Virtual reality; not so virtual anymore
Is virtual violence violating our youth’s behavior? Violence should not be an accepted quality in our bright young children, yet we publish video games that showcase violence to our kids. Parents have a right to censor harmful content from their children's lives. This generation’s future depends on our actions that we make right now. We can’t let our youth down. Let’s not create another generation of violence, video game content should be regulated more intensely. Since video games have been introduced, school shootings have been increasing steadily. This cannot be a coincidence. Even the president commented on the normality of school shootings, saying that it has become the norm (Cohen). Scholars from Harvard School of Public Health noted that public mass shootings have, on average, occurred every 172 days since 1982 (Cohen). In general adolescents spend more time playing violent video games, rather than spending quality time with family and friends. Kids are now consumed by the virtual world instead of living in reality. This can create potential problems for the future. For instance, our society could become ruthless and reasonless because of the violent behavior that was instilled in the children from a young age. This could lead to future wars that are even more violent than the ones that rage right now. It could also prevent our society from finding solutions to problems because they will be so blinded by violence and anger. Participating in more violent crimes, the youth seems to be getting more violent. Due to the violent nature of video games, our children are prepositioned to do sinister acts and have erratic actions. Young children should not be subjected to the violence that videogames can display. Children should be allowed to choose whether to play a game or not, if one were to, then they should be given a child appropriate game when they have matured past the recommended age. When I was a child I was allowed the games that could do no harm to my mind. I was granted the freedom to choose, and I chose that I wanted to play a game such as Mario and Spyro, these titles are harmless fun arcade games that show little to no acts of violence. [ In general, a child should not be allowed to play inappropriate games for their age. Instead the parent should buy games that meet the requirement for their age, and that are not based on violence.]Children as old as 12 have been accused of performing violent crimes such as aggravated assault, murder and rape(Youth Perpetrators…). This is evidence of video games affecting the actions of our children. 12 year olds should not be committing such violent crimes. They should be learning and making friends. Violent games and movies alter the brain. Violent media has been shown to increase the aggressiveness of adolescents(Archer). “After only one week of playing a violent video game. In particular, there was a significant decrease in the activation of prefrontal portions of the brain and a greater activation of the amygdala”(Archer). Here is a little lesson, the prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain where the thinking takes place. The Amygdala is where the emotional triggers in the brain are located, including anger and depression (Archer). This means that after playing a violent videogame the thinking part of the brain is less active and the emotional side of the brain is the most active. For instance, if there are two switches connected to a bulb, and only one can be switched on and the other off. Both cannot be on at the same time, whilst playing violent games, the lesser important switch is on, leaving the other off. This means children playing violent games such as Call of Duty and other games will think less rationally and make bad decisions because they are not using the thinking part of their brain as much as they should be when making decisions. Violent media also affects school behavior. Osswald of Ludwig Maximilian University in Germany conducted a study on children where he asked them to pick a game of pro-social or aggressive game of tetris, and after eight minutes the experimenter reached for a stack of papers and “accidentally” knocked it over. The children who played the aggressive game of tetris didn’t pick up the pencils as much as the children who played the pro-social game of tetris (Toppo). This means that during school the children who play violent video games on a daily basis will be less helpful and less friendly than those who do not play violent games. If children are violent and less responsive, especially in the lower grades, it can disrupt the learning process which the children need to be successful when they are older and in the working force. Violent videogames are a strain on family bonds. Brigham young University scholars wrote a paper on the strain that video games put on the bonds between families. He stated that the reason family bonds are so weak is because young adults and children remove themselves from social situations to play video games, And the people who don’t play video games have to search for companionship somewhere else(Video Games Linked to..). Family bonds are really important because they are a great model for what someone’s future relationships should be like. They also model how someone should talk to a certain person in a certain setting. This is important because it could be used in the relationships of not only the boss, but co-workers and future friends that someone will have. Family bonds also help the emotional state of the brain, because they are the ones that someone spends the most time with since they all live with said person. Violent video games reek a lot of havoc on the youth and their future. The physical effects and the emotional ones are not worth the small amount of joy that this media brings; the risk outweighs the reward. If we want to stop the devastating crimes that are happening at this moment, then we need to start with the persuadable youth, and stop them from seeing violent acts in their games and movies. The future of our children depend on this one decision, so why not make the right one?
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