Causes and effects of video games on people

Name: Jassim alqattan

Topic: claims that video games lead to violence

Date: October 28, 2013

Document type: Article

Source: “ Claims that video games lead to violence.” theguardian.com. September 20, 2013

http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2013/sep/20/video-games-cause-violence-claims-cause-violence

Summary:

According to the article of the guardian.com, which focuses on the claims that video games lead to violence by Dean Burnett. Video games are the cause of violence that is what the media says when a school shooting happens. Video games are always blamed on those acts. Recent studies have shown that video games really do cause violence. Dr Mario Vance conducted a longitudinal study that monitors the anger levels of gamers and the results have shown that there is an increase in aggression and anger levels. The media claims that gamers can’t distinguish between fantasy and reality, but the research proves that there isn’t enough evidence to support that claim. In addition, some people such as Roy Parker are against video games and think that video game should be banned, because of the blood and violence that they show.

Quotations:

"It's ridiculous that they're even allowed. I don't want my children growing up in a world where horrible stuff like that is just out there where anybody can come across it and be damaged by it."

"A bias is one thing, but turning a brutal and deadly shooting into an excuse to attack a tenuously linked entertainment medium? That borders on pathological."

"The media's main concern appears to be that enthusiastic gamers can't differentiate between games and the real world, so violent games will result in violent behaviour. But anyone who has the cognitive faculties to purchase, set up and operate modern games consoles won't have trouble differentiating between a cartoonish fantasy world and reality."

Paraphrasing:

Original paragraph:

Dr Vance and his colleagues assessed daily reports submitted by willing gamers as to their aggression levels and violent tendencies, and over 90% of subjects reported dramatic increases in anger and violent inclinations whenever they viewed a news story that associated video games and violent behavior. The remaining subjects were not included as they were typically too busy punching walls or screaming incoherent threats at traffic. The media's main concern appears to be that enthusiastic gamers can't differentiate between games and the real world, so violent games will result in violent behavior. But anyone who has the cognitive faculties to purchase, set up and operate modern games consoles won't have trouble differentiating between a cartoonish fantasy world and reality.

Paraphrased paragraph:

Dr Vance and his team receive daily reports that video gamers do daily, those reports are about the gamers levels of aggression and violence, and a huge amount of gamers have had a big increase in the level of violence, aggression and anger when they saw an article in a newspaper about video games and violence. The media is obsessed with hardcore games, and claim that they can’t distinguish from the gaming world an the real world, this also mean that violent video games can be a big trouble, because they can cause violence.

Respond:

This article shows us that video games can lead to violence and violence can lead to violent behavior. In my opinion I think that video games aren’t bad and can be helpful sometimes because of three main reasons. First of all, we can learn about historic events by playing videogames. Historic games can be helpful, because of them we learn the whole world’s history and have fun at the same time, which makes our learning experience much more interesting and fun. Second, survival methods can be learned from video games. For example, a seventeen-year-old boy who plays world of war craft went camping with his friends. While walking in the woods with his friends they saw a bear and then he used a tactic that fools the bear into thinking you’re dead and he learned that tactic from world of war craft. If hadn’t played then he would have probably died. Third, from videogames we can meet new friends. For instance, thanks to the online feature that enables players from all over the world to meet and play with each other. In addition, you can build new relationships from all over the world and the advantage to that is that you can learn about other people’s cultures.