Violent Video Games and Television Shows Essay Example

Violent video games and TV shows have been a controversial topic for a long time. For years, the topic has been discussed amongst parents, psychologists, and kids far and wide. Teenagers often have a shared memory of being told they weren’t allowed to play games or watch certain shows that their friends were watching because it would be a bad influence on them or that it was too violent. It’s only for entertainment right? How bad could it be? Many people often question if violent media does actually have an affect on violence levels or if they can result in violent crimes. These concerns have even been brought all the way to the governmental level. Violent media does increase violent behavior. Violent shows and video games often increase aggression, conditions violent reactions, and causes desensitization, all which tend to lead to violent crime.

Violent media has been shown to increase aggression. Oftentimes, video games encourage goal achieving tasks that come with rewards and violent video games do the same. In the article, "The Effect of Online Violent Video Games on Levels of Aggression." by Jack Hollingdale and Tobias Greitemeyer it states, “Within specific violent video games, progression through gaming levels achieved by engaging in violence poses an additional risk of increasing levels of aggression. Carnagey and Anderson found that rewarding violence increased in-game violence and that rewards for killing other racing drivers and pedestrians, in the race-car video game Carmageddon 2, increased levels of hostile emotion, aggressive thinking and aggressive behavior.” This shows that rewarding violent video games can increase aggression levels and the possibility of hostility. A research experiment testing this theory assigned participants to neutral and violent video games and the results revealed that those who had played the violent video games were more aggressive than those who played the more neutral games. (Hollingdale & Greitemeyer 1) These results can have a similar effect with violent media in general. This shows that violent video games do increase aggression which can result in violent behaviors or even violent crimes.

Continued exposure to violent media can cause emotion induced blindness or desensitization to violence in general. According to the article, “Exposure to Violence in the Media Leads to Violent Behavior.” by Huesmann, L. Rowell, and Laramie D. Taylor. It states, “At the same time, repeated exposures to emotionally activating media or video games can lead to habituation of certain natural emotional reactions, or "desensitization." Behaviors observed by the child viewer that might seem unusual at first start to seem more normative after the behaviors are viewed many times. Emotions experienced automatically by child viewers in response to a particular scene decline in intensity after many exposures.” This shows that repeated exposure to violent media can cause habituation, affecting those who are witnessing it, especially impacting children who are often consuming this kind of media. You could compare it to something like a military boot camp where it is “designed to break down your existing mores and norms and to accept a new set of values that embrace destruction, violence, and death as a way of life.” desensitizing you to violence and brutalization. (Grossman 1) Violent media can create such a desensitization to violence that it no longer affects the person witnessing it which often contributes to violent crime. 

Finally, violent shows or video games often condition the media consumer to react with violence in certain scenarios. It has been shown that extensive observation of violence results in biasing “children's world schemas toward attributing hostility to others' actions.” (Huesman and Laramie 1) which proves how violent media can directly cause someone to respond in viciousness. In the article, “Violence in the Media Causes Juvenile Crime” by David Grossman, it says, “When people are frightened or angry, they will do what they have been conditioned to do. In fire drills, children learn to file out of the school in orderly fashion. One day there is a real fire, and they are frightened out of their wits; but they do exactly what they have been conditioned to do, and it saves their lives.” Similarly, if someone has been conditioned to react to a high stress scenario or a heightened emotion with violence due to being influenced by the media, in one of these situations they will retaliate in violence. This shows a clear link between violent media and violent crime. 

Violent media’s main purpose is entertainment but it negatively affects those who witness it, causing an increase in violent actions. Violent games and television shows increase aggression, desensitize people to violence, and conditions hostile reactions. As you can see, Violent media does increase violent behavior, so is it really worth the entertainment value it might give?