So I was listening to my Hands Like Houses radio station today and got to wondering what the music you listen to says about you. Then I got reminded of that whole controversy over "violent video games making people kill other people in mass shootings" and so on with that BS. What do you guys think about this? I personally see it as just as much junk as the government faking the moon landings because Japan is known, among other things, for its video games, most notably the violent ones. Japanese cities from what I know have massive gaming bars like our bars and they also have one of the lowest crime rates on earth. My opinion about this is that these video games give you an outlet for any and all of the anger and frustration if modern life. I'd love to hear what you all have to say about this.
I've done some looking into this matter over the years, as I love video/computer games and this includes the violent ones. I've been playing many of them, such as Mortal Kombat and Doom, since I was quite young. Incidentally, I also like Manowar's music.
I'm also a pacifist and more than a bit of a wimp. I've never gotten into a real fight and I intend to keep it that way as best as I can.
Jack Thomson's whole thing about video games being the sole or primary cause of youth violence/school shootings is absolute nonsense. It's nothing but political maneuvering by taking advantage of neophobia and turning what amounted to a coincidence into ammo for his argument (that being that the Columbine shooters were big fans of Doom, one of them even having made a level).
HOWEVER, in this massive mess of political power play and fear mongering there does lie a
slight kernel of truth, which is probably why it's still believed by some to this day. That bit of truth is that regular exposure to violent anything
can cause children to act in more aggressive ways than otherwise. (NOT killing, mind; throwing things, hitting/biting other kids, more frequent temper tantrums, etc.) It
can lead
some children to believe that violence is the solution to problems, and in
some cases, this
might carry on into teenage years.
There's a lot of "maybes" in there, and there's a reason for that. The reason is that there are hundreds of other factors that could influence such tendencies in children. Negligent parenting, near or complete lack of exposure to non-violent media, genetic predisposition to more aggressive behavior, etc. And in all cases, we're talking about generally non-lethal aggression that's been part of our social behavior since... forever, really. We're not talking about killing other people, which is a completely different topic. The first school shooting in the US (that I'm aware of, anyway) took place in the 1960s: well before video games even existed.
The violent media in question is also not necessarily referring to blood or "realistic" violence. Any game where the only solution is to "kill the bad guy" counts in this context.
And the thing is, the catharsis of playing violent games, whether as children or adults, probably outweighs the potential problems that could come with it. This would certainly be the case when such play is tempered by other media, either by oneself if an adult, or by parents/guardians as children. I didn't only play violent video games while growing up, and I wasn't only exposed to violent media in general. Nowadays, I play almost as many non-violent games as I do violent ones.
Therefore, banning games is absolutely
not the solution, nor is instituting legal "protections". The solution lies in parents and peers to NOT be so neophobic, and to help kids understand the contexts of violence in games, and make sure that other, non-violent media, gets exposure as well.
