Christopher Ferguson Stop Blaming Violent Video Games Summary

In his article “Shooting in the Dark,” Benedict Carey argues that video games depict explicit or violent content stimulate aggressive behavior within gamers. He argues that video games like Mortal Kombat, Call of Duty, and Battlefield 3 increase aggressive urges and that exposure to these games leads to real-world hostilities. He mentions incidents like the young men who opened fire at Columbine High School and at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado—video gamers who seemed to be acting out some “dark digital fantasy”—to uphold his position. He believes a dose of violent video games can cause people to act “more rudely” than they would otherwise. Although he describes how violent video games may stimulate aggressive or hostile behavior, Carey’s argument can be challenged because there are other factors that can influence individuals to act violent and hostile. Moreover, it is indefinite whether violent video

Although I am a supporter of gun laws for the safety of our country, I do not believe that guns shoot people. I believe that people shoot people. Similarly, I do not believe that video games cause people to act out violently. There is a general belief that video games alone can directly cause outward acts of violence. I disagree with this line of thought. Specifically, I believe that there is perceived, but not substantiated causative role between between violent video games and violent

The article “Do Video Games Kill” written by Karen Sternheimer responds to one of the most sought-after question; are video games the cause for “young killers”? (220) Sternheimer believes the influence of video games on today’s youth maybe spiraling out of control. She focuses most of the blame on the media, politicians and the Juvenile Justice System. Sternheimer suggests that there are other factors to blame for violent behavior: poverty, the neighborhood, unemployment, family violence, divorced parents and mental illness (218). While juvenile crimes have declined, and personal backgrounds effect actions, it cannot be proven that video game violence has no to little effect on America’s youth.

“According to Patrick Kierkegaard, a PhD candidate at the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering at the University of Essex in England, early studies on violent games were biased. In other words, scientists had negative opinions about violent video games and that they designed their experiments to support their ideas” (Hile 14). Kierkegaard studies into the early research on the subject of violent video games, also announced strong data which supports his previous statement showing bias in research. “According to Kierkegaard, "violent crime, particularly among the young, has decreased dramatically since the early 1990s." There were 1.36 million violent crimes in the United States in 2005 versus 1.42 million in 2004, "while video games have steadily increased in popularity and use” (HIle 14). This proves that video games have no effect on crimes, while also proving video games are helping in some way. “The amount of violent crimes committed by juveniles decreased from 1993 (the year Doom was released) to 2003. Most of this propaganda comes from the U.S., but people forget that video games are played around the world” (Hile). Could it be that these violent video games are establishing a healthy avenue for adolescent children to relieve or release frustrations? Teenage game players have also offered their opinions on this subject, “When it comes down to it, teens are smart enough to know the

In conclusion Leo’s argument has great examples of comparison and a great appeal to the reader’s emotions. Without a doubt, the Littleton massacre has viciously scared American society; however it was not violent video games that led to their crimes, but rather a combination of neglect, isolation, and environment. Awareness relating teenagers’ surroundings, ideology, and family or youth deviance, among all, may explain these crimes. Throughout the essay Leo utilizes various strategies to increase the emotional impact on a reader. His concern for society’s children overlaps his more vital concern that is the extent of violence exposed in video games. Also he bring about a moral aspect towards the situation. A panic towards violent video games, his belief that video games are essentially harmful to children’s behavior, therefore, we are all in jeopardy of becoming victims. Clearly, parents do have a sole responsibility to their children’s safety. It is their duty to make the proper decisions about what is appropriate for their children to view. It is essential for that the children and the nation’s future. So please let us make a difference and avoid children in playing violent video

In the last 10 years many things have changed in our life, especially after the electronic renaissance. Not only social media effects our life but video games do as well, many people believe that these games effects are bad to health, but many of these people think that these games can change people, make them go crazy or even killers, specially violent video games, they think that the game would turn into reality. Although they have point, a lot of people disagree with them. I think that video games don’t promote aggression even the violent one. The society has bigger problems to solve and comparing them to video games, I feel that the video games problem is a silly one, people kill each other because of the wrong polices, not a silly game.

