Does violence in video games contribute to real life violence?

Yes

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by Candice Anderson

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"Bang, bang your dead" said the five year old holding his hand out like a gun. Mom looks up at the child. "Where did you learn that?" she asked. "Dad's game." He says. "He's killing lots of people. It's so cool."

Have you ever had a situation like this one? Do you begin to wonder if the violence in the game is changing the views of the people who are watching or playing? This is something I think about all the time and I feel very strongly that it plays a big part in how we react to situations.

The key here is that it plays a part in how we react. Have you ever been upset, nervous or frustrated and before you know it you say things you never meant to say. Do you find yourself reacting to the situation instead of acting? This is common when we get under pressure. Our minds take everything that we've seen, heard, and done and then it quickly comes up with a way to react to what is happening based on what it knows.

That's why violence in video games is so dangerous. You many think "I know that it's pretend and it's not going to affect me." That may be true at the moment, but the underlying factor here is that you are constantly putting graphic images of violence in your head. Most of us wouldn't show a child a movie that had lots of killing in it yet we somehow justify the video game because "it's just animated characters "or "we're only killing the bad guys." This may be true but a young child has a hard time telling the difference. Our subconscious minds are very much like a little child. They absorb all of the information that we put into them and have a hard time telling the difference between real and make- believe.

It's bad enough when we see and hear the violence in a movie, but in a video game the player is also actively engaged in creating it. He switches from the roll of observer to creator. What he does controls the outcome of the game. In most of these games the object is to kill as many as possible and avoid being killed yourself. What kind of image is this putting into our subconscious minds?

It is said that we attract what we think about. So not only do we add violent images to our subconscious, but we add the likelihood that we will think about them and attract ourselves to situations where we would use them. Our feelings and emotions tend to react to a situation.

Have you ever noticed children fighting more after you've been playing some of these games? When an argument comes up the mind recalls what the body did in a previous situation "real or make-believe" and then reacts accordingly, thus resulting in the fight. They may not intend to hit the other person; however in tense situations it's not always easy to control your reactions, especially for young children.

I don't think that it's a coincidence that we've seen an increase in crimes and especially violent crimes since the introduction of violent video games. Sure it may not affect some people the way that it does others. However we have no way of knowing who is capable of handling them and who is not. You never know how someone might react in a situation, because of the information in the subconscious mind. The younger we start to put these images into our head the more impact it will have. The more times we are told something the sooner we begin to think it is true. So the more times we engage in killing, the closer we come to transferring it into real life.

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