Video Games and Violence Research Paper

📌Category: Entertainment, Games, Social Issues, Violence
📌Words: 792
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 15 January 2022

There has been an increase in violence in the U.S. Are video games really to blame for this though. There are many things that could cause a rise in violence like the media, TV, or movies. I know many people play video games for hours and video game usage has skyrocketed over the past few years. Some blame video games for violent behavior. Is this really true? Studies have shown violent video games may cause aggression, not violence, there are many other causes of violence in the U.S, and not all mass shooting can be blamed on violent video game

There have been multiple studies that have proven violent video games don't cause violence. They can lead to aggression, but agresion is not the same a violence. According to the article, “Do video games contribute to youth violence.” There is proof that shows violent video games may lead to aggression but not actual violence. The article states, ¨A follow-up study tracked high school students for four years and came to the same conclusion: the competitive nature of the games led to the increased hostile behavior.¨ This may sound confusing to some, but this evidence shows that it is not the violent nature of the games that increase hostility, but the competitive nature. Aggression and violence are not the same. According to the article, ¨Aggression is a more broad term that refers to angry or hostile thoughts, feelings or behaviors.”Violent video games may lead to aggression, but that is no excuse for violence, and violent video games cannot continue to be blamed for people's actions.

Violent video games get blamed for much of the violence that occurs in the US, but the truth of the matter is that there are many causes of violence. Unfortunately, not many people want to dig deep enough to find the true cause. According to the article, Andrew Przybylski, PhD, said, ``And, by blaming video games for violence,] we reduce the value of the political discourse on the topic because we’re looking for easy answers instead of facing hard truths.” When you people do bad things it may be easy to blame it on video games but truly they are covering up the real reason for violence. Partick Markey, PhD, said “The general story is people who play video games right after might be a little hopped up and jerky but it doesn’t fundamentally alter who they are. It is like going to see a sad movie. It might make you cry but it doesn’t make you clinically depressed.“ In today's world there are so many things that can cause violence like social media or television. Something personal might cause violence too. So this really shows how many don't want to find the real cause of violence. 

The mass shooting happening today in the US is often blamed on video games, but video games causing these could be far from the truth Katherine Newman, PhD, said, ¨Millions of young people play video games full of fistfights, blazing guns, and body slams… Yet only a minuscule fraction of the consumers become violent.” . Millions of people play video games and out of those people not all or even close to all go and commit crimes. A report by the US Secret Service and US Department of Education examined 37 incidents of targeted school violence between 1974 and 2000. Of the 41 attackers studied, 27% had an interest in violent movies, 24% in violent books, and 37% exhibited interest in their own violent writings, while only 12% showed interest in violent video games. So many people who play video games do not go out and commit crimes. Even when someone does them playing video games is useless because that is not the true cause of violence. Some blame it so they don't have to face the true cause.

Now it may be players who lose or do something wrong and get mad but even then that is not the true cause of violence.  Not many people are gonna go out and shoot or fight someone because they lose in their game. Patrick M. Markey said,  “90% of young males play video games. Finding that a young man who committed a violent crime also played a popular video game, such as Call of Duty, Halo, or Grand Theft Auto, is as pointless as pointing out that the criminal also wore socks.” The fact that people blame video games for violence is so far from the truth. There would be much more violence in the US if everyone got mad when they lost in Call of Duty or GTA since millions of people play these video games.

There has been an increase in violence in the U.S. Are video games really to blame for this though. Studies have shown violent video games may cause aggression, not violence, there are many other causes of violence in the U.S, and not all mass shootings can be blamed on violent video games. So are video games going to continue to be blamed for violence in the US or will people dig deeper and find the true cause of violence.

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