Do Video Games Kill Analysis

My little brother is often chastised by my parents for playing on his video games too much. Although he might enjoy his time playing on his devices more than talking with his family, I could never imagine him becoming the killer, especially not because of a Super Mario game. Video games do not create murderers, a person's’ social situation and mental state does. The title itself: “Do Video Games Kill?” revealed what the author was going to be discussing in her essay and drew a curious audience in to read it. The author was the extremely credible and qualified Karen Sternheimer: the editor and lead writer for Everyday Sociology Blog with a PhD in sociology from University of Southern California. Her work on pop culture’s influence on today’s …show more content…
She then argued that many politicians and reporters twisted video games into a “folk devil” or a victim of blame to excuse what really creates a murderer. The real, credible evidences proved that video game and media violence do not cause behavior and actually “enhance spatial skills and reaction times” if anything, “aggressive people seek out violent media”. Sternheimer also inferred that people choose to fear video games because it is easier than accepting the fact that suburban America is not as safe and innocent as it appears: “When boys from “good” neighborhoods are violent, they seem to be harbingers of a “new breed” of youth, created by video games rather than their circumstances. White, middle-class killers retain their status as children easily influenced by a game, victims of allegedly dangerous product. African-American boys, apparently, are simply dangerous.” She concluded by suggesting that using video games as an excuse for homicide is simply a mask to cover up the real problems that occur in white, average, suburban