by Karla Aguirre

Created on: November 26, 2008

Video games are a source of entertainment. With the obvious stated, there is also the other side of the coin: the blame video games receive when someone becomes violent. It is true that video games are becoming increasingly violent and graphic, as the industry expands, as does its technology. However, video games are not to blame when there is a violent situation.

Sadly, there are individuals who do not understand the difference between fiction and reality; and those who take the game too seriously, to the point where they actually threaten one's personal safety. However, these individuals are in a whole different category of gamers. Some possibly having a mental disorder that has gone undiagnosed for various reasons, whether they are aware of it or not. Other external sources such as stress from work or school, being bullied, abuse, neglect can contribute to a person's reactions. Simple internal sources, even something has having a short-temper will draw out the violent side of any person.

The video game industry is a rapidly growing one, more so than movies and television. There are millions of more gamers today around the world, than there were ten years ago. With this sharp increase, of course there will obviously be more of these people that fail to distance themselves from the very games they enjoy. And it is because now higher numbers of those few, that now many seem to believe that video games are the source of the problem. And sadly, those few within the gaming community are the ones that make it into the media spotlight; as with any act of violence.

So why are video games being blamed for acts of violence? Person A seriously injures Person B, police search through Person A's home. They find several action-type video games. This trend goes on and on, until people come to the conclusion that it was a video game that made this person violent. People already come in violent tendencies. All it takes is the right environment and situation to finally unleash them. There are people who don't even play video games, and still fail to feel empathic to the pain of others when they bring harm to them.

People forget so easily that there was once a time, when there were no video games, movies, or television. When the light bulb wasn't even an idea in Edison's head. Our ancestors certainly didn't spend all their time having picnics, idly twiddling their thumbs, and getting along in ways that made an episode of Sesame Street look like Jerry Springer. If you look at history, you see more bloodshed than times of peace. Wars, persecutions, revolutions, genocide, and many other acts of violence and hate through out society's history point out that we never needed things such as video games, as many like to believe, to unleash harm on others.

It's silly to believe video games are behind the violence we see today. We need to look at what's around us, the other factors that contributes to this kind of behavior. There is always at least one stupid person for every hundred that are in either a music scene, a fandom, a group of gamers; you name it, either way it makes the rest of the groups look bad. Video games are violent, but people themselves are far worse. We cannot simply blame one factor; because we refuse take responsibility for our own contributions to someone's behavior. Parents, I strongly urge you to monitor what your children do. There are ratings in every video game that tells you the possible content in the game. It is your job as the parent to say no if you believe something may be harmful. If we are to improve as a society, we need to stop blaming sources of entertainment and blame none other than ourselves.

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