Research Essay Final Draft after Peer Review by Walton-
Tim Barile
ERH-102
Mrs. Smith
11 April 2016 Final Draft after Peer Review
Help Received: Exploratory Essay, First Digital Dilemma paper in ERH-102- The Impact of Video Games in Today’s Society, Person interview cadet Luke Ridnouer, Writing Arguments textbook for paper outline, Cadet Anthony Walton for Peer Review and previous paper citing guidance
Violent Video Games: An Enigma to Human Health
Imagine a young child playing a new popular violent video game for example “Call of Duty”, a militaristic video game where the user plays the role of a soldier essentially carrying out missions and sometimes performing violent actions in your mind. You automatically assume right away the child is receiving bad guidance/morals from the game and the child will have an inclination to emulate negative behaviors from the violent video game. Now imagine again the child is playing the same violent video game but this time the child is having fun, forgetting and oblivious to his current stressors and daily life, learning and expanding his knowledge of history and military through the game, and finally not reciprocating any violent or negative attitudes/behaviors from the game. Now after pondering this the main question that is associated on the topic is “Are violent video games really hazardous to children and their health?” Nobody knows for sure if violent video games are the triggers to certain child behaviors and attitudes, primarily negative ones. Certain questions are asked about the argument regarding nature vs nurture. Experts try to analyze the connection between children who play and those who do not and try to relate the negative incidents to those who do play. It is true that also the severity of violence and explicitness of the video game matters as well but also what categorizes a video game as violent? A background of violent video games also has shown video games have come a long way.
Video games have been a common leisure activity starting in the early 90s and now in the 21st century. Children have been the main audience that are attracted to video games due to the hands-on experience, captivating plots, and the thrill of all different types of genres such as sports games, militaristic/shooting simulation games, and adventurous open world video games. Specifically children are attracted to this because they have more free time to consistently play and seek fun related activities naturally as a child. However, by playing video games, children are subject to both violent and passive video games. A child can be traumatized or enlightened from both violent and passive video games. The true question, as stated previously, is if these violent video games have a negative impact on children’s and influence them to make rash, immoral, and violent actions in the future or even possess negative behaviors/attitudes or on the other hand, if a child’s environment is responsible for violent behaviors. Overall, my belief is that “certain” violent video games to a level of rationality and obvious explicitness do not affect a child and his/her mental health and decision making and that environmental factors affect a child’s mental health and actions for the future.(Paragraph from Formal Exploratory Essay 1)
To be frank, a child’s violence is stemmed from their environment, parental supervision, and social upbringing is the cause of violent behaviors in children in society, not violent video games. A child could live in a bad neighborhood with abusive family where larceny and violence is common. This could shape a child’s mind to react and perform decisions in an aggressive manner because that’s what he or she has seen their entire life and does not know better. A child could be orphaned and living with no parents by his or her self where he or she is lonely and has irrational thoughts due to psychological trauma. A child could be bullied in his or her school at a young age either physically or mentally which could have repercussions on the child’s decision making. It’s these environmental actions that alter a child’s decision to do wrong instead of good. A child may also be born with inferior genetics where a certain health complication of the brain or chemical imbalance is prominent in that family’s line of genetics (matter of science in here as well which I do not want to delve into.) A child’s parents are another main factor previously stated of how a child acts. By watching, listening, and interacting with their parents every day, a child sees their parents as true role models and mimic their actions. (The Impact of Video Games in Today’s Society 2) A child could take after his aggressive and quick to strike father because the child shares those same genes. Even if the child does not share the same genes, a child could witness an event like his father hitting his mother in front of his eyes. This event could have long-lasting psychological effects on the child. To support this position more, certain violent video games are believed to be beneficial to a child’s mental health and perception/coordination. This does not mean a child is going to be trained to be an Army Ranger with great reflexes and motor skills/functions but still not being trained to be a cold-blooded school shooter. As part of a child’s upbringing, athletics and stimulating physical/mental exercise are needed in order for children to grow. A child is needed to expand their mental capacity and ability through depth perception, quick thinking, memory detail, etc. which can all be found in a video game. An interview with a VMI cadet Luke Ridnouer, a frequent video game player from a young age, shows he shares the same opinion. Cadet Ridnouer was asked a series of questions and answered each question with an honest and unbiased answer. Ridnouer believed violent video games do not have bad influences and instead teaches children the value of life. He delved on this saying death is an ongoing theme in our lives and that child at some point in this their lives are going to have to recognize