“Do video games cause violence?” It’s an age-old debate, some people vehemently believe yes, most gamers will actively argue no. And some people think the Columbine Shooting was caused by “DOOM”.
As a casual video game enjoyer myself, I argue that video games do not cause violence.
Going back to what I mentioned, about people blaming “DOOM”, the classic and infamously gory game about shooting through hordes of demons and other spawns of hell, for the Columbine Shooting. That is a true fact. In 1999, the Chicago Tribune claimed that the two mass murders who caused the tragic end of 12 students and one teacher were influenced by “DOOM”. As if the perpetrators were just two innocent youths lured in by the sweet temptation of gaming, and not two mentally unstable psychopaths with a hatred of the world and everyone in it. As if anyone, regardless of mental stability, starts down a violent path the moment they pick up a controller.
It’s distressing how common it is for video games to be used as a scapegoat whenever shootings or other horrible events happen. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), It is more likely for video games to be blamed as the cause of shootings by Caucasian perpetrators than African American perpetrators.
“Researchers analyzed more than 200,000 news articles about 204 mass shootings over a 40-year period and found that video games were eight times more likely to be mentioned when the shooting occurred at a school and the perpetrator was a white male than when the shooter was an African American male.”
Video games are often used to mask the true problems and causes of violence. Who would want to discuss gun control when it’s easier to just blame a gory video game and end it there. It’s a slimy way out of discussions and debates that need to be had in order to secure a safer future.
It’s also believed that video games desensitize people to violence in real life, which I believe is true. However, this seems to be a problem with the entertainment industry as a whole rather than a problem with video games. Violent video games can be desensitizing, but so can horror movies and true crime podcasts.
Video games have been shown repeatedly to have positive results on the brain, such as improving problem solving skills, bettering multitasking abilities, and even acting as a stress reliever. Games such as “Animal Crossing”, “Stardew Valley”, and “Minecraft” are all relaxing and incredibly popular games with minimal violence. Me and many other people across the world play these games to wind down after a hard day of school, or work, or even just to play for fun.
Even playing faster paced, more intense games can be a great way to blow off steam and, ironically, ward off violent behavior.
Some may argue that, with the ever advancing sophistication of controllers and improving graphics of modern games, the intuitiveness of video games may inadvertently teach people the skills to commit violent actions. The bigger problem is how many people lack the ability to separate the word of a video game from the real world.
In video games, most actions don’t have consequences, you can walk away from it at any time and death isn’t permanent. A stark contrast to a world of hard choices and actions that can’t be taken back. If the public really struggles that much to discern between their own actions and the actions inside a game, then video games aren’t the causes of society’s problems. It’s the rising epidemic of idiocy.
