Handy Examines if Video Games Cause Violent Behavior

Introduction

In recent years, Handy has seen more and more homes with gaming computers and gaming platforms. Well, we also see the titles of the games. We have seen some pretty rough looking titles and it got us to wondering if these video games are causing violent behavior. Many times, when you turn on the news, you see someone has been shot or brutally attacked. Is it the video games that are desensitizing us to this violence? Is this causing children to be more aggressive towards each other? It seems that there is no definitive answer, but we will not let that deter us from trying to find out anyhow.

In the Media

Over the past two decades, we have seen more and more media outlets claiming that video games are making us more violent. Perhaps it has nothing to do with the video games, but the television and movies that we watch. It is even possible that when seeing this on the news so often that this is how we are being sensitized to it. The truth of the matter is, as long as someone has had something that someone else wanted there has been violence. The only difference between back then and now is the number of people that exist on Earth. If we take the time to examine the statistics of how many violent crimes existed in years past and today, we will see that it is about at the same rate. That is not saying that there is not a little bit more now, but we are not ready to say that it is video games that are causing this violence. As we said before, there are at least two other contenders for why we may be a little more violent today.

In Science

In all recent studies that have been performed, even psychologists have not been able to come up with a definitive answer. They do know that the video games, television, movies, and the news have all played their part in desensitizing us. In the past, when something bad would happen, people were not happy about what happened. That is not to say that people are happy about it today, but the people in the past seemed as if they were appalled by what happened. They would turn their heads and try to no see what was going on. Today, when people see something bad happening to someone, the first thing they do is try to get closer and get a better video of it. This is the reason that we know we have been numbed to the carnage that is happening to our fellow man. We see images of things that have happened in the past every few years. For example, ever five or ten years they will run a video of President Kennedy being shot or the Challenger exploding. This cannot be good for us to watch.

Conclusion

Handy is not fully ready to commit to an answer of yes or no. However, we will tell you that we are becoming convinced the more we read that they do play a role in the violence. After all, you can’t expect to play games that show violent images and not expect to have some sort of effect from it.