Do Violent Video Games Cause Aggression or Not?

Do violent video games cause aggression or not? Video games have become a part of culture in America and all around the world. Video games are extremely popular, connecting people through the internet allowing them to interact with one another through cyber-portal for entertainment, with varying genres of games from card games, first person shooter’s, racing or even 3D strategy games. These games connect millions people around the world, gamers spending countless hours glued to screens looking at bunch of pixels. These games are evolving every year, as technology gets better so do the games, with more realistic graphics, sound effects and scenarios. So with this, the violent games are also becoming more realistic, violent and aggressive. Many of violent war games being released today have age restrictions on them, R16 or R18 warning people of the violent content the game has, and however this does not underage people getting their hands on them. Are these prolonged hours spent playing these games damaging these people’s mind or violent games have nothing to do with making people violent? Many studies have taken place to look into whether or not these games are causing aggression, but none of these studied developed well-validated measures of youth violence caused by games. To investigate this important controversy and proof that violent video games cause aggressive behavior needs to be done more research.

There have been many studies based around violence in video games, whether it is elevated blood pressure, aggressive behavior or violent outbreaks. A study led by Brock University PhD student Paul Adachi has proved that yes these violent games are causing aggressive behavior, but this is based on how competitive the game is and not due to the violence. Therefore a non-violent game that is equally competitive will lead the user to show similar aggressive behavior. Violent video games might be harmful because developing children learn mainly through physically doing things. This may lead to children taking video game experiences and translating them into real life actions. Since violence always seems to be the answer in video games, some children may learn to think that violence is the answer to all. Playing video games can have a hypnotic effect. Daydreaming and fantasizing peaks right before children, at the point when many children are immersed in their video game playing. Absorption is when the logical integration of thoughts, feelings, and experiences is suspended. When a child plays a violent video game he or she may be unaware of the behaviors that are developing in their consciousness. Those children who are easily absorbed into the video game that they are playing may have a higher tendency of developing aggressive thoughts and actions.. In many cases, like the 1999 Columbine High school massacre where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students, one teacher, and injuring 21 other students before turning the guns on themselves. It was well known that the two teenagers who committed this extreme violent act were excessive players of the violent video game called “Doom 3D”, in which the player embarks on defending mars from aliens with large automatic weapons. A lot of people claim that this game caused the two to violently outbreak into the massacre, however there is no proof, and once again, the game has not caused anyone else, out of its millions of players over the years to commit the same heinous crime, Eric and Dylan were capable of these crimes before playing the game, it is however a possibility that the game helped their psychopathic views to be glorified. Where normal people do not have these psychopathic traits in the first place and play games like this for entertainment only. Video games become more realistic, engaging and increasingly violent. The more players involved the more impact the game has to change in the behavior of children. Since children start playing they cannot stop for several hours, some of them spending much more time in the online world can influence behavior in the real world. Children can take the role of the characters from the video games. Especially children with low self-esteem and insecure kids might want to be someone else, so the sense of presence that can lead to addiction is very dangerous, especially for children. Video games are addictive, but they also can be addictive in a positive way. Kids can spend hours in front of the television playing video games, which can provide hours of entertainment. Very rarely are they positive aspects of video games discussed. Playing video games can build creativity; community, problem solving, can raise self-esteem and also decrease aggression. Children failing in school can become violent or show aggressive behavior due to the low academic marks and failing to achieve, and many studies state that video games cause children to fail school, thus leading to violent aggressive behavior. This is falsely accusing video games based upon facts that can be associated with various other activities. Spending six hours a day watching TV, shopping, or sleeping will just as equally affect your school grades, it is down to the individual how they use their time effectively. In the article “Violent video games do not cause aggression” it states that the university of Illinois carried out studies regarding the possible link between violent video games and real world aggression, concluding their findings from their first long term study to show that the violent games “did not cause any substantial increase in said aggression"(Lester Haines). Whenever something wrong happens in society people tend to place the blame on other people or things, rather than us. Society needs to hold people responsible for their actions and not automatically blame violent video games as the cause for violence. Since most young males play video games it is easy to make the claim that there must be a connection between a violent act and the video games he plays. Using the excuse of the video games serves to hide the greater cause of why people commit certain violent acts. There needs to be a lot more testing done before determining whether or not playing violent video games may actually lead to aggressive behavior. There are those who are adamant that violent video games do indeed lead to aggressive behavior, but their assumptions have been based on weak studies that only focused on short termed effects of violent video game playing. Even though there have been countless studies, it is hard to say if playing violent video games leads to real life violence. Video games have become a scapegoat of why people are violent. If someone played a violent video game in the past and committed a violent act, the video game was automatically blamed. These assumptions hold no merit because we like to blame things that happen on media, whether its television, movies, or video games. Researchers need to discuss what the effects of violent video games on young children lead to. Parents need to be responsible for the content that they allow their children to access, not the government. It is up to each individual family’s own code of ethics to determine whether or not a game is suitable for their child. With the sale of video games in the United States being in the billions and the number of people viewing these acts of violence being so numerous, there had to be other factors that influence this aggressive behavior. The sheer numbers of people who view these violent video games versus the number of aggressive acts are not even close in numbers. Blaming these games for people’s actions is obscured. If someone is capable of committing extreme violent acts, or acting in an aggressive manor, they were capable of it well before they took part in playing a computer game. It is down to the individual, who plays these games to act responsible, know right from wrong, and play the games for entertainment only. Violence is not just in video games; it is everywhere and all around us.

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