Is There a Connection Between Video Games and Violence?

Do video games cause players to become more violent individuals? This is a question that has led to lots of research, but research has led to different answers. There are studies that support the idea that video games do not instill violence in players, and there are studies that have concluded that the exact opposite is true. I have been playing various types of video games all my life. I was only 6 years old the first time I played a game with a rating of “M” for mature. I have been playing mature rated games since that time, and I have developed into quite the pacifist. I have never been in a physical fight of any kind, and I would never even consider holding a firearm, the thought of doing so frankly scares me. My friends and family who have grown up playing games, similarly to the way I have, share these sentiments.

Baym states that “new media cause cultural anxieties,” and, “most anxieties around both digital media and their historical precursors stem from the fact that these media are interactive.” I believe that these are the primary reasons people fear that video games will lead to violent behavior. Video games are a misunderstood media by plenty of people of all ages. TV and movies have both gone through this issue before, and they still do to an extent, but video games are more concerning to people because the player is directly in control of their actions. People fear that performing violent acts or eliciting an aggressive behavior in a game will make a person more likely to behave that way in real life. In reality though, according to DeCamp, “evidence points to either no relationship between playing video games and violent behavior or an ‘insignificant’ link between the two.” Yes, there are people who play violent video games and behave violently in real life. That person probably had a predisposition toward violent behavior and did not pick up on it from a violent video game, but instead wanted to play that game because they preferred the violence.

I believe that of all the topics of discussion that video games create, violence is the most sensationalized. There have been numerous times after a shooting that a news outlet reports that the shooter enjoyed spending time playing first person shooters. This of course leads to a debate about whether or not video games are to blame and if they will corrupt the minds of other players. More often than not, you have to dig to find positive effects video games can have on people. Sadly, this leads to video games being negatively sensationalized in the public eye. Baym mentions that “as technologies are integrated into everyday life, they come to be seen as offering a nuanced mix of both positive and negative implications.” Video games are integrated into the daily lives of many people. They are not yet as integrated as say TV and movies are though, which leads to them being more easily misunderstood.

Works Cited:

Baym, Nancy K. "Making New Media Make Sense." Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2010. 22-49. Print.

Scutti, Susan. "Do video games lead to violence?" CNN. July 26, 2016. Accessed February 06, 2017. http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/25/health/video-games-and-violence/.