In his article “Shooting in the Dark,” Benedict Carey argues that video games depict explicit or violent content stimulate aggressive behavior within gamers. He argues that video games like Mortal Kombat, Call of Duty, and Battlefield 3 increase aggressive urges and that exposure to these games leads to real-world hostilities. He mentions incidents like the young men who opened fire at Columbine High School and at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado—video gamers who seemed to be acting out some “dark digital fantasy”—to uphold his position. He believes a dose of violent video games can cause people to act “more rudely” than they would otherwise. Although he describes how violent video games may stimulate aggressive or hostile behavior, Carey’s argument can be challenged because there are other factors that can influence individuals to act violent and hostile.
In this essay, I will be analysing the article by Christopher Ferguson entitled Stop Blaming Violent Video Games. Video games have been at the front of social and political controversy since their popularity increase in the early 1990's. With the use of scientific research data, and the common misconception that society makes in connection with violent video games and young adults committing aggressive crimes. Ferguson demonstrates a clear and concise argument to the fallacy of video games being linked to heightened aggressive behavior and violent tendencies.
The article “Do Video Games Kill” written by Karen Sternheimer responds to one of the most sought-after question; are video games the cause for “young killers”? (220) Sternheimer believes the influence of video games on today’s youth maybe spiraling out of control. She focuses most of the blame on the media, 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 juvenile crimes have declined, and personal backgrounds effect actions, it cannot be proven that video game violence has no to little effect on America’s youth.
A., and B. J. Bushman. "Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature." Psychological Science 12.5 (2001): 353-59. Sage Journals. Web.
N. p., 2018. Web. 20 Mar. 2018. "Do Video Games Really Cause Our Youth To Become More Violent?. "
A review of almost a decade of studies found that exposure to violent video games was a "risk factor" for increased aggression. But the same team of experts also said that there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the influence of games led to criminal acts. It is extremely essential to know that playing violent video games more often (in terms of hours) can have a negative influence on gamers especially on adolescents and young adults, but this is not completely accepted by gamers or video game programmers. Further research in this field is essential to figure out the other dimensions that would influence aggressive behaviour other than playing violent video
Violent video games have been blamed for everything from bullying to school shootings. Critics of these video games believe they cause people to commit violent acts in real life. These critics, mainly comprised of parents and other responsible adults, don’t agree with what the video games portray. Others say the video games cause less violence and are an outlet for anger and stress. Although violent video games have violent actions in them, teenagers should be able to play violent video games because there isn’t enough evidence to prove they make teens more aggressive, it could prevent violence, and violent video games are a fun and relaxing way to relieve stress and anger.
role-playing games with simulated violence are perilous for kids because it increases their exposure to violence . In one article that shows the pros and cons of video games and how they are perilous said, “60% of middle school boys and 40% of middle school girls who played at least one Mature-rated (M-rated) game hit or beat up someone. ”This shows that video games can increase teens´ violent behavior. This also shows that games with violence can be dangerous to kids. In addition, in the same article, it said,“Simulating violence such as shooting guns and hand-to-hand combat in video games can cause real-life violent behavior.”
Violent Video Games The culprit? While video games certainly have a decorated history of violence, they have been unfairly attributed for real life violence for way to long. Games with violent undertones have been in existence for nearly forty years. Attempts are continually made to focus on the violent effects that these video games supposedly have on players of all ages.
The negative effects of video games. A. An example of a school shooting linked to a video game. B. Bond’s research and its objectives. C. An explanation of the general aggression model.
Media violence has become a controversial topic in the world today. Owing to the rising technology, children are beginning to show increasing violent behaviors. The debates on the effects of media ranging from screen media, video games, and books have a long history. Due to this, there is a speculation over what is the leading cause of the increasing violence in children. Some people argue that there is a relationship between media violence and real-life violence.
A recent content analysis by the research organization Children Now shows that a majority of video games include violence and about half of the violent incidents would result in serious injuries or death in the "real" world. Claim1 Research involving British primary schoolchildren found that the length of time young people spend playing games, rather than their content, could have an effect on their behavior or school performance. But it concluded that fears that generations of young people are growing up with their development impaired by exposure to violent video games are no more likely to be borne out than previous “moral panics” over television and other media. Playing one-player games is not always negative if you do it moderately.
There are games that literally replicate and give people the ability to score points for doing the very same thing that these students are doing inside schools, where you get extra points for finishing someone off who’s lying there begins for their life.” ( 6) There are several ideas that say young people benefit from these violent video games “Surprisingly, playing video games can help our physical, mental, and emotional health.” It helps them to improve hand eye coordination and thinking ability. These benefits are not worth the risk of being influenced by violent video games. (7) All in all the research and officials say that violent video games affect how children, teenagers and young adults act.
Research shows that at least 83% of children in the US aged between 8-12 years are involved in video gaming once a month. This elevated number of video gaming has had its fair share of effects on its consumers. For instance, video games have positively influenced children to work together in completing various tasks, and often improve a child’s thinking capacity, especially through solving puzzles (Anderson et al, 2007). However, the contentious issue has been the effects of violent games on children, which are often negative to their well-being. In short, violent video games increase the aggressiveness of a child, and may eventually cause mental ill health.
Some researches admit that violent games may cause adolescents to become tremendous. Studies showed that video games increase psychological awakening, it could also increase aggressive behavior, emotions and thoughts and finally let teenagers lose the sense of helping others. All these effects will be carried by aggressive young people. It’s true that video games are violent, but aggressive adolescents are more likely to be more attracted to it. Some games reward players for doing violent actions, so this will affect them negatively, letting them think that violence is normal.
