Opinion Piece- Does violence in the media make us more violent?
No. It doesn't. I'd love to leave this post here because that's how firmly I feel about this matter. In my opinion, there is absolutely no way that seeing violence on screens cause people to reenact these events. There just isn't. However, this is simply not enough to fill a blog or convince people anything otherwise. So, let's go on a journey to discover why violence in the media doesn't make people violent.
So, one thing that many people point to as an example of fictional violence is the columbine shootings in 1999. For those of you who don't know, this event was when two young men went into a school, shot a lot of children and then killed themselves. This was a horrible event and many people looked for some kind of justification. The connection that many people ended up making was that both of the shooters played the video game "Doom". For those of you who don't know, Doom is a game where a super buff marine runs around Mars shooting space demons. The last time I checked, Columbine does not look like Mars and school children do not look like flying space demons. But the media decided that because this game had a gun in it and the players get to use the gun, it must have made the killers feel a need for murder. This is a ridiculous leap.
Now, the argument of violence in the media (especially video games) can be debunked with a few pretty solid arguments. Lets start here. The men from the shootings had mental issues. They also play video games. The two are not linked. Many people would also look at other shootings and say that the shooters there also played video games. But there's one key bit of information here: most men play video games. Even if you yourself are not a gamer, you no doubt know plenty of other people who play video games. Are these people are mass murderers? No. No they are not. It's a lowest common denominator here. These men were messed up and they played video games. It doesn't mean that people who play video games are messed up. They just play video games.
I think it's also important to note that people play video games to relax. They're great stress busters, I can confirm that myself. But they also create a need to not see these violent events in real life. If people have occasional violent tendencies, video games are an output for that. Pour your anger into the games, appreciate that this is all fictionalized and carry on your day as a normal member of society. Because if someone can't distinguish the video game from real life, they're the problem, not the video games. Importantly, there is also this data that shows that as the sale of video games have increased, real life violence has decreased. See here for more details: http://www.sciencealert.com/definitive-study-finds-zero-link-found-between-video-game-and-youth-violence
So, no. Violence in the media doesn't actually cause violence. This is an idea that news networks put forward so that people will feel safe. The real truth is that there just are people who are unstable. We have to deal with them sensibly and treat them like a normal human being. Because this is a sensitive issue that we just can't ignore. And films, TV and video games simply don't deserve the bad rep that people give them. They're stupid fun and if you can't appreciate them for that, you don't deserve them.
So, one thing that many people point to as an example of fictional violence is the columbine shootings in 1999. For those of you who don't know, this event was when two young men went into a school, shot a lot of children and then killed themselves. This was a horrible event and many people looked for some kind of justification. The connection that many people ended up making was that both of the shooters played the video game "Doom". For those of you who don't know, Doom is a game where a super buff marine runs around Mars shooting space demons. The last time I checked, Columbine does not look like Mars and school children do not look like flying space demons. But the media decided that because this game had a gun in it and the players get to use the gun, it must have made the killers feel a need for murder. This is a ridiculous leap.
Now, the argument of violence in the media (especially video games) can be debunked with a few pretty solid arguments. Lets start here. The men from the shootings had mental issues. They also play video games. The two are not linked. Many people would also look at other shootings and say that the shooters there also played video games. But there's one key bit of information here: most men play video games. Even if you yourself are not a gamer, you no doubt know plenty of other people who play video games. Are these people are mass murderers? No. No they are not. It's a lowest common denominator here. These men were messed up and they played video games. It doesn't mean that people who play video games are messed up. They just play video games.
I think it's also important to note that people play video games to relax. They're great stress busters, I can confirm that myself. But they also create a need to not see these violent events in real life. If people have occasional violent tendencies, video games are an output for that. Pour your anger into the games, appreciate that this is all fictionalized and carry on your day as a normal member of society. Because if someone can't distinguish the video game from real life, they're the problem, not the video games. Importantly, there is also this data that shows that as the sale of video games have increased, real life violence has decreased. See here for more details: http://www.sciencealert.com/definitive-study-finds-zero-link-found-between-video-game-and-youth-violence
So, no. Violence in the media doesn't actually cause violence. This is an idea that news networks put forward so that people will feel safe. The real truth is that there just are people who are unstable. We have to deal with them sensibly and treat them like a normal human being. Because this is a sensitive issue that we just can't ignore. And films, TV and video games simply don't deserve the bad rep that people give them. They're stupid fun and if you can't appreciate them for that, you don't deserve them.
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