this. He states video games are a local distraction from the outside world and can relieve stress. As a video game player for most of his life, Luke relates to this but also did not play video games for nearly a whole year this year because of VMI circumstances. He comes from both sides of the argument. Branching from this, when asked if the environment or video games play more of a factor, he answered the environment and parenting are the key factors to shaping children. He, in contrast, believed that parents should give their children autonomy and responsibility as they grow older making the children learn by their own mistakes but also receive advice from their parents. Lastly, he exclaimed that by playing certain violent video games, a child can fit in with other children who do the same and ease into recognizing the norms of the real world not being sheltered their entire life. (Person-to-Person Interview)
The oppositional view on violent video games is that they do in fact have repercussions on children’s mental health and decision making. People, mostly adults, believe violent video games to be the trigger of violent and negative behaviors of growing children. The adult population sees violent video games as immoral and give reason for a child to be a school shooter to violent video games. For example, if a child plays a somewhat violent video game for several years and becomes adept in the game, many people, from older generations especially, attribute the child to have an inclination to have immoral tendencies and adopted action from the game. People associate bad images and lifestyles inside video games that a child could adopt or strive or even think is suitable. Parents of children who play fear that there could be long-term effect in the future that could lead their child to a below par life. In the worst of situations, for example, people almost always associate young school shooters who play violent video games and have secluded violent/dark emotions. People assume a child, he or she, as not being full developed and in an early developmental stage of their life are more susceptible to mimic actions inside the game. In the article “Violent Video Games Affecting Our Children” it is stated how violent video games have grown and expanded with blood, gore, and vivid imagery since the first violent video game came out which was Pac-Man, which does not include those things. The authors label video games as a desire in society and how children are craving more and more different types of video games, boys primarily attracted to sports/violent and girls attracted to fantasy.( Vessey, Judith A., and Lee 1) Here is where more people believe boys and girls differ on the matter showing boys are to be more violent. In the article “Effects of Trait Hostility, Mapping Interface, and Character Identification on Aggressive Thoughts and Overall Game Experience after Playing A violent Video Game” it is said through mapping interface if a person has high-level trait hostility then they are more prone to aggressive and violent gaming experience. (Jung, Younbo, Park, and Kwan Min Lee 1) Vice-versa, if a person has low-trait hostility then they are more prone to positive gaming experience. (Jung, Younbo, Park, and Kwan Min Lee 1) Also, to prove how a child actually plays an R or M rated violent video game in the first place, a person of 18 years or older must buy the video game for the child. The main people that buy the games for children is hypocritically parents. Therefore a parent may buy a violent video game just to stop their kid from whining in spite or to spoil their child but in the process are hypocrites and not practicing what they preach. What a child takes from this is the mindset “Mom and Dad got this for me, it can’t be bad and it must be okay to play it.” A parent’s intervention must be moral and consistent, not being two-faced about buying the game and then not letting their child play it. For a parent to be honest and forthright, they should take charge and not buy the game, setting the right standard. However, to find a suitable middle ground with the game and the child could work giving the child more responsibility as stated previously as they are growing. In the article “Violent Video Games and Young People” it says for parents to play the video games with their children to experience it firsthand and to monitor the playing time they give the child. Putting video game consoles in more common areas and checking the video game ratings to prevent possible negative scenarios with child may work. (Harvard Mental Health Letter 3)
Overall, both views on the argument at hand provide reasonable logic but society is still unsure if violent video games are a factor to foreshadowing negative child actions. Do violent video games make or break children or is it their environment that does so? In conclusion, to attribute a child’s decision making to their environment excluding video games can be seen as the more logical approach. However, if you imagine the scenario from the very beginning again with all the information just told to you, what’s your opinion?.
Works Cited
Jung, Younbo, Namkee Park, and Kwan Min Lee. “Effects Of Trait Hostility, Mapping Interface, And Character Identification On Aggressive Thoughts And Overall Game Experience After Playing A Violent Video Game.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking 18.12 (2015): 711-717. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
Formal Exploratory Essay previously turned in.
Person-to-Person Interview on position-Interviewed roommate Cadet Luke Ridnouer who plays video games frequently and from a young age.
The Impact of Video Games in Today’s Society, first digital dilemma/native paper previously turned in.
Vessey, Judith A., and Joanne E. Lee. “Violent Video Games Affecting Our Children.” Pediatric Nursing 26.6 (2000): 607. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
“Violent Video Games And Young People.” Harvard Mental Health Letter 27.4 (2010): 1-3. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
