Do violent video games on XBOX, playstation, sega, etc. have a negative influence or no influence at all, or possibly even a positive effect on today’s youth? Is the normal physiological reaction to violent images what it’s supposed to be or is it reduced in the minds of children?
It is a fact that 80% of today’s video games contain violence. It’s considered one of the most ubiquitous parts of today’s world.
It is widely proclaimed that violence in today's gaming world (and even the media and other entertainment) negatively effects youth. It supposedly deadens a person's sense of life and death when you have 3 lives in a game and you can kill indiscriminately with no consequences except that maybe you fail a mission and you just restart.
I’m not a huge video game player, and when I play I stick to Madden, NCAA Football, or FIFA soccer. However, I’ve played Grand Theft Auto a bunch of times in my video gaming days. Carl from our class is a big fan of Hitman, in which you play a silent assassin hired to kill for money. Carl doesn’t look like a violent guy…at least I don’t think so…Now I consider myself a caring, non-violent person as well. I don’t get any sort of high from violent games that makes me want to go out and hurt or kill people for the hell of it. Anyways, the point of this post is to ask the question: Do these violent games actually have the negative effects on children? Or do psych and medicine professionals blow this alleged concern for children out of proportion, without realizing that some kids who play these games have irresponsible parents or are kids who already have mental problems?
12 comments:
The idea that violent video games have an affect on people I believe can be a true statement. With this being said I believe that whether or not some one is affected by video games is specific to that person and not relavent to everyone as a whole. Therefore I would say that the whole idea that video games are horrible for everyone is an argument that is blown out of proportion.
I'll be honest and say that I do play violent video games such as Call of Duty 4 with the people on my floor. Even though I play games like that I feel that in no way do they affect me. I think the point is that the affect of video games on people is specific to person to person.
As a personal example: I've played violent video games since the 7th grade, (my first playstation game was Resident Evil, which was rated M) and I am one of the least violent people I know. Tons of guys my age right here at XU play GTA, Call of Duty, and Halo.
But anecdotal evidence be damned, because we do have plenty of information about school shooters who obsessively played violent video games.
It is an extremely difficult issue to tackle, with many different studies and stories to observe. I once did a persuasive presentation on it all, back in high school. The most convincing argument I found was this.
Violent crime rates have been steadily declining since 1994. Right around the same time first person shooters gained popularity with the arrival of the game Doom. Am I saying that violent games caused this? No. That sort of correlation = causation argument would be just stupid. But it sure as hell makes it difficult to say that violent games cause violence in the real world.
That's a very interesting chart, Mike. Thanks for bringing that to light because I was unaware of it.
One of the most important things when discussing video games, however, is a parent's role is his or her child's life. As everyone has said, violent video games in and of themselves don't seem to cause violence. However, I think taken in large, uninterrupted quantities, they can create problems (and this goes for any video game). It is paramount that parents are monitoring and controlling their kids' video game intake. If they let their son sit around for 5-6 hours every day blowing people's heads of on a tv screen, I think that we can all agree that this will have a negative effect on the kid, but not neceassarily turn him into a serial killer. However, although Call of Duty and such games probably don't turn you into a homicidal maniac, I do think that the games (along with most of our media) make the American public much more jaded in regrds to violence and contribute to a general cheapening of human life.
I really hate video games for a number of reasons, many of them not involving the violence presented in them. However, I do feel that when the purpose of a game is to kill as many people as possible, it severely cheapens human life. Now I know that it is just a video game and the characters don't have back stories, but if it was real life, wouldn't you stop to think who the man you had just killed left behind? Also, there have been cases of school shootings when the gunman was just in "gamemode" and didn't even really realize what he was doing. I supposed videogaming in moderation is alright, but I think scary things can happen when people spend their days "shooting" others.
I'd probably call "gamemode" and not "realizing what they're doing" as just a way to get off a hook, or onto a lower one at least.
I do not think that video games make people more violent. I love grand theft auto but it does not inspire me to go out and kill anyone. But I do think that if a person is delusional or is psychotic, violent video games may heighten their violence. But I truly do not think that anyone can say that video games cause people to kill someone. People have killing each other way before video games were invented.
While I don't think that violent video are directly responsible for kids turning to violence, I have no doubt that these games have some impact on our culture. The constant bombardment of violent images and ideas causes a person to accept violence as the norm. I think they have lead people to believe that violence is just a part of life that is not going to disappear anytime soon.
I also feel that video games are sometimes used as a scape goat on which the blame can be placed. Instead of holding someone accountable for their own actions, the blame is placed on a video game in order to deflect responsibility.
To me the interesting question is less whether people imitate the specific behaviors they see in the games they play (or the movies they watch or the books they read) than what kind of habits of mind and body a given medium encourages (the medium is the message, to quote Marshall McLuhan). So the question then would be: how do video games lead us to understand and engage with the world around us? What might it mean to see the world in terms of video games?
I agree with many of the other blog comments. I think that video games are completely unrelated to violent behavior. A person’s bad behavior comes from their environment and the people around them. I am not a big video game player, but the times that I have played, it was very easy for me to shut off the game and get back in the real world.
Playing so many video games that you become immersed in another unreal world is clearly a bad idea. I think this is kind of what you were leading to, Dr. Sitter? When people particpate too much in an unreal reality, they start to trasfer that world of gaming to the real world. Again, not that they necessarily imitate particular actions, but they delude themselves into thinking that getting out of life's sticky or unpleasant will be as easy as it is when they are in the gaming reality (such treachery, deception, or even violence).
i think that violent video games are only harmful if you are someone who is psychotic and crazy. I do play Grand Theft Auto 3 sometimes...and i mostly just like driving the cool cars really fast..i mean people are in my way so i move them but it doesnt make me want to actually get in a cool car and drive like a maniac.
there are studies that show that kids react violently after playing these games but..i dont believe it. Video games are just video games...
I definitely think that people, especially young kids are affected by video games. I don’t think video games are causing people to act violently. I don’t think school shootings and other acts of violence are caused by kids playing too much video games. When I was little I loved to try and do the things I saw in video games. One of my favorite things was reenacting a fight from a video game with my brothers. We beat each other up so much, but it was a lot of fun. I even know kids now who love to try the things they see in video games. One of the best things to do on a boring weekend afternoon is go jumping off roofs or catching knives, or other crazy things you would see in a video game. Video games influence people to try things out, just to see if they can do it, but they don’t make people kill other people. I don’t believe the stuff about kids that play video games grow up to be murderers. I play violent video games and I hardly ever try to kill anyone. All my friends play violent video games and I haven’t been killed yet. Everyone has gotten in a few fights in their life, but they weren’t caused by video games. People who commit severe acts of violence weren’t influenced by video games either, they have other problems.
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