Video games and violence in society
Introduction
Blood and gore. Intensive violence. Strong sexual content. Use of drugs. These are just a few of the phrases that the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) uses to describe the content of several games in the Grade Theft Auto Series, one of the most popular video game s among teenagers. The Pew research center reported in 2008 that 97% of youths ages 12 to 17 played some type of video game, and that two-thirds of them played action-adventure games, which tend to contain violent content. Other research shows that boys are more likely to use violent video games than girls. A separate analysis found that more than half of all video games rated by (ESRB) contain violence, including more than 90% of those rated as appropriate to children ten years and older. (Harvard Medical School).Exposure to violent video games has been found to indeed lead to violence in society as disused below:
Social learning theory
Research by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and The America Academy of Children and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) showed that exposure to violent video games as one of the many influences to behavior. The authors argue that video games are particularly harmful because they are interactive and encourage role-playing. There is fear that these games may serve as virtual rehearsals for actual violence. Both reasons that children learn by mimicking, observing, and adopting behavior _a basic principles of social learning theory. These organizations express concern that exposure to aggressive behavior or violence in video games and other media may, over time, desensitized youths by numbing them emotionally, cause nightmares and sleep problems, impair school performance and lead to aggressive behavior and bullying.
Lower empathy
Empathy, the ability to understand and enter into another’s feelings, is believed to inhibit aggressive behavior. In a study of 150 fourth and fifth graders by Jeane Funk, Ph.D., distinguished university professor of psychology at the University of Toledo, violent video games were the only type of media associated with lower empathy. A study published in the American Psychological Association Psychological Bulletin found that exposure to violent video games led to a lack of empathy and prosaic behavior. Decreased empathy and prosocial behaviors are associated with increased aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and aggressive behavior.
Mass shootings
The teenage shooters in the 1999Columbine High School massacre of 13 students played combat games. Many mass shootings have been carried out by avid video players James Holmes in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting’ (2012), Jared Lee Loughner in the Arizona shooting that injured rep, Gabby Giffords and killed six others(2011); and Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway(2011)and admitted in using the game Modern Warfare 2 for training. An FBI school shooter threat assessment stated that a student who makes threats of violence should be considered more credible if he or she also spends inordinate amounts of games playing video games and violent themes.
Fantasy
By inhabiting violent characters in video games, children are more likely to imitate those characters’ behaviors and have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy. Violent video games require active participation and identification with violent characters, which reinforces violent behaviors. Young children are more ith increased life force, more weapons moving on to higher levels, and more. Studies suggest that when violence is rewarded in video games, player’s exhibit increased aggressive behavior compared to players of video games where violence is punished. The reward structure is one distinguishing factor between violent video games and other violent media which don’t reward viewers or allow them to participate in ongoing violence. An analysis of 81 video games rated for teens Ages 13 and up found that 73 games (90%) rewarded injuring other characters, and 56 games (69%) rewarded killing. People who played video games that rewarded violence showed more levels of aggressive behavior as compared to those who played those that failed to reward violence. (procon.org)
Conclusion
Video games are in several types. Some display actions of violence while some don’t .people who participate in violent video games are more likely to be violent in society than people who don’t. Research has been done to prove this theory, and several factors found. These include such as reward meaning when a violent action is rewarded, as seen in video games, it will trigger to more violence,fantacy, where a child cannot make a difference between real-life violence and fantasy violence as illustrated in video games, games lower empathy inducing violence and many more factors. All this evidence shows there is a huge relationship between video games and violence in society.
likely to confuse fantasy violence with real violence and without a framework for ethical decision making, they may mimic the action they see in violent video games
Reward
Violent video games reinforce fighting as a means of dealing with conflict by rewarding the use of violent action w
Work cited
Harvard University medical school, the impact of video games on violence, Harvard university publishers,(October 2010)
Procon.org, do violent video games contribute to youth violence,(October 2018)
as contribute to youth violence(October 2018)