Violent Behavior Linked to Video Games

Being violent or having violent behavior isn’t caused by playing violent video games. Although playing violent video games has a short time effect after playing, it has been proved “That youth who played violent video games for a short time experienced an increase in aggressive behavior following the video game. One study for example found that participants who played a violent video game for less than 10 minutes rate themselves with aggression traits and aggressive actions shortly after playing” (3)

After researching this topic in correlation to the fact that violent video games do not cause permanently damaging behavior, it is evident that the youth who play video games are youth who live in a hostile environment and feel cut off from the world. The panic over violent video games is to blame. Being it has led adult authorities to be more suspicious and hostile to many kids who already feel cut off from the world. All this attention and protests towards video games should be spent communicating with youth helping them and understanding them, not telling them they are wrong for having a hobby. Research shows that “63% of kids who play violent video games have high hostility rates” (2) “In a study of 8th and 9th graders who played violent video games were also more likely ton see the world as a hostile place.” (2) In reality what is happening is kids with high hostility are playing violent video games at a higher percent than other children, due to the fact people in society such as parents, teachers and judging them to hard. Instead of thinking that violent video games make children more hostile which is not the case that’s caused by people, everyone needs to turn their attention to the positive facts. Playing video games is very social almost 60 percent of frequent players, play with friends. Instead of dwelling on their disconnections toward the world youth turn to video games violent and non violent, to get them through the day and play with friends while becoming closer to them. “The Columbine High School shooting has come and gone, reopening old wounds and revisiting unanswered questions. The unthinkable remains unexplainable: What could have caused two seemingly average kids to go on such a rampage? Some of the blame has fallen on violent video games, which the two Columbine shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, played religiously. But are these games actually part of the problem, or just an easy target? (4) Instead of the media using this information to sabotage video games it should have been used to inform parents about the overwhelming rate of youth depression.

If being a gamer, or playing violent makes people become so