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Jonah Leech

Professor Barnes

English 1201

8 April 2019

(Graph depicting the amount of youth violence within the US in comparison to the index of how

many violent video games are being sold).

Video Games: What Do They Actually Do?

Imagine that it’s back in the 1980’s. Video games have started to become the world’s

biggest form of entertainment for kids! But wait… at home, your mom suddenly notices that a

game you’ve been playing is transmitting a plethora of violent actions into your mind. She starts
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the think about how you’ve been acting weirdly over the past couple months, and how your

behaviors are much more violent than they used to be. She, as well as many other parents,

began to assume that video games have become the trigger to create violent children within the

world. This has been the ongoing theme for parents, politicians, and scientists for over 30 years

now. These assumptions couldn’t be farther than the truth, though. In reality, there is no

correlation between video games and violence within the youth because the research done thus

far cannot pinpoint such a correlation, family issues and surrounding factors can contribute far

more to violence, and also due to the fact that video games have evolved to give players a

means of growing their mental capabilities.

The studies which have been conducted in recent times to find the correlation between

violent behaviors in the youth that are caused from video games have not provided any sort of a

useful conclusion. In the documentary “Are Video Games Really That Bad”, created by BBC

Horizon, there is a full force investigation pitting scientists and gamers from both sides of the

spectrum together. The research done throughout the documentary backs up one of my main

findings regarding the incorrect correlation made between video games and violence. The

scientists that concluded that the youth were found to be more violent after video game usage

couldn’t state that the video games were a direct correlation of violence. The tests they used

were very buggy, and the end result was that they found the students to be desensitized to

images of real-world violence. That doesn’t say much to back their clause, and that is the

reoccurring theme for each scientist that believes video games cause violence. They cannot find

this correlation to show that video games innately made a person more violent, and instead play

with the wording to create a false statement that doesn’t reflect their research at all. A very

interesting statistic that was found to combat the false assumption from the other researchers

came from an Associate Professor of Psychology, his name is Chris Ferguson. In Professor

Ferguson’s findings, the amount of violence within the youth (as of 2013) was down 83% from
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the past 20 years. The documentary also does well to note that these findings were done at a

time where the amount of graphic violence within video games were now higher than at any

other time previously. So, where exactly can this correlation of violence within the youth be

found if the amount of violence has dropped drastically?

Another great instance of this failed correlation can be found in the article, “What

Science Knows About Video Games and Violence” written by Brandon Keim under PBS Nova.

This article targets what science and research has been able to confirm in regards to youth

violence and video games. There is a big ticket written within this article to understand why there

will never be a conclusion to this controversial question, “Before looking at the science, it’s worth

taking a moment to think about how scientists might arrive at something like a conclusive

answer: By taking several tens of thousands of people, from children on up to adults, dividing

them into groups with comparable socioeconomic, genomic, and behavioral profiles, setting

them to play first-person shooters with varying amounts of regularity, then following them for

years, routinely conducting psychological tests and tracking their real-world behaviors. It would

be an extremely revealing experiment. It’s also one that nobody has carried out, nor will they”

(Keim, PBS Nova). This does well to back one of my main findings, where there is no correlation

between video games and violence within the youth because the research done thus far cannot

pinpoint such a correlation.

For every scientist that has backed the idea that video games cause violent behaviors,

they all lack one critical piece of focus material. What happens in the daily lives of these

children? How bad is their family life? Sadly, these researchers do not want to weigh this into

their findings because they know it has a far more plausible correlation to violent behaviors than

video games do. This then leads to a lot of information missing from most people's

understandings. They need to understand what the youth's home-life and surroundings are like.
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All of the research I have conducted has pointed to that as a fallacy in most views towards this

topic. No one puts into account how violent their families are, or how violent their surroundings

are.

