Ryan Scala

Mr. Jockers

ILA

April 6, 2022

Violence in Video Games vs. Personality

Some people think that violent video games cause people to be violent. What could be done about this?  People should be educated that this isn’t true, and there should be published data and resources/research about it.

I’ve been playing a lot of video games that are mainly first-person shooter games.  I’ve played  one game almost every day, or weekend, for sometimes up to four-to-five hours on end, since 5 months ago, and I have not changed one bit. When I play now the only difference from about 5 months ago to now, is an increase in strategic thinking and planning! So if I were to do the math, 36,480 hours played! And there is nothing to comment on the topic of becoming more violent. I was, and still am, my own lab rat and that’s saying something.

A New Zealand study reports that “long term impacts of violent games on youth aggression are near zero.” The study is proven true because they used over 21,000 people around the world to conduct it.

The media, which includes newspapers and magazines, needs to publish valid information, studies, data, and facts that show violent games do not make people violent in real life. “As far back as 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that research did not find a clear connection between violent video games and aggressive behavior.”

From PBS Newshour. “Spikes in violent video games’ popularity are well-known to correlate with substantial declines in youth violence – not increases. These correlations are very strong, stronger than most seen in behavioral research. More recent research suggests that the releases of highly popular violent video games are associated with immediate declines in violent crime, hinting that the releases may cause the drop-off.”

In conclusion, let us play our video games! We are home, not doing drugs and interacting live with friends online. Parents know which games based on their ratings might be too violent for their child to play.