Although there is no a direct link about playing violent video games and actual aggression in the society, in my opinion, playing violent video games greatly contributes to aggression. There is a relationship between the two gunmen is that they watched Call of Duty as a preparation to their bloody killings. The Call of Duty video game revolves around survival tactics where a player has to kill in order to make it to the end. Shockingly, the two cases show a correlation that indeed playing violent video games can indeed produce violence in the society.
These are some of the cases surrounding playing violent video games among youths, who end up killing their friends and family to make the game real (Keim,1) The revelation that prior to these two gunmen committing murder played at least one violent game shows that over exposure to violent media content can destabilize a person’s cognition.
Research shows that every person can be violent if encounters ideologies that can trigger such behavior. Thus, cases of shooting in school, malls and other public places after playing video games affects already violent children by intensifying their aggression. Science shows that we are human beings because we socialize, and interact with other people and environments around us. This means that if a child become a video game addict, he or she become estranged to other people and withdraw from real life and human touch (Keim,1) Thus, this distorts his socialization and in most cases, alienate a video game player from his friends and family.
For example, Adam Lanza spent most of his time locked in a basement playing violence video game that triggers the death of 26 innocent Americans at Sandy Hook shooting. His withdrawal from the real life may have affected his behavior on how he perceived human life; killers lack respect to human life that is why killing is normal to them.
According to a study by Professor Mark Griffiths, a director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University, there is strong empirical evidence showing the correlation between playing violent video games and sequential aggressive conduct (Gonchar, 1). In his research, Professor Griffiths says that some of the 11 grade children who played violent video games became aggressive the following year. This shows that even a normal and non-violent person can change with time after playing violent video games. This is one of the researches conducted to demonstrate that there is a direct relationship between playing violent video games and development of violent behavior. This does not mean that a person becomes a bloody killer after playing video game for one day; the acts of violence towards other people build up with time as a person becomes drawn to these violent content. This means that youths who spend a great deal of time locked in their rooms playing violent video games have high probability of increasingly become violent to an extent of murder (Gonchar, 1).
Playing violent video games easily affects the psychology of children more that watching violence in the media. This is because, playing video games makes the child part of the game, training him how to kill, and harm others (Gunter, 90). Additionally, the repeated times a person plays the game, the more his mind becomes influence and accept violence in the way of life.
Study shows that people do more than watching video games, they interact and the number of time a child plays the game, his mind interpret the violence as a classical conditioning aspect in learning behavior (Gunter, 70). Thus, as teenagers mind are still developing, their brain might see violence video as a training for real life experience.
The effect of playing violence video games is daunting as more and more children and youth find playing video game the most fascinating leisure. The psychological explanation on how violent is that being exposed to violence for a long term negatively affects the brain, recognizing violence as a positive stimulus. It is essential to note that playing violence games is addictive and some players might feel the need to prove their skills in the real world (Anderson, et al, 61). This addiction of violence triggers the brain to execute violence tendencies, affecting a person’s psychology. Both short and long term effects of violent video games continue to cost many lives and both physically and psychologically (Gunter, 90). For instance, the Sandy Hook shooting is a dreadful event that will probably affect the survivor. Hence, following the causes and the effects of violent video games, it time all stakeholders realized that there is an enormous problem caused by production of violent games.
In conclusion, playing violent video games have a direct relationship to increased aggression in the society. This is evident by many shooting cases where youths without prior criminal records turn out to be murders. There are various researches conducted which explains that violent video games can trigger acts of violence mainly because they affect teenagers developing mind; youths see the video games as essential training that prepares them in their missions such as the Call of Duty game.
Indeed violent video games affect a person in the long run playing violent video games increases aggression. This is because playing video game makes a youth part of the violent, and if he or she becomes exposed to this violence his brain recognized violence as a positive rather than a negative aspect. The victims of Breivik and Lanza are the evidence that the government, the courts and other government officials need to restrict production of violent video games. Any life lost following the aggression trigger or amplified by violent video games is proof enough that the society should debate for a ban in the production of violent videos sold to underage children.