Video Game Violence

Violence in our world today has some wondering why and where is all this violence coming from, especially with things like school shootings and bullying going on.  Some are pointing the finger at violent video games to be the source of violence and factor in violence going on today.

With more than half of the top 50 selling video games being violent and more than 95% of kids ages 12-17 playing video games I doesn’t seem like the games will be going away anytime soon.  Not to mention the $21.53 billion domestic video game industry.  60% of kids who are in middle school and play Mature rated video games have hit or beat up someone.  A 2014 peer-reviewed study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that habitual violent video game playing had a causal link with increased, long-term, aggressive behavior.  More than 98% of pediatricians in the United States say that too much exposure to violent media heightens childhood aggression.  In addition, 66% of researchers agreed or strongly agreed.

Although it seems like video games with violence do cause aggression in kids playing there is some support and evidence saying that this is not the case.  Total US sales of video game hardware and software increased 204% from 1994 to 2014, reaching $13.1 billion in 2014, while violent crimes decreased 37% and murders by juveniles acting alone fell 76% in that same period.  This is showing that even with a ton more video games now, there is decreasing violence with the increase of video games.  According to Christopher J. Ferguson, PhD, a psychology professor at Stetson University, “matching video game conditions more carefully in experimental studies with how they are played in real life makes VVG’s [violent video games] effects on aggression essentially vanish.”

So although we may see sudden bursts of violence in society, crime and violence is at a low and I do not think it is video games causing people to be violent.  It is usually due to a mental illness why unnecessary violence is taking place.

violent-video-games-poll

 

sources

http://videogames.procon.org//

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/what-science-knows-about-video-games-and-violence

2 thoughts on “Video Game Violence

  1. Jada Baity

    I do agree that violent video games have increased children’s tolerance for violence but I don’t think that violent video games alone are causing the problem of bullying and shootings in school. There are so many third variables in this correlation. I think that a child’s tendency to violence comes from what he experiences in reality and knows is real. I think that a lot of kids today have already been taught that what they see on tv is not real and, therefore, video games and tv shows are not real in their consequences. But if a child has older siblings who hit and constantly fight each other, then they are learning that this kind of behavior is ok because it takes place in their reality and they are able to measure if the consequences are major enough or not for them to go forward and take the risk of being that violent as well. What a child sees and then goes on to do is based off of their surroundings and third variables such as their mother and father’s family history and even their genetic makeup. All of these things mix together and become the reason why children are violent or not.

  2. Isaac Benjamin Will

    I consider myself to play video games moderately- although I’m definitely an avid fan (I could name plenty of titles and give criticism on plenty of games), I am, unfortunately, too busy to be an avid gamer. However, don’t get me wrong; I definitely am when I have the chance. To begin a response to this blog, I’d first like to present a personal anecdote… As stated, I play video games as frequently as possible. Many of my friends play video games as often as it’s convenient and many from my family members do the same. However, I consider most of us (My friends, my family, and myself) not only to be very mild-tempered, but extremely nonviolent. And the people they know tend to have the same characteristics. So from a personal perspective, I don’t see any of this video game induced violence. I don’t see any of these astounding statistics. But as Andrew always states, although this anecdotal evidence is very powerful…it can also be very misleading. For this reason we must examine further into the studies present in the “video games make people violent argument”, as taught.
    The first statistic, “60% of kids who are in middle school and play Mature rated video games have hit or beat up someone” seems like it may be slightly misleading. Vast amounts of information on the study is not present. How many kids were tested? Clearly not all of them were. Clearly not every single middle school student was tested. This number could have been extremely small…and ergo, extremely inaccurate. Also, there is no clear definition on what “hit” is. This could lead to many varying answers- football players who have “hit” others may classify themselves under performing such an action. Friends who joke with friends may do the same, and etcetera. Also, at least in this blog, there’s no listed source where this may have come from. As it sits, it does not seem very credible.
    Moving on, the next quote states that, “A 2014 peer-reviewed study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that habitual violent video game playing had a causal link with increased, long-term, aggressive behavior.” And to this I wonder…what is “long-term”? Violent, graphic, realistic video games have been prevalent for no more than 15 years. Many young children, the children seemingly the central argument in this study, could not even have aged enough for the effects to be effectively examined. And what is the casual link? Because it wasn’t presented, I see no evidence to dissuade me away from the notion that it’s purely correlation.
    In a similar argument to the first, the next quote “More than 98% of pediatricians in the United States say that too much exposure to violent media heightens childhood aggression.” again doesn’t saw how many pediatricians were surveyed. Even if it were every pediatrician (which is surely impossible and definitely unlikely) surveyed, their response was that too much violent media heightens aggression. This could be any form of violent media, ranging from books, to movies, to TV shows. This is not explicitly related to video games, which strays from the argument/research at hand.
    So, at least form this data (alongside my anecdote), it seems like it’s reasonable to discount the notion that video games make children violent. For my mind to be changed, it will take some better developed research. And certainly-some better studies as well. Everything in Andrew’s lessons should point us to realize this…at least in the way the research was presented, anyways.
    Overall, I enjoyed the blog. It was very interesting, especially to someone who enjoys video games as much as I do. I read some more up on the topic here

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