Violent video games are the new scapegoat for the unexplainable acts of youth crime, especially the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary and the infamous Columbine shootings. The media focus on one or two factors behind the shootings, such as the video games the students played. . Violence in video games has become a great concern for parents and educators. Although research has tried to connect violent video games and aggression, research cannot find a causal link to actual violent behavior. Because media reports the shooters as being avid video games players, adults are concerned about how violence in video games effect youth. Actual violence and video game play, violent video games can have positive effects on adolescents the more glaring factors such as bullying and home environment.
Violent crime rates are decreasing, but video games sales are very high. Video games have out sold any other form of media and have become a multibillion dollar industry. If video games were directly effecting youth violence, then youth crime would be soaring. According to Ferguson, psychology professor at Texas A&M International University, serious violent crimes have been steadily decreasing, while video games sales are on a rise every year. Ferguson states that, "It's not hard to link video game playing with violent acts if one wishes to do so, as one video games prevalence study indicated the 98.7% of adolescents play video games to some degree." This missed match data suggests researchers ignore the decreasing crime rates and blame violent video games only because most adolescent has been exposed to violent video games.
Playing violent video games does not turn a good kid into a bad kid. One research study reported that video games had a null effect on prosocial behavior. Finding positive effects of violent video games on learning seem absurd, but because of media panic most research has focused on the negative effect of aggressive behavior. However, it is probably not the violence per se that has an effect, but the type of fast action found in a first person shooter game that improves visuospatial cognition. "Broadly defined visuospatial cognition involves intellectual and cognitive processes related to attending, scanning, selecting, processing, and mentally altering visual information the effects of violent video games on visuospatial cognition (Ferguson, 76)."
The previous notion that video gamers are isolated by their peers is not substantiated because social relationships can develop between gamers. Since, video games are now able to connect players via the internet, new social gaming communities and relationship are evolving. "The Pew Research Center's study on youth and video games found that video games, far from being an isolationist activity, were highly social activities for most children (Ferguson, 77)."
The older generation tend to believe that video games have a link to real world violence. Throughout history, new forms of media have been a cause for concern because of the unknown effects. "Results from the present studies indicate that those who grew up in a world without electronic games, or lack experience with games, are most likely to endorse the idea that violent games are a material source of society's ills (Przybylsk, 233)."
Bullying has received great attention as the cause of homicidal youth violence. Victims of school bullying have carried out school shootings as an act of revenge and retaliation. The Columbine shootings were seen as an act of ultimate revenge for bullying. Since the Columbine shooters played the video game, Doom, a first-person shooter game rated M for mature, but further background information points to bullying as the main cause. Expert opinions on prevention of homicidal violence list being victimized by bulling as an issue that public policy makers, teachers, and juvenile justice authorities need to address in schools. School anti-bullying programs have been successful, however cyberbullying prevention is less developed. Also, victims of bullying the news coverage of the Columbine shooting can make other victims of bullying (Dill, 115,116).
Violent crime rates are decreasing, but video games sales are very high. Video games have out sold any other form of media and have become a multibillion dollar industry. If video games were directly effecting youth violence, then youth crime would be soaring. According to Ferguson, psychology professor at Texas A&M International University, serious violent crimes have been steadily decreasing, while video games sales are on a rise every year. Ferguson states that, "It's not hard to link video game playing with violent acts if one wishes to do so, as one video games prevalence study indicated the 98.7% of adolescents play video games to some degree." This missed match data suggests researchers ignore the decreasing crime rates and blame violent video games only because most adolescent has been exposed to violent video games.
Playing violent video games does not turn a good kid into a bad kid. One research study reported that video games had a null effect on prosocial behavior. Finding positive effects of violent video games on learning seem absurd, but because of media panic most research has focused on the negative effect of aggressive behavior. However, it is probably not the violence per se that has an effect, but the type of fast action found in a first person shooter game that improves visuospatial cognition. "Broadly defined visuospatial cognition involves intellectual and cognitive processes related to attending, scanning, selecting, processing, and mentally altering visual information the effects of violent video games on visuospatial cognition (Ferguson, 76)."
The previous notion that video gamers are isolated by their peers is not substantiated because social relationships can develop between gamers. Since, video games are now able to connect players via the internet, new social gaming communities and relationship are evolving. "The Pew Research Center's study on youth and video games found that video games, far from being an isolationist activity, were highly social activities for most children (Ferguson, 77)."
The older generation tend to believe that video games have a link to real world violence. Throughout history, new forms of media have been a cause for concern because of the unknown effects. "Results from the present studies indicate that those who grew up in a world without electronic games, or lack experience with games, are most likely to endorse the idea that violent games are a material source of society's ills (Przybylsk, 233)."
Bullying has received great attention as the cause of homicidal youth violence. Victims of school bullying have carried out school shootings as an act of revenge and retaliation. The Columbine shootings were seen as an act of ultimate revenge for bullying. Since the Columbine shooters played the video game, Doom, a first-person shooter game rated M for mature, but further background information points to bullying as the main cause. Expert opinions on prevention of homicidal violence list being victimized by bulling as an issue that public policy makers, teachers, and juvenile justice authorities need to address in schools. School anti-bullying programs have been successful, however cyberbullying prevention is less developed. Also, victims of bullying the news coverage of the Columbine shooting can make other victims of bullying (Dill, 115,116).
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