Final Paper
Do video games kill? That is one question many people believe to be the case about video games. Video games do have big impacts on our lives and affects our society in many ways, but not to the point where anyone will have the mentality to take someone’s life. Video games do have positive and negative influences in our society and to the kids who are playing them; however, with all the negative influences they do not cause violence in the real world. Video games may influence children in negative ways, but they must be taught or learn to understand that this kind of behavior is not tolerated in society and should never be used in a way to harm others. It is okay to joke around and have fun with the violence and that is what video games are for. They are used for entertainment and are exaggerated to extremes where the person playing the game should realize that it should not be taken seriously. Video games do not cause violence in our society today.
When children are playing video games, it becomes very easy for video games to manipulate their minds in a negative way. Children are unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy and may view the violence they are seeing as an ordinary occurrence. To them, heroes are violent, but are rewarded for their “violent” and heroic behavior and they become role models for youth whom do not understand what the message is being shown to them. In the children’s minds, they think it’s "cool" to carry guns to use to knock off the "bad guys." Typically, this situation translates for using this kind of violence to justify normal everyday activities. Children who have been victimized by any kind offense or in a situation of any misunderstanding may be tempted to use violent means to solve problems and quite possibly take things way too far. Thus, resulting in violence or potentially death. However, I can only think of one incident that involves this kind of behavior and that is the Columbine shootings. This kind of behavior I think is extremely rare where people can act like this from playing and watching video games. Many people believe the kind of behavior that was displayed by the two kids at Columbine developed their behavior from playing violent video games. In an internet article, the writer says, “Although nothing is for certain as to why these boys did what they did, we do know that Harris and Klebold both enjoyed playing the bloody, shoot-'em-up video game Doom, a game licensed by the U.S. military to train soldiers to effectively kill,” (Shin pg. 1). Here is a New York Times article that talks about the Columbine shootings and the involvement of video games…
This is a video, of an analysis of the Columbine shootings.
The video games may have influenced the boys in a completely wrong way but that could not be the ultimate reason. There had to be other factors involved to set off for this kind of behavior. Growing up with violent people will have a big influence on how the child may grow up and could determine how the child may act.
An Internet article at safeyouth.org talks about video games and violence has some statistics that show how violent video games have become. “A 2001 review of the 70 top-selling video games found 89% contained some kind of violence. Almost half of all games (49%) contained serious violence, while 40% contained comic violence. In 41% of the games, violence was necessary for the protagonists to achieve their goals. In 17% of the games, violence was the primary focus of the game itself,” (Media Violence Facts and Statistics pg. 1). These statistics show that video games mainly revolve around violence. Despite these statistics and despite the fact that video games consist of mainly violence, it does not mean that it necessarily leads to violence. In some cases it might lead to minor incidents such as fighting amongst friends or even fighting in general, but no matter how much violence is in video games it does not lead to killing. In an USA Today article on the Internet talks about how video games are not a cause of violence and gives statistics to support its argument as well… http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2007-03-02-killer-games_N.htm
This video contains, teenagers and their views about video games, also a teacher who talks about video games and the causes…
Another video, is about video game and parenting.
One major impact is that when people play violent video games, the person playing gets to act out the violence, rather than being an observer. This is opposed to just watching television or movies. People argue that it is more influential when the child is playing the game and experiencing these acts of violence. I agree with that statement to a certain extent, however, I still think that video games can be a good influence. When children play video games, they can learn things that are essential for life. In the sense that by playing video games, it teaches them and helps them develop problem solving skills, teamwork, leadership, and a sense of competition.
In an essay “Art Form for the Digital Age”, the author Henry Jenkins gives a few statistics about video games in America. He first talks about how video games have Americans hooked and have been making millions and millions of dollars off of them. Computer and video games are in almost every household in America and according to his statistics, Americans had bought almost over 215 million computer and video games last year. Jenkins asks the reader, “So are video games a massive drain on our income, time, and energy? A new form of “cultural pollution”, as one U.S. Senator describes them?” (233). After asking those questions Jenkins gets his point across that computer and video games should not be considered a bad thing. If you continue to read his essay Jenkins and I both have different arguments, however, we both agree that video games should not be considered a scapegoat for violence. Video games should not be the main reason why violence happens frequently. There are many other reasons as to why people have such anger and unleash their anger towards others. Computer and video games are becoming imbedded in everyday life with everyone and are important and are somewhat needed in our world.
Video games don’t necessarily lead to violence and they aren’t a waste of money and time, but are helpful and can be useful in life. Video games can serve as an educational purpose on underlying skills. Even though video games are getting somewhat more and more violent, video games should not be looked at as exceptionally violent. They should be looked at as offering new ways of understanding violence and how to have the social responsibility not to take them seriously. Even though violence in video games is big, it should not be the main reason that causes violence in our society.
Works Cited
1. Ackley, Katherine Anne. Perspectives on Contemporary Issues Lyn Uhl, 2006.
2. Media Violence Facts and Statistics
3. Shin, Grace. Video Games: A Cause of Violence and Aggression.