In the article, “The Impact of Degree of Exposure to Violent Video Games, Family

Background, and Other Factors on Youth Violence” written by Whitney Decamp and Christopher

Ferguson. These authors do well to implicate the effects of all sorts of other factors and the

youth’s levels of violence, “A meta-analysis consolidating these effects indicated that increased

time playing violent video games does not significantly affect the risk of violent behavior. Rather,

it is the social and familial background that seems to play a larger role in determining risk of

violent behavior instead of video games. Youth who are witness to actual violence in their home,

for example, are at greater risk for acting violently” (Decamp et Ferguson, 702-708). The

research conducted to find this conclusion was based over 20 years of previous research and

15 different models of research. This is the most extensive amount of evidence backing the lack

of correlation to video games and violence, and instead urging those who follow this topic to

understand that there are a multitude of environmental factors that can lead to violent behaviors,

instead.

I grew up playing video games. From the time I was in elementary school up until today,

video games have been a big part of my life. This next source is a personal account from my

grandmother, the person who raised me. She gave me great insight at how early on in my

childhood I was a very angry kid, and that she thought the cause of that was because of how

much video games I played. From her own words, she stated that “video games would be what

ruined my life, and if I were to fail, that video games would be the cause”. Hearing this out of her

mouth had startled me, because I always thought she didn’t mind me playing games. Later on in

our conversation, she stated that as I got older she realized that it wasn’t the video games that
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had caused me to be angry, but my family life and social factors were the true cause. She stated

that video games had, in a way, given me a release from my stress and helped me cope and

stay calm with the unbearable childhood circumstances I faced. I had a horrible childhood, and I

was very angry all the time. I know I used video games as a way to get away from my problems

and immerse myself into a different world. I see that much of the research that has been

conducted for this topic does not focus in one one’s personal life. This was a pivotal piece of my

findings because it weighed in on where all of the scientific research falls through.

The final area that many people don’t understand, video games have evolved past what

they were in the past. Video games as of today have begun to factor in real world implications

and now works to expand a player’s mind. Previously, there was so much focus regarding

how to find negative aspects of gaming… but what about the positive affects it can have on

your mind? Vince Matthews targets this idea within the article, “Yes, Video Games are

Good...for Your Mind and Body”. This article does well to focus on in-depth studies that

were conducted to measure the brain growth between those who hadn’t played video

games whatsoever and those who played video games for 30 minutes a day for 2 months.

The results were a true eye-opener, “Scientists used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to

measure the size of the brain of the groups before the start of the study, then again after

the two-month period. The results confirmed previous findings—that there were differences

in the brain structure of video gamers, and that by playing video games, there was a “direct

link between video gaming and a volumetric brain increase”” (Matthews). Using this

information, it backs the idea that video games can increase a player’s mental capabilities

and give us the tools to grow our brains in positive ways.

Although there has been no research that has been able to conclude where video

games are the root of violence, there are results of where video games can become an
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amplifier for violent behaviors. This is the most evident piece that can back the idea that in

some ways, video games can be a factor for violent behaviors, although the relationship

between the idea isn’t strong and the results are very conflicting. I can understand how this

data can be used to show how video game violence may very well be seen as the root of

violence.

In “Video Games Aren’t a Cause of Violence.”, an article written by Courtney Schuna

there is a great producing idea that video games aren’t the cause for violence, but rather, how

they are an amplifier of violence because it desensitizes a player to the violence of the outside

world. It goes along with the findings from the PBS Nova documentary mentioned earlier. There

isn’t a strong case to show that violence is rooted through the players of video games, but it can

be seen where there are patterns between violent emotions and feelings after being submissive

to violent actions within video games. A good way to understand that it may be an amplifier for

violence is to picture yourself having an extremely bad day, and then going to play a game like

Call of Duty, where there is a sense of relief from killing other players. In this sense, it is

understandable that violent acts (in a simulated game) can be seen as an amplifier from the

violence which is already within someone.

Another great article that does well to show this pattern is ““Violent Video Games and

Aggression” written by Lauren Goldbeck and Alex Pew under the National Center for Health

Research. Out of all of the sources prior, the way the information is portrayed with this is

extremely valuable, and it gives a great overview of what many research findings have found

over time. The authors to a great job giving insight of where video games can be shown

throughout time to correlate with violent amplifications, and in the conclusion, the authors state

that video games can definitely be a cause of aggression (but also not all aggression is violent).

