Video Games And Its Effects

Are violent video games directly correlated to teen violence? This is the burning question many researchers are dedicated to answering. The common form of the question is “Is the increase in violence in games creating killer kids?” The simple answer is no. Instead the opposite has occurred, as games became more violent, the players became calmer. The games create a “safe” outlet for any anger or angst that young people possess. Crime rates in the teen population have lowered and violent teens admit to having little to no interest in violent video games. The games that most people fear are destroying the youth may actually be one of the things helping them grow and become “normal” members in society.

In today’s society there has been an ongoing debate regarding the effects of violent video games and the development of today’s youth. Many people believe that the violence in video games promotes aggression. According to Doctor Brad Bushman’s article, "Do Violent Video Games Increase Aggression?" he claims that violent video games leads to aggression because it is interactive process that teaches and rewards violent behavior. Yet others believe that this not the case. Gregg Toppo of the Scientific American, writes in his article, “Do Video Games Inspire Violent Behavior?” that video games are not a significant issue because teenagers know how differentiate between reality and fantasy. Because of the controversy surrounding this topic, I decided to research the question, “Does exposure to violent video games cause aggressive behavior among teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18?” Initially before performing any extensive research on this subject, I hypothesized that violent video games do cause aggressive behavior. I then proceeded to study different scholarly works that both supported and opposed my hypothesis. What I learned from those works eventually gave me a more complete understanding of the topic and allowed me to take a more educated stance.

A significantly large portion of the video games created within the past 5 to 10 years contain some form of violence. On top of that, some of the most popular video games out in the market today are extremely violent and warrant an “M” rating for mature. Video game developers are well aware of this trend and continue to produce more graphic, interactive, and realistic content. Therefore, there is a concern that the vast amount of violence in video games is changing how youth develop and what they perceive as normal. Many researchers believe that there is a link between video games and increased aggression in the people who play them.

Although violent video games are thought to encourage real world violence, they actually help to prevent it. I am focusing on violent video games and how they affect juveniles because I feel that this issue needs to be looked at in the criminal justice community. It is an unnecessary distraction to blame the actions of a disturbed youth on a form of entertainment that has been used by millions of people without incident. A review article published in The Psychiatric Quarterly found that many studies which claim to indicate an increase in aggression due to video games are, in fact, biased! Once the bias is taken into account, the studies no longer find any correlation between youths who play violent video games and youths who

It is agreeable that there are some correlation between teenagers playing video games and how it affects the youth mentally. Heavy consumption of violence video games does indeed stimulate a change reaction in the brain waves, but there is no hard evidence stating that those changes causes teenagers to act aggressively and violently. On the contrary, it is a popular beliefs that violence video games does indeed causes teenagers to displayed unpleasant behaviors and actions because that is what they learned and observed from the games. Therefore, parents should limit and regulate the amount of time their teenagers are playing violence video games so that they can protect their children from negative behaviors.

Violent video games are contributing to violent behaviors in the youth and teenagers of America. Youth violence is a seemingly increasing problem in the United States. Juvenile centers are gaining new residents each day.This violence is brought on by an increase in video game violence. Many of the newly developed games are killing simulators which train players for real world violence. There seems to be a lack in evidence against video games. “According to the federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low” (Jenkins 32). So called links between video games and youth violence are said to be found, but these links are coming from people who solely research media violence.

Video games are the wave of the future. Video games have been apart of american culture just as long as tv or computuers have; and just like everything else in life video games have adapted and changed with the times.

In this research paper, I will be talking about video games and how they are affecting people. 97% of teens in the U.S play video games and studies have shown that children tend to show more empathy and helpfulness in their daily lives when they play video games. This paper will not only talk about random things, but it will talk about the positive and negative affects of video games. Video games are changing the people in this world today, but their changing them in positive and negative ways and video games are helping with many different things.

