Violence in Media and Video Games Affecting Adolescence?

909 Words2 Pages
“Video game playing isn’t harmful. In fact it, appears to be very adaptive” (Collins). There is research done saying video games and violent media are harmful, but it usually contradicts itself in the same study (Rhodes). There is enough evidence to prove that video games can have a positive influence on todays youth. Even though there are links between violence in adolescence and owning violent video games and having access to violent media, it does not make the average person more violent because there is little research that shows violent media and video games make the average person more violent and the average person can tell the difference between mock and real violence.
There some are links between violence in adolescence and owning violent video games and having access to violent media. The violence in media desensitizes you to violence in general (Caruso). There are even people who start to associate violence with pleasure, “Aggressive behavior is not only seen as appropriate, but you are even rewarded for doing it” (Caruso). Even a former army officer, Dave Grossman, says that similar techniques were used to increase the fire rate in the Vietnam war, “from 15 to 20 percent range in World War II to as much as 95 percent in Vietnam” (Caruso). But with violence in videogames and the media it doesn’t teach you the respect that the army would, “We are reaching that stage if desensitization at which the inflicting of pain and suffering has become a source of entertainment; vicarious pleasure rather than revulsion. “We are learning to kill and we are learning to like it” (Caruso). There have been links between violent crimes and violent video games, “Hundreds of studies in recent decades have revealed a direct correlation betw...

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...here is little research that proves that violent video games and media affect the average person. But most importantly the average person can tell the difference between mock and real violence. With video games the player can choose how to play, how violent they want it to be. With violence it comes to choice, the everyone can choose if they want to see or play violent material. To say that violence in video games and media makes people more violent wouldn’t be justifiable until further research has been done, but for now the research done points the other way, that it has little effect on the average person. Facing the real problem is what is important now, “Violence is on the decline in America, but if we want to reduce it even farther, protecting children from violence in their real lives -- not the pale shadow of mock violence -- is the place to begin” (Rhodes).
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