It opens up an additional side of research that can be conducted, which cases of the aggression
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found within the youth is actually violent? The authors also implement the exact findings from

the APA (American Psychological Association). They state that video games are a factor for

aggression.

From my initial research, I had the idea that most people thought that video game

violence was a direct correlation to growing up as a violent person. After all of this research has

been made and that my findings have all been tied together, there are two main points that have

been brought into play. The first being that there is not nearly enough research to create a direct

correlation to violent behavior and the use of video games. The second being that video games

have nothing to do with the growth of violent behaviors. People believe that since there are FPS

(first person shooters) and fighting games, that the effects on a young person’s brain will grow

over time, innately making them a violent person. The other misconception is that video game

violence has no tie to violent behavior at all, but in findings, video game violence can very well

amplify someone's already violent personality.

I think it is worth noting a couple complications that can come in the way with someone’s

understanding of youth violence and its ties to video games. Many believers of this correlation

either think that video games are just dumbing us down or are violent in some way, shape, or

form. Both of those are extremely incorrect. Video games in many cases make us use our

brains to solve puzzles, use our critical thinking, and make decisions throughout that will affect

the rest of the game. Especially nowadays, where games have practically gone through a whole

revolution in terms of complexity, there are many instances where games are meant to give

players a real world feel that they can relate to the player and even tie into our personal lives to

give us some sort of relief. These games have real world lessons now, they aren't just killing,

shooting, fighting, etc. As you state, this doesn't mean that everyone should start to play video
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games, however, people do need to understand that outside factors such as family violence and

the sort will contribute to a person’s level of violence more than anything else.

One other instance of complication I have found is that there are so many different

genres for video games. These researchers and scientists tend to only focus on the 10% of

video games that have violence within them. Within the BBC Horizon documentary, Ian

Livingston (a developer of the video game Tomb Raider) states that most researchers who

decide to take on this controversial issue have never even touched a video game in their life. So

how much would these scientists understand if they haven’t actually tested this information out

on themselves? There are many fallacies which have been found throughout this research to

justify my conclusion where it doesn’t make much sense to say that video games cause violent

behaviors within the youth. I think for these researchers that it would be detrimental for them to

place other factors onto the table. Something that may be used to gauge the effects of video

games is to compare these games to books, and see where their understanding lies between

violence and the audience. Most see books as a way to learn, grow, and become smarter. On

the flip-side, how much does a book contribute to a violent personality within a child? None. If a

child is reading a book to find ways to violently do something, check their family life and

surroundings, there is no possible way for a person to get tainted into that without outside

factors. Video games are the same. The other point to bring up is that there is nowhere near

enough research done towards this subject to get a clear correlation, and that through all of the

research that has been done thus far, the correlation between violent behaviors is basically

nonexistent. People need to understand video games, for most, are a tool to immerse

themselves into a new world.

I think the world would be vastly different. Something I found quite a bit from this

research was that the issue of violent behaviors caused through video games arises as a
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political tool to argue against violent events which happen within the world. A common theme

between political ideologies can be tied very closely with this quote from Hilary Clinton in 2005,

where she stated that “playing violent video games is to an adolescent’s violent behavior what

smoking tobacco is to lung cancer”. Things as strongly said like this are manipulative tools to

affect the common thinking of our world. If everyone understood the alternative ways to see

video games, there wouldn't be an issue towards the video game communities whatsoever. See

how much political propaganda is caused from this, that would be nonexistent. See how much

more enlightened those who see video games as a destructive influence, would rather let

themselves become more aware that video games can be tools for growth, just like how books

are.

