Video games have recently been linked to school shootings, violent outbursts, and increased irritability levels in children and young adults. In Time’s online article “Little By Little, Violent Video Games Make Us More Aggressive”, Alice Park writes about the ongoing debate regarding violence in video games. She writes “Worries about how violence in virtual reality might play out in real life have led legislators to propose everything from taxing violent video games to proposing age restrictions on who can buy them.” Now, there are some video games that have age restrictions, but Park also mentions that “Approximately 90% of children in the U.S. play video games, and more than 90% of those games involve mature content that often includes violence.”
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In Time’s online article, Alice Park writes “In a 2011 study, for example, after a week of daily video gaming, brain scans of a small group of volunteers showed less activity in the regions connected to emotions, attention, and inhibition of impulses compared to participants who played non-violent video games.” This is proving that these games are desensitizing kids to shootings and killings. Games that children are playing need to be monitored more strictly by parents. If a kid gets a hold of a game where there is shooting and killing whose fault is it? The game companies put ratings on them for a reason, you can 't buy them if you 're under 18. It 's unbelievable that even kids with mental illnesses are getting a hold of games that can so heavily influence them to act on their emotions and influence them in a violent manner. It’s unlikely that a 26 billion dollar industry will shut down any time soon, so we need to make some sort of compromise when it comes to children and games for mature audiences. If you aren’t connected to your emotions that are telling you not to do this, then what’s going to stop you? In Hayden Gassaway’s essay titled “The Truth Behind Violence and Video Games” he says “Contrary to taking the blame for causing violence, it has actually been shown that video games can be a great way to reduce stress, which could result in less violence.” with no proof at all. …show more content…
Ritz quotes Glenn Beck when he says “No more. Because they cannot handle it. This is not the same as Pac-Man. It is not the same. These are virtual worlds where they live. They live in these worlds; talk to them.” It’s true, these kids and young adults have the option to completely immerse themselves in an online game. World of Warcraft, for example, the game that had Elliot Rodger, the murderer in the Santa Barbara killing spree, obsessed. People can make a living playing these games, making videos that the world can watch. They are playing for literally 18 hours a day, completely devoting themselves to these games, with no outside social interaction. Hayden Gassaway also writes on this on his essay, but there’s no way that it supports what he writes. How can you say that this example supports that video games don’t cause violence? All that Rodger did was play World of Warcraft and he even writes in his manifesto and says in his videos the role that it plays in his life, and it’s not a good one. Ritz quotes Beck’s co-host Pat Gray when he says “Brains are being rewired here,” Beck’s co-host Pat Gray added, “and nobody is paying attention.” Like I mentioned earlier, there are studies confirming that violent video games are changing the ways that kids all over the world are thinking.
In Time’s online article, Alice Park writes “In a 2011 study, for example, after a week of daily video gaming, brain scans of a small group of volunteers showed less activity in the regions connected to emotions, attention, and inhibition of impulses compared to participants who played non-violent video games.” This is proving that these games are desensitizing kids to shootings and killings. Games that children are playing need to be monitored more strictly by parents. If a kid gets a hold of a game where there is shooting and killing whose fault is it? The game companies put ratings on them for a reason, you can 't buy them if you 're under 18. It 's unbelievable that even kids with mental illnesses are getting a hold of games that can so heavily influence them to act on their emotions and influence them in a violent manner. It’s unlikely that a 26 billion dollar industry will shut down any time soon, so we need to make some sort of compromise when it comes to children and games for mature audiences. If you aren’t connected to your emotions that are telling you not to do this, then what’s going to stop you? In Hayden Gassaway’s essay titled “The Truth Behind Violence and Video Games” he says “Contrary to taking the blame for causing violence, it has actually been shown that video games can be a great way to reduce stress, which could result in less violence.” with no proof at all. …show more content…
Ritz quotes Glenn Beck when he says “No more. Because they cannot handle it. This is not the same as Pac-Man. It is not the same. These are virtual worlds where they live. They live in these worlds; talk to them.” It’s true, these kids and young adults have the option to completely immerse themselves in an online game. World of Warcraft, for example, the game that had Elliot Rodger, the murderer in the Santa Barbara killing spree, obsessed. People can make a living playing these games, making videos that the world can watch. They are playing for literally 18 hours a day, completely devoting themselves to these games, with no outside social interaction. Hayden Gassaway also writes on this on his essay, but there’s no way that it supports what he writes. How can you say that this example supports that video games don’t cause violence? All that Rodger did was play World of Warcraft and he even writes in his manifesto and says in his videos the role that it plays in his life, and it’s not a good one. Ritz quotes Beck’s co-host Pat Gray when he says “Brains are being rewired here,” Beck’s co-host Pat Gray added, “and nobody is paying attention.” Like I mentioned earlier, there are studies confirming that violent video games are changing the ways that kids all over the world are thinking.