In “Violent Media is Good for Kids”, Gerard Jones argues that violent media gives good impact for psychology development of the children. This good impact has been implemented to himself and make him a writer as well as his son who transformed bloodthirsty dinosaur into a stimulation to enter preschool; a Power Ranger into self endowment by joining social competition in Kindergarten. He likewise has helped a little girl named Emily who really likes exploding violent action, to have more self-controlled and socially competent by letting her wrote stories and drew comic to express her emotion. From his experiences, he believes that violent entertainment in which people might think it is the trashiest pop culture has its own developmental function.

In contrast to the ethos of the Chevrolet advertisement, Henry Jenkins masterfully employs logos to deconstruct myths centered around the idea that videogames are dangerous and are connected to youth violence. Jenkins says that there is a large gap, “between the public's perception of video games and what the research actually shows,” and many of those perceptions are based on an emotional response and the facts are meant to counter that. The audience of Jenkins’s endeavor would fall on the neutral side of things because they would be the ones who don’t necessarily have an already formed opinion on the subject and would be most willing to listen and allow themselves to be persuaded by statistics and information backed up by research. Throughout

Violent video games have been blamed for everything from bullying to school shootings. Critics of these video games believe they cause people to commit violent acts in real life. These critics, mainly comprised of parents and other responsible adults, don’t agree with what the video games portray. Others say the video games cause less violence and are an outlet for anger and stress. Although violent video games have violent actions in them, teenagers should be able to play violent video games because there isn’t enough evidence to prove they make teens more aggressive, it could prevent violence, and violent video games are a fun and relaxing way to relieve stress and anger.

Video games nowadays are all about violence, mature content, and suggestive themes. In “Is video game violence bad,” written by Christopher Ferguson, the author proposes there is no correlation between violent video games and

Research involving British primary schoolchildren found that the length of time young people spend playing games, rather than their content, could have an effect on their behavior or school performance. But it concluded that fears that generations of young people are growing up with their development impaired by exposure to violent video games are no more likely to be borne out than previous “moral panics” over television and other media.

Violet video games have been blamed for several young people killing students at school. Young people are not able to think like adults so they are easy to follow the wrong way of doing things like they see in video games. Other countries do not have the same problems because their laws are strict or their customs for punishing wrong doing is much harder. Some of the violent video games young people like to play are : Grand theft auto, Call to duty, and Assassin. These games show a lot of blood and people getting killed. I believe that not letting children, Teenagers, and young adults play violent video games would improve the life of all in the United States.

Media violence has become a controversial topic in the world today. Owing to the rising technology, children are beginning to show increasing violent behaviors. The debates on the effects of media ranging from screen media, video games, and books have a long history. Due to this, there is a speculation over what is the leading cause of the increasing violence in children. Some people argue that there is a relationship between media violence and real-life violence. In contrast, others argue that the entire media violence debate has been mismanaged with inconsistent results to claim that it causes violence. I take the position that media violence has a serious negative social effect on the lives of people, especially children and adolescents.

As we know not all video games contain violent contents, but most of them are violent and mentally dangerous. Some researches admit that violent games may cause adolescents to become tremendous. Studies showed that video games increase psychological awakening, it could also increase aggressive behavior, emotions and thoughts and finally let teenagers lose the sense of helping others. All these effects will be carried by aggressive young people. It’s true that video games are violent, but aggressive adolescents are more likely to be more attracted to it. Some games reward players for doing violent actions, so this will affect them negatively, letting them think that violence is normal. A study on two groups showed that the group that plays violent ones, is more likely to think that using marijuana and drinking alcohol is normal and legal, also cheating in many ways would lead them to the right way too.

Does virtual violence lead to actual violence? As we all know at this age of sophisticated technology and information, children are more exposed to video gaming compared to the past decades. As a result, video gaming industry has gained tremendous growth since coming into the market in the 1980s. This is because of the increased number of its consumers, especially children and teenagers. Research shows that at least 83% of children in the US aged between 8-12 years are involved in video gaming once a month. This elevated number of video gaming has had its fair share of effects on its consumers. For instance, video games have positively influenced children to work together in completing various tasks, and often improve a child’s thinking capacity, especially through solving puzzles (Anderson et al, 2007). However, the contentious issue has been the effects of violent games on children, which are often negative to their well-being. In short, violent video games increase the aggressiveness of a child, and may eventually cause mental ill health.