With the popularity and production of video games constantly rising since the mid 90s, you would also imagine that the violent and illegal acts in teens would have also risen, but that is not the case. In fact, violent acts in youth have steadily decreased during the past 20 years, and are projected to continue to fall. While there could be many reasons for this drop in violence, the most likely one is that the inclusion of violence in video games actually provides an outlet for frustrated and angry teens to safely discharge their anger in the digital world, and not upon anyone in the real world. Video games offer an area in which your mind can explore and wander with no fear of consequences, so in

During the advent of video games, the world was taken by storm, as this new type of entertainment caught the attention and imagination of the populace; but as this attention grew, concern and scrutiny weren’t far behind. Controversy finally got its chance in the 1990s, when games finally upgraded to 16-bit, giving them the ability to depict realistic blood and gore in games like Moral Kombat; which was criticized for excessive violence, a reason Congress used to create the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) (Porter & Starcevic 2007). At the same time, First-person shooters (FPS) began to rise in the gaming world, but received a lot of opposition when Doom (a FPS) became infamous for its association with the 1999

There has been quite a bit of controversy between what the real effect video games are having on teenagers. Although everybody swings one way or another, most can agree that albeit video games may or may not be bad, the overuse of these games, can be and is a major problem in the world. Many believe that video games have an exponentially negative effect on teenagers. Many believe that video games desensitize players. In a 2005 study, violent video game exposure has been linked to reduced P300 amplitudes in the brain, which is associated with desensitization to violence and increases in aggressive behavior. Furthermore, these types of games often times reward players for killing, defacing public property, and stimulating violence. Games such as Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto, seem to cause players to feel happiness and joy in creating pain and havoc. However, there is another side to this story. Others believe that video games are contributing to an increasingly safe and more friendly atmosphere in the United States. In fact, sales of video games had more than quadrupled in 1995-2008, while the arrest rate for juvenile murders fell 71.9%, and the arrest rate for all juvenile violent crimes declined 49.3% in this same period. Even more, is the thought that, playing violent video games provides a safe outlet for aggressive and heated feelings. A study from 2007 reported that 45% of boys played video games because "it helps me get my anger out". Not only that, but another

First, misconceptions and flawed studies have guided the public into believing that video games are the root of vicious adolescent crime. Past studies have indicated that in fact a link does exist between violent video games and violent crime; however, these studies have apparent issues. Many of these studies, failed to prove a legitimate cause and effect between the two variables. The largest problem is that these studies base their findings off means of testing aggression in children that do not correspond with violent in reality. For example, one study evaluated aggression by timing the duration in which someone would inflict a loud noise at another person. In reality, it is extremely difficult to assess a person’s aggression in a simulated experiment that will produce legitimate results because it is not a realistic scenario in the real world. Furthermore, the consequences of afflicting someone with a loud sound are not equivalent to the consequences of committing a mass shooting. Another major misconception is that school shootings are a direct effect of playing violent video games. The issue with that philosophy is that it fails to account for other variables that can lead to violent outbursts such as personality traits, genetics, and home environment. Overall, these misconceptions blame video games as the sole problem, distorting the view of video games

Violence is ubiquitous in today’s modern society and we are constantly exposed to it through the media, movies and through video games. It is not uncommon to go visit a home in the United States and find a video game console in the home along with mature video games. Video games started off just as entertainment that had meager violence but as time progressed the graphics have improved and the genre has expanded. There is a range of video games that are available to the public and some video games are educational and actually improve cognitive activity. But there are also video games that are very violent and are controversial. The question is “Does violent video games cause violent/aggressive behavior in today’s teens?”

What is pop culture? Popular culture is defined in the dictionary as the culture based on tastes of ordinary people rather than an educated elite. Pop culture should be taught in schools. By teaching pop culture to students, it will help them know what’s going on in the world and helps them pay more attention in class. There are different types of pop culture such as, entertainment, music, video games, and sports. Teaching pop culture can benefit any classroom.

There are many causes and effects on what makes one video game more popular than others. Some video games become popular for no reason; they become public sensations just because people like them. However, most popular video games have key features that make them appealing to the public.