Nineteen Minutes: Fiction Imitating Reality Essay

Sociologist and the author, Karen Sternheimer, in her article, “do video games kill?” (2007), argues that media and politicians are quick to blame video games when teens kill. She supports her claim by first talking about politicians and other moral crusaders frequently create “folk devils,” individuals or groups defined as evil and immoral, then both politicians and news outlets felt that video games were the ones to inculpate, also news reports showed little importance to the broader social contexts, and finally dubious about the juvenile justice. Sternheimer’s purpose is to persuade in order to show that video games is not the only explanation as to why teens kill. She creates a professional tone for students, teachers, parents, politicians

Barbara Dority author of “The Columbine Tragedy: Countering the Hysteria”, illustrates how society becomes hysterical after a teen commits a mass school shooting. The Columbine shooting occurred April 20, 1999 in Littleton, Colorado. It was caused by two adolescents Eric Harris and Dylan Kledold, collectively killed 13 students and wounded 23 others. After the Columbine shooting, society looked in every direction for who is to blame for such a horrendous act of violence caused by teens. Dority expresses how society tends to panic, and take away the youths’ pleasures such as video games, music, and the very basic rights young people have. While society posit that media or Goth music is the catalyst for teen violence, it is not the media or Goth who are to blame for teen violence.

In my most recent essay I wrote of the violence attributed to video games in light of various shootings and other tragedies that occurred in the past year or so. In this essay I argued that despite their violent content, video games are not completely to blame for acts of violence committed by children. Throughout this essay I tried to convince the reader by, first, establishing my own credibility with video games, then sharing my own experiences with violent games, and providing both empirical data and valuable insight from trusted sources.

Like any math equation, to be able to find a solution, we must first understand the problem. We must use this same concept into this public health issue. Research and reports are beginning to provide patterns for understanding the individual’s motive to kill and the characteristics of the different schools where shootings occur (Wike and Fraser 2009). According to Wike and Fraser, making sense of the senseless, holds the key for designing prevention programs. An individual’s drive to commit such crimes can extend from factors such as bullying, their mental health, their environment, and lack of support.

As a hook in his article “When Life Imitates Video,” John Leo describes the Columbine High School massacre which took place near the city of Littleton, Colorado in 1999. Leo claims the actions taken by the teen shooters are due to the violent video games that* many young people play. The rest of his essay builds from this idea, arguing that violent video games desensitize players and encourages dangerous and delinquent behaviors in young children and teens. To effectively convince his target audience, those who have not yet had exposure to the idea of a connection between video games and behavior, of this idea, Leo utilizes an appeal to pathos and logos.

Kimmel looks at both sides of the argument that video games and other media influence violence in young men in real life, but focuses on the perception that violent video games influence violent young men. In my third informal writing assignment reflecting on that chapter, I stated “I can see the side where it does have an impact of young kids, and I see it in my younger cousins when they can recite the cutscenes in the games they play, and see it when they play fight and pretend they are their favorite game heroes”, concluding with “Today’s violent games weren’t made to teach children how to kill, they’re only made for entertainment” (Brinkman-Sull). Before I took this class, and even at the beginning of the semester, I was extremely defensive of the criticism on violence in gaming, but after reading more into it, I realized just how deep in the industry the problem is– highly sexist notions in a lot of popular games. Many of them portray women as objectified beings, purely used for sex appeal and to attract the larger male gamer population. The male characters are also idealised in a similar way– typically portrayed as muscular, brawny men, with basic levels of thinking and reasoning. These brawny men are typically focused on one thing– complete the mission in whatever means possible. This kind of violent thinking is widely reflected throughout many other typically male-dominated organizations, including the

“Shooting massacres” in school settings, a new phenomenon within the past 50 years, are extremely rare events. Over 23 years, 1990-2012, 215 fatal school shooting incidents resulted in 363 deaths, equivalent to 0.12% of national firearm homicides during that time period …… Among these, just three shooting rampages – Columbine High School, Virginia Tech University, and Sandy Hook Elementary School – accounted for 72 (53.3%) of these 135 deaths. The frequency of random/ rampage shooting incidents in schools has remained within the narrow range of 0 to 3 episodes per year.” (Shultz, et al., 2013, p. 84)

