Are Video Games the Real Cause of Today’s Violence?
It’s no question that video games have only increased in popularity for the past several years, and this trend shows no signs of slowing down. Fortnite in particular, which has only been out for a little over a year, earned over $1,000,000,000.00 from in game purchases alone and has taken the world by storm. Many of the people who stream this game, like Ninja or Tfue, have become some of the most influential people in today’s world just based off of their fan base. The game itself has become one of the most popular trends to date, and it doesn’t seem like it will be slowing down anytime soon.
Now I didn’t bring up something like Fortnite just to talk about the game, I mentioned it because I wanted to give an example of how videogames can have a huge effect on society. One such effect people believe they have is causing violence. There has been many cases where someone decided to bring a gun to school or work and hurt a great deal of people. Later people would find out that said person has spent an extensive amount of hours playing games such as Fortnite, Call of Duty, or Grand Theft Auto, which are typically considered violent. Once this information becomes public, videogames would become the main source of the problem and take most of the blame for the situation. I just don’t believe that to be true. Obviously there are many video games that have a great deal of violence in them, such as guns, cursing, sexual content, and killing, but I don’t think they can be considered the source of most violence.
“Yes, many mass shooters play violent games extensively. However, the number of people who commit mass shootings is so small that this data point is uninformative.”
In other words, in order for there to be an association with mass shooters and violent games, there needs to be a large enough group that fits the category before we can make that association.
The biggest reason as to why videogames cannot be associated with growing violence is simple: sales continue to grow. Anyone can easily see that if video games were the main cause of violence then their sales would be dropping fast, but instead they continue to skyrocket and bring in incredible amounts of money. Let’s take Call of Duty for example. When it was released on October 12th, 2018, the game had made the most online digital purchases than any other game in the franchise’s history. Although most of the fanbase for Call of Duty is in an age group of 17 years or older, but there are still many kids under that age that still play the game. How are kids able to play violent M-rated games? Their parents.
“Any parent who lets their kid play that game has serious parenting issues that probably extend to other things not related to games.”
Now I’m not saying that parents are the direct cause of violence from video games, but that they shouldn’t blame the games they consciously buy for their kids for their behavior.
After taking to time to look over these facts, can we really say that video games are the direct cause of violence we see today. No. Unless the creators of the game had the intention of turning their fans into killers, then it would be very unlikely that a video game would cause violence in any type of way.
“Many psychologists and studies have concluded that one cannot easily be trained to commit an extreme act such as killing by a virtual simulation, or a video for that matter.”
As I said previously, the idea that most violence such as mass shootings being caused by video games doesn’t make sense, and isn’t really backed up by any evidence. Sales for games are still increasing by the day, and parents continue to buy their children the M-rated games that they believe to be the cause of their possible violent behavior. If you really believe that violent games cause violent actions, then ask yourself these questions: “Has a video game ever influenced the way I think?”, “Should I buy myself or my child this M-rated game?”, or, “Should I continue to buy games that others consider violent, even though I enjoy them?”
WORK CITED
- ) Rife, Sean. “Violent Video Games do Not Cause Real World Aggression”. Medium.com. Learnliberty.com
2.) Wohn, D. “Stupidest Question in the World: Do Violent Games Make Kids Violent?” Medium.com.
3.) Olsen, Dave. “Games Don’t Make Kids More Violent. In Fact it’s Quite the Opposite” Medium.com
https://medium.com/@davemichaelolsen/why-gaming-actually-makes-better-people-9447fd8c792c
Picture 1.) Source — Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/84o4jx/infographic_accumulative_first_year_console_sales/
Picture 2.) Source — Flickr:https://www.flickr.com/photos/philipnelson/5160751602
Picture 3.) Source — Flickr:https://www.flickr.com/photos/bagogames/39943037982