Violent Video Games Sociology

The main argument of this article is that video games have a direct link to short term and long term aggression. The author presents this argument by providing studies from peer reviewed articles that all conclude that video games do cause an increase of aggression. The main point of this article is to answer the question, “Do violent video games lead to aggression.” The article is about the effects of violent video games leading to aggression. The author uses recent examples, like the Sandy Hook and Washington Navy Yard shooting. In both of these examples, the author cites that both shooters had a history with playing violent video games. The author uses a study which selected individuals to play violent video games for a certain period of time. The study would then compare the results to a group who played non-violent video games. The study concluded that violent video games cause a direct link in aggression due to humans reenacting the actions the characters within the video games perform.

In Brad Bushman’s and Rowell Huesmann’s Article Short-term and Long-term Effects of Violent Media on Aggression in Children and Adults from the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine journal, they believe the violent media in video games, tv shows, music, and movies, are affecting behavior in children and adults. Bushman and Huesmann believe that all the violence that has made a more popular appearance in today’s culture is causing for adults and children to be more prone to aggression. They hypothesized that the long-term effects would be greater in children and the short-term effects would be greater in adults, and discovered their hypotheses to be correct. Other articles, such as Beth Stein’s If Violent Video Games are Harmless Fun,

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of a recent study examining the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior in young children. Let me first provide a brief summary of the study. (a) The hypothesis is that violent video games cause aggression in young children. (b) The target population is young children. (c) The samples are young school age children and the sample sizes are sixty children separated into two groups with 30 children being in the experimental group and 30 children being in the control group. (d) The independent variable is violent video games and the dependent variable is aggression. (e) The result of the experiment were

“Approximately 90 percent of kids in the U.S. play video games, and more than 90 percent of those games involve mature content that includes violence.”-(Time Health). The link between violent media and aggression in video games has also created a spawn of research studies that has gone back and forth on the issue of whether

In society, video games have been criticized as an inducer for violent in children. The ongoing debate instigates research on the correlation between video games and violence. In Craig Anderson’s article, “Violent Video Games and Other Media Violence, Part II”, the author criticizes the opposing side and states that violence in media reflects violent behaviors in children. John Glynn’s article, “Guns and Games”, reasons on the benefits of video games and points out the true perpetrator for violent behaviors of youth in the United States to be the gun culture.; While Glynn’s article contains some form of pathos, there is a lack of pathos in Anderson’s. Both articles utilize logos and ethos. However, Glynn offers a more well-rounded argument to support that video games are beneficial and are not the true cause of aggression in children.

But Dr. Elizabeth Carll, who helped this study, wanted to clear up the confusion, "the resolution did not state that there was a direct causal link to an increase in teen violence as a result of playing videogames” (Flanagan). “Constant news coverage leaves the impression that youthful crime is increasing”(Olson) news stories continue to slaughter the idea that people who play games are just normal people in society and not just antisocial, angry people sitting in their mom’s basements. Olson presents, “Some have referred to a "wave of violence gripping America 's youth," fueled by exposure to violent media. Using data supplied to the FBI, the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reported that the rate of juvenile arrests increased in the late 1980s, peaking in 1994. Juvenile arrests declined in each of the next 7 years” (Olson) with this data presented by the Federal Bureau of Intelligence people are displaying even less aggressive tendencies especially children who are exposed to video games. It is not just the information going unbelieved, but also the studies have been discredited alongside the idea of video games are getting worse as media continues to slander players for aggressive actions and shut-in traits. "From the present body of literature, there 's nothing that supports a relationship between violent videogame playing and aggression—not correlational or

One of the many observed effects of social media is the violent tendencies that seem to become more common in the upcoming generations. Many video games and movies show a lot of violence and these things can sometimes make an impression on the children. Even though there are many studies on media violence on children, there are really no clear answers. But different television, film, video games, etc. have definitely raised the level of violence in children and it continues to rise. Murray, a developmental psychologist, says even though that television and film are just as violent but video games are more worrisome in that it requires the player to be heavily involved in the game, and through repetition

Hundreds of studies have been done to determine whether violent video games will really make juveniles more violent. Randomized experiments were used in several studies to examine the short-term effect of violent video games (Anderson and Berkowitz et al. 90). In these studies, children were randomly assigned to play violent or nonviolent video games and then were observed when given an opportunity to be aggressive. The result was that children who played violent video games usually behaved aggressively.

Additionally, although violent video games might expose children to violent behavior, the amount of violence are not as great as the ones in movies and television. The news is filled with stories of war and murder, and nearly every movie contains some forms of violence. Plus, these two media are different from games in a very important way because they involve real people, not computer-generated characters. One of the social psychological science faculties in

For decades, the media has been accused of being a bad influence on the nation's children. Everyone has heard stories of little kids jumping off of their decks and hurting themselves after viewing the old black and white episodes of Superman. Years later, and there could possibly be a link between kids playing video games and those same kids later murdering their fellow classmates. Possible links such as this one continue to fuel the research supporting the idea that video game violence increases aggression in children.

Many organizations, and colleges, have compiled many research papers and thesis striving to connect the dots between violent video games with violent tendencies, or crime. However, no studies have uncovered any definitive evidence correlating the two together. Not a single researcher has linked violent video games to criminal activity, even behavioural experiments between these games and increased violent behaviours have merely produced weak links: stating you get no more aggressive than watching, or participating, in a game of football, or even drinking a few cups of coffee (Peckham). Theoretically if football was the present issue because of the aggressive behaviours linked to their players instead of video games; what would we do? Would

One characteristic that distinguishes video games from other forms of media outlets is that it allows players to feel apart of the video game world. In other words, “active participation of videogames increase the likelihood that one will learn from the video game due to greater identification and immersion”(Morawitz).

A major opposition to violence video games leading to aggression is that the research that was done is not a valid research. Henry Jenkins said “...most of those studies are inconclusive and many have been criticized on methodological grounds” (2). The studies are not inconclusive because in the studies that the researchers do they

“Recent contents analyses of video games show that many as 89% of games contain some violent contents” (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, Walsh 3). More than half of video games being sold around the world contain some form of violence. All of the violence involved in the video games being played by children is a pattern leading to aggression. Aggression can be caused by many things; however, violent video games are the main cause of aggression in young adults. “If a child began playing violent video games at a young age, then he might think that violence in real life is the same as the game violence and that it doesn’t have a real impact on others” (Gilad, Alto 1). Thinking that violence in the virtual world is the same as in the real world is the first step to showing aggression. Aggression in children caused by video games is the biggest effect parents and researchers worry about. Violent video games teach children that shooting and killing people are

“Experts agree that no single factor can cause a nonviolent person to act aggressively, some studies suggest that heavy exposure to violent media can be a risk factor for violent behavior. Children who are exposed to multiple risk factors, including substance abuse, aggression, and conflict at home and also consume violent media are more likely to behave aggressively.” (Commonsensemedia.org 1) I am accepting the fact that this method is valid, though we are striving to answer if violent video games absolutely create violent citizens and according to researchers and investigations in the recent year's data has gone exclusively from one faction to the other.