The columbine shooting shocked the world and having the blame on video games was one of the reasons why these kids did this. In this article it talks about the tragic event that took place on April 20, 1999 a couple of teenagers who were being bullied throughout high school came to school and went on a killing rampage taking out everyone they can see. This article also talks about the background behind why these teenagers would do such a horrible thing and this made a lot of people aware about how these teenagers even got a chance to get a hold

Video games are prevalent among impressionable children and teenagers. There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the violent themes used in video games. Teenage shootings in schools have led society to question the relationship between video violence and criminal activity. After considerable research, expert opinions, and research findings, the American Psychological Association found that there is no link between gaming and criminal behavior (Casey). With this, the pursuit of video violent games continues to grow in our society. With games that show execution style murders, blood oozing from gunshot wounds, and victims moaning from wounds, it certainly is gratifying for the indulgent player. The ongoing concern about aggression and violence has once again been proven to be non-existent (Alert). My thoughts are that this cartoon like violence is appeals to the need for violence in an artificially designed environment. In this manner, violence is contained within the boundaries of fantasy. This is unlike “The Crucible” which occurs in with real people, events, and situations. Thus, directing violence in the realm of societal dysfunction that has endured with

“The lack of attachment with their parents or caregivers at the beginning of their life to some of the school shooters. Sueng-Hui Cho, who was the shooter of the Virginia Tech Massacre on April 16, 2007 suffered from this kind of risk factor. Cho did not communicate with his parents or those around him” (Ibid,

The Writer of “When life imitates Video”, John Leo has tried to persuade his readers the reason why violent video games have negative impact on children's character. The first main goal of his article is to show the relationship between playing murderous games and violent actions. His second main goal is to make emotional appeal to parents the need to monitor their child from exposure of graphic violent medias. Most of his argument comes from his personal believe otherwise not supported by any evidence except making emotional(pathos) and logical(logos) appeal by trying to associate violence occurred in the Colorado with violent video games. To further strengthen his argument, he cited the Los-Angles Times which describe the characters children display while watching morbid video games and he tried to link the aggressive behavior modeled in the game and violent character. He assume the whole society as his audience. As he stated it, “we are now a society in which the form of play for millions of youngsters is making a large number of people die”.He succeeded in writing and informative and an emotionally appealing article with a potential of convincing his audience against violent video games.

In the late 90s, it seemed that school violence was on the rise as three separate devastating school shootings occurred over a three-year span. The most severe of the three due to the high death toll was the shooting at Columbine High School, also the one most associated with violent video game influence. The two assailant's levels of gaming expertise and their participation in online gaming was in question as motivation for their killing spree. It was this knowledge that sparked a media frenzy over who's to blame for the heinous acts being committed by these obviously troubled youths. However, other issues in these children's lives can contribute to a deeper explanation.

"I'm angry someone would do this to us. There are lives ruined, families ruined, and our whole school year is ruined" (Brackely 1). Casey Brackely, once a student that attended Columbine High School, remembers the tragedy of the horrific Columbine shooting that killed and injured many students. Mass shootings in the United States have been on the rise since the 1980’s, especially in the last decade. These shooters motives and profiles are almost all terrifyingly alike. Many of these shooters try to imitate and parallel the tragic shooting of the Columbine High School in 1999. These shootings have made peaceful organizations, such as an elementary school; become a place of violence and death. Currently, in the United States, an epidemic of

Newman begins her book by telling the stories of two different rampage shootings, at Heath High School and Westside Middle School. Once she establishes the shooters and the subjects of her study, Newman lays out her thesis and explains that her research shows that many factors contribute

In both the Columbine and the Paducah, Kentucky cases the parents of the shooters were sued on the grounds that they should have known, and prevented, the tragedies from occurring. According to an article written by Mark Walsh regarding the Paducah shooting, a state-law negligence suit “named 45 defendants, including McCracken County…teachers…who allegedly failed to interpret “warning signals” [referring to a paper that Carneal had written depicting a fictitious school shooting] that 14-year-old Michael Carneal would go on a murderous rampage” (Walsh, par. 4). The case against the employees of the McCracken County School District was dismissed by Judge William Shadoan, citing, “We cannot expect those teachers and administrators to be psychiatrists, lawyers, psychologists, or physicians” (Walsh, par. 15). These school employees should have never been put in the position to have to defend themselves against such