of the perpetrator, or anger built up such as revenge. In David Sonboly’s case, he had access to weapons and was mentally unstable. Although the other argument remains that since he played violent video games, he must have acquired a negative behavioral effect from the video game. However, it was proven that he was inspired by Norwegian mass killer, Anders Breivik, so this proves that it wasn’t just video games that inspired him. With this being said, many boys and young men play video games according to Christopher Ferguson. If video games did in fact cause violent acts, then there
Video games first appeared in the early 1970's. It all started with a simple white ball bouncing back and fourth on the screen. In 1986, Nintendo introduced its first line of home video game consoles. With the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) on the market, the home video gaming industry surged and immediately became popular among children. Since then, not only have video games increased in popularity, but there have been vast improvements in graphics, game play, and forms of gaming. Today, video games have become the preferred choice of entertainment among children and teenagers. Research done in 1998 has shown that kids who own video games spend an average of 90 minutes a day playing them. Clearly the video gaming industry is a profitable one. With the increasing competition between gaming companies, the advancement of technology and content of games began to change. One of the most significant and concerning changes in gaming is graphics. With the improvements in graphics the content of the game became more and more detailed and realistic. Visually violent actions can now be displayed on the screen. Images of blood, flying body parts, and gore have been integrated into every aspect of today's video games. Violence has always been a common factor in many games, but with the improvements in graphics and capabilities of gaming consoles, a growing number of people are becoming concerned about the effects on our children and society.