The American society has progressed at a paceunmatched by other societies and it has turned out to be themost developed and modern societies of the generation. However, certain incidences have obstructed the development and raised concerns for the society. One such is the increasing rate of violent behaviors demonstrated by the young generation mainly due to the rise in violent video games. The essay will establish the vitality of the influence of video games to be measured and evidences be gathered to fathom the exact effect. The main argument of the essay thus is that strict monitoring and awareness to ensure that children are not indulged in negative behaviors through the video games is most important.
Video games are always considered to have a negative impact on the behavior by common public. However, researchers have suggested that it could help children in developing their skills of problem solving (Thompson et al., 2012). This is due to the fact that when playing strategic games such as role-plays, children improve their solving problems skills. With the same, games like Angry Birds are straightforward and they bring in relaxation and instant happiness and further improved the moods. As per Granic, Lobel and Engels (2014), it is a “fundamental emotional benefit” that children could get from video games. However, it is to note that the negative impact of video games are basically related to how often an individual play video game as well as the content of the game. One of the most harmful impacts of playing video games is that of increased in aggression among children. As per Greitemeyer and Mugge (2014), video games are casual risk factors that increase aggressive behavior. Also, some of the researchers have stated that theviolent video games could make children less sensitive to violence and they decrease the possibility of pro-social behavior. Also, the psychological games are possibly to develop feeling of social isolation, anxiety depression and insomnia.
America has a dark history of mass shootings carried out by shooters as young as 14 to 15 years of age. In the recent past, most of the shootings, be it the Las Vegas shooting of 2017, the Virginia Tech shooting of 2007 or the most recent, Santa Fe High School shooting have been motivated by violent video games, suggest experts.Fox and DeLateur (2014) have opined that multiplayer online video games that involve violence do have a serious effect on the psychology of a child. In a recent case of an online multiplayer game, the mother of a 7-year-old girl had shared a horrid instance of her daughter being traumatized after her Roblox avatar was ‘virtually gang raped’ by some players(Dailymail.co.uk, 2018). However, many are of the view that blaming the video games solely for the violent behaviors is not valid because it.According to a study conducted by Ferguson and Olson (2014), no evidence of bullying or criminal behavior was found in children who spent hours in playing video games but with “clinically elevated mental health”. It is therefore evident that apart from violent video games, mental health of the children and young people also plays a part in violent behaviors.
It is to note that not all the studies have found a link in between aggression and video games that are violent, yet, most of the works does show a relationship in between the two. As per the research conducted by Gabbiadini et al. (2016), violent video games lead to aggression and they reduce empathy among the video game players. Also, as per Kuhn et al. (2018), violent video games increases the aggression among the players. As a result the behavior of the video game players changes towards their friends, family and peers. They react aggressively and violently and this give rise of fights. In one of the very recent meta-analysis of about 98 different studies, comprising of 36,965 participants it has been shown that video games influence the social behavior of individuals (Greitemeyer & Mugge, 2014). Also as per Ferguson (2015), playing violent video games lead to immediate changes in the behavior. For example, players are more possibly to punish the unseen opponents in a task by making noise bursts after playing violent video games. However, it is to mention that the effects of violent video games is not equal for everyone. It vary across different individuals.
As discussed above, not only violent video games but mental health also play a part in the violent behaviors demonstrated by children and young people. Ferguson (2014)opines, “societal consumption of media violence especially videogames is not predictive of increased societal violence rates”. These evidences indicate that there is an increasing need for spreading awareness amongst parents and their children about the need for a stable and sound mental health. Policymakers responsible for restricting the consumption of videogames amongst children and youth often question the influence of videogames on the violent behavior of people. This is because they view that monitoring and awareness is more important than restricting videogames being played by people. Violent video games are just one part of the aggressive and violent behaviors demonstrated by younger people and children. The monitoring should involve constant check on the kind of environment children grow up in, the environment in their home and school. It is important that children be given consistent help from the parents and teachers to elevate their mental health. The awareness must include children and younger people be enlightened about their true potential rather than just engaging in violent video games. In addition, the videogame producers should also be made aware about their responsibility towards the society.
Conclusion
Hence, from the above analysis it is conclude that not all video games are harmful for the children and not all of them promote violent behaviors among them. It depends on the game content and the amount of time children are spending playing it. Power of the video games is a crucial issue for the society as its effect, not always, could be extremely negative. Hence, a continuous monitoring is always necessary. With the same, it is also to mention that although not everyone agrees to this, the evidence of video games causing violent behaviors comes down on the side of neuro-hit.
References:
Dailymail.co.uk. (2018). Outrage as 7-year-old’s Roblox avatar is ‘gang raped’ by other players. Retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5915213/Outrage-7-year-olds-Roblox-avatar-gang-raped-players-virtual-world.html
Ferguson, C. J. (2014). Does media violence predict societal violence? It depends on what you look at and when. Journal of Communication, 65(1), E1-E22.
Ferguson, C. J. (2015). Do angry birds make for angry children? A meta-analysis of video game influences on children’s and adolescents’ aggression, mental health, prosocial behavior, and academic performance. Perspectives on psychological science, 10(5), 646-666.
Ferguson, C. J., & Olson, C. K. (2014). Video game violence use among “vulnerable” populations: The impact of violent games on delinquency and bullying among children with clinically elevated depression or attention deficit symptoms. Journal of youth and adolescence, 43(1), 127-136.
Fox, J. A., & DeLateur, M. J. (2014). Mass shootings in America: moving beyond Newtown. Homicide studies, 18(1), 125-145.
Gabbiadini, A., Riva, P., Andrighetto, L., Volpato, C., & Bushman, B. J. (2016). Acting like a tough guy: Violent-sexist video games, identification with game characters, masculine beliefs, & empathy for female violence victims. PLoS one, 11(4), e0152121.
Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. C. (2014). The benefits of playing video games. American psychologist, 69(1), 66.
Greitemeyer, T., & Mügge, D. O. (2014). Video games do affect social outcomes: A meta-analytic review of the effects of violent and prosocial video game play. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(5), 578-589.
Kühn, S., Kugler, D. T., Schmalen, K., Weichenberger, M., Witt, C., & Gallinat, J. (2018). Does playing violent video games cause aggression? A longitudinal intervention study. Molecular psychiatry, 1.
Thompson, D., Baranowski, T., Buday, R., Baranowski, J., Thompson, V., Jago, R., &Griffith, M. J. (2012). Serious video games for health: How behavioral science guided the development of a serious video game. Simulation & gaming, 41(4), 587-606.
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