As a quick comparison to another study that is ongoing as of today, I would like to also

entertain the idea that it is very well possible that there may be a link to violence and video

games, and there just isn’t enough research to pinpoint that idea specifically. Pointing

specifically to vaporizer cigarettes, there is no way to say that they have negative causes to

someone’s health. This is because there is nowhere near enough research that has been

conducted to find out such an answer. Once there is more data found to correlate health issues

and vaporizing cigarettes, then there will be much more to say. The same idea goes for video

games and youth violence, the number one thing I found throughout every single article was

that “there isn’t enough research”. All this means is to wait years longer until a direct answer can

be given. Until then, it is all speculation, and as of today there is no correlation between video

games and violence.

I understand that video games do have adverse effects and that there can be a certain

drawback for this as well. That being where video games start to become too heavily weighed

into a person’s lifestyle. Everything is good in moderation. This is an obvious thing that everyone
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should realize, and that is that video games can become addicting. If there was no problem with

letting everyone play video games, there is a possible chance that more children could become

more addicted. Other than that, there aren’t many negatives to come from moderate video game

playing, and violence can be seen as a trigger but nowhere near the amount of violence seen to

string from family life.

As a video gamer myself, this topic has helped me understand that there is much more

to the effects of video games than meets the eye. I went into this topic with an open mind and to

find out if there was any sort of correlation between video gaming and violence. Throughout the

research the main things I found were that there hasn’t been enough There is no correlation

between video games and violence within the youth because the research done thus far cannot

pinpoint such a correlation, family issues and surrounding factors can contribute far more to

violence, and lastly due to the fact that video games have evolved to give players a means of

growing their mental capabilities. Through my own life I have suffered with anger, and violent

thoughts. I never thought it was a cause of video games and from my own grandmother, she

has come to understand that video games were far from the cause of my behaviors. I will

reiterate that I understand where believers of the correlation of video games and violence are

coming from, and that it is understandable to find patterns of where video games can amplify

violence. In the end, though, my findings still hold true that there is no correlation between video

games and violence within the youth because the research done thus far cannot pinpoint such a

correlation, family issues and surrounding factors can contribute far more to violence, and also

due to the fact that video games have evolved to give players a means of growing their mental

capabilities. In the future, maybe there will be more answers that can be found regarding this

controversial issue. Until then, the answer of what video games do, is far from causing violence.
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Work Cited

BBC Science. Are Video Games Really That Bad? BBC Horizon, 2015,

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x38qzq8. Accessed 9 Mar 2019.

DeCamp, Whitney, and Christopher Ferguson. “The Impact of Degree of Exposure to Violent Video

Games, Family Background, and Other Factors on Youth Violence.” Journal of Youth &

Adolescence, vol. 46, no. 2, Feb. 2017, pp. 388–400. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s10964-016-

0561-8.

Fournis, Gaël, and Nidal Nabhan Abou. “Violence, Crime, and Violent Video Games: Is There a

Correlation?” Psychiatric Times, vol. 31, no. 9, Sept. 2014, pp. 1–4. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&A

N=103912595&site=eds-live.

Ferguson, Christopher J. “Youth Violence and Consumption of Video Games” LSE USCentre. 08 August

2014 “blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2014/08/28/there-is-still-no-evidence-that-videogames-harm-

minors/”

Goldbeck, Lauren, and Alex Pew. “Violent Video Games and Aggression.” National Center for Health

Research, 27 Mar. 2018, www.center4research.org/violent-video-games-can-increase-

aggression/

Keim, Brandon. “What Science Knows About Video Games and Violence.” PBS, Public Broadcasting

Service, 28 Feb. 2013, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/what-science-knows-about-video-

games-and-violence/.

Matthews, Vince “Yes, Video Games are Good… for Your Mind and Body.” iD Tech, 9 May 2018,

https://www.idtech.com/blog/video-games-are-good-for-you

Penney, Linda. Personal Interview. 10 Mar. 2019.

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Schuna, Courtney. “Video Games Aren’t a Cause of Violence.” Advance-Titan (Oshkosh, WI), vol. 124,

no. 4, 4 Oct. 2018, p. A4. EBSCOhost, sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?

url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edo&A N=133039147&site=eds-live.