Video Games and Violent Behavior:
Is it really the Cause?
Felicia Hochstetler
English 112: Exposition and Persuasion
Abstract
This paper discusses violence, video games, and adolescents behavior. Most people think that violent video games are the cause for adolescents to act out and/or have aggressive behavior. But according to Ryan Jaslow’s there is really no study that shows a direct link between the violence in video games and aggressive behavior. Jaslow supports his claim by quoting Dr. Bartholow, a CBS News interviewee, “A single exposure to a violent video game won’t turn someone into a mass murderer, but if someone has repeatedly exposed themselves, these kinds of effects in the short term can turn into long-term changes” (Jaslow, 2011).
“The impact of violent video games upon children is not as clearly established as the impact of violent television programming. Young children possess an instinctive desire to imitate actions they observe, without always possessing the intellect or maturity to determine if such actions are appropriate. Due to their role-modeling capacity to promote real world violence, there is deep concern that playing violent video games, with their fully digitized human images, will cause children to become more aggressive toward other children and become more tolerant of, and more likely to engage in, real-life violence” (Robert E. McAfee). Is this true? Do violent video games cause one to be aggressive or become aggressive, or are violent video games an easy target to place the blame for aggressive/violent behavior that is already known?
This paper will disapprove the theory that violence in video games “ONLY” has a negative effect on adolescents causing them to act in violent or aggressive actions by 1) informing you of the positive effects of playing video games have on adolescents behavior rather they are violent or not; 2) that one’s personality traits plays a role in their...