by Marisa Taylor

Created on: October 01, 2008

There is violence everywhere, there is absolutely no doubt about that. It is hard to turn on the television and not see a show depicting at least some kind of violence, whether it be physical, mental, or verbal. Although the amount of violence that we are exposed to is extremely high, it is very unlikely that violence in video games contributes to real life violence. The main reason why I say this is because violence was around and part of the daily life of humans way before we were exposed to violence in video games. There are many examples of violence throughout history. There are stories in the bible that depict violence, ancient civilizations and law systems depicted violence. One of the best known being the "an eye for an eye mentality."

The second reason why violence in video games does not contribute to real life violence is the ability to tell the difference between real life and the virtual life that is in a video game. Why do many people play video games? They play because it is something different from real life, and it is entertaining. Many people are able to tell that there is a difference between real life and that in a video game, it is the people who are unable to tell the difference that this argument is mainly focused on.

Now those people that have a hard time telling the difference between real life and life as portrayed in a video game generally tend to lie within the minds of young children to teenagers. These are the people that have such vivd and wild imaginations, that to them it can be very difficult to tell the difference. Although this group may get real life and virtual life confused, it is not the games that lead to violence.

Many of us are exposed to violence on a daily basis in our real life. From the moment you turn on the television to watch the news in the morning, going throughout your day, and from the moment you watch your last television show, you are exposed to violence. Murders, rapes, burgularies are apart of our daily life. Many people know at least one person that has been apart of or experienced a violent act.

With all the violence that goes on in everyday life, why is real life violence blamed on video games? Becase it is the scapegoat. People are afraid to take blame for things that they do, and in many situations find a scapegoat to put all the blame on. In reference to children and teenagers showing violent behavior because of video games, it is not the video game. But indeed on how that child is being raised. If many parents took a more active role in how their children are raised and what they do, then we would not have an issue with video games. The reason why video games became a scapegoat is most likely because of the parents of the children that exhibit violent behaviors did not want to be blamed. I grew up playing video games, from Resident Evil, to Mortal Combat, and yet I am not a violent individual. I have never outwardly attacked someone, nor have been overly aggressive in my behavior. That is because my mother was there to teach me right from wrong, and I was able to tell the difference between a video game and real life.

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