Violent video games

Violent video games

What are some of the reasons why violent video games are seen to be so much "trouble" for preteens and teenagers?

Some of the issues that violent video games are associated with involve aggressive behaviour, bullying, desensitisation and anxiety. Although some people may argue that video games and these behaviours have to correlation, but the American Academy of Pediatrics' have officially established video games to have an cause-and-effect relationship with these symptoms.

Violent video games are also great for the media. It creates talk, sparks controversy and since it has something to do with kids and our younger generation, this matter is viewed with importance. In the most recent case happening just yesterday, a CNN host blames video games for violence during CNN broadcast.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/2/2/3943898/cnn-host-blames-video-games-for-violence-despite-source-disagreeing

However, more and more experts recently have started that video games cannot be blamed for violence, "they don't cause shootings anything more than one item does." Despite all this, why do people still turn to video games as the cause of violence? I think just like one of our readings for this week mentioned, video games creates a world and tries to mimic a make-belief scenario that may not necessarily reflect on the real world. In a game, once you dies you come back to life again. When you play a war game you expect that fighting with weapons happen all the time with wars. However, a lot of these violent games do not portray our society in a way it should realistically be portrayed. This may be the reason why video games get the blame for a lot of the negativity. It interacts with people a lot more than watching a movie or reading a book does. Not only does it give you the direct visuals, but it also asks you interact, ask you to do the actions make the decisions and constantly having to think about your decisions and the outcomes.

In fact, many of the major studies by well respected groups like The Harvard Medical School Centre for Mental Health, have established no conclusive link between video game usage and actual "violent activity". It's because there are so many issues that can be linked to video games that causes them to be viewed with such scrutiny. Video game addiction would be one of them. To be honest I don't think the heavy media play and scrutiny of video games and violence will cease anytime soon (unless they find a substitute for video games with is more interesting). Video games are just so debatable and it's impossible to find a stance which everyone agrees on.