Well I can’t believe I feel the need to write this. I honestly thought this whole idea had been already delved into and discarded as nonsense. But thanks to the conservative push back against doing anything decent and sensible regarding gun control, they are once again touting that violent video games are the cause of violence. Here’s Trump himself talking about this on CNN: www.cnn.com/…
So many believe that it is true too. However, studies (and there are so many to cite) show this is not true. Huffpost did an article on this last year (here), and many other news sources have too. Heck, it’s been looked at so often as a cause of violence, that even Penn & Teller’s infamous show Bullsh*t, even took an in-depth look at the claims (season 7, episode 3 for anyone interested). Yet, no one out there has ever found a causal link. To quote one of the researchers on Bullsh*t, “Video games are such a commonplace item today in homes, that finding a link between them and violence is like saying toothpaste or water is responsible.”
The truth of this whole subject is that video games have actually found to be a great outlet and stress reliever for those who enjoy them. It has been found that in the days and weeks following the release of violent games, we see a decrease in violent crime rates (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/...). If you watch the episode I cited above by Penn & Teller, you will even see at the end they ask a 9 year old boy who loves violent games to go out with trained experts and fire real military style weapons. They end the episode by showing what really happened after it was all over though: the boy sobbing in fear in his mom’s arms. Because the truth is even young kids can tell the difference between games and reality.
I’m a mom, a wife, and a long-time gamer (if you go back, I’ve even written other posts about the subject), I know games and I know gamers of all ages, races, and backgrounds. Most of them are actually fairly introverted, but enjoy the things gaming can bring to your life, including socializing. I know this part is all anecdotal and very personal, but the people I know who play games are often the geeky or nerdy people who also enjoy a lot of table top games as well. They watch Doctor Who and many of them even feel somewhat awkward in large social groups, so gaming and geek culture is their method of socializing in a safe and fun place. I’m in my 30s, but I remember my brother playing D&D and being so ostracized at one point because a huge bunch of people in the US were touting it as the devil’s work. Yet, he never did anything violent. Back then, he played in the high school jazz band and even rewrote our high school’s anthem (which is still used today). He served in the Navy later, and went on to become an engineer. In all that time, he played violent video games. But he was picked on in school, just like me. I was teased and ostracized, but video games were a great release for me. I actually wonder if I did not have the therapeutic effects of gaming, if I might not have hurt myself back in those days. And often it was only sitting in a room with other gamers that I felt accepted and liked as a school kid.
When you combine those pieces of my real life with the positive impact gaming has had along with those studies showing decreases in violence after new games get released, I actually wonder if games may truly save us from a lot of would-be tragedies. Of course that’s pure speculation on my part, but what I do know is that pointing our fingers at violent games, movies, tv, or music is not the answer. Sensible gun control is. Other countries out there have many gamers too, and do not see the violence we do here. It is not the media or our hobbies or even mental illness (although that does also need to be solved), it is guns. Every modern country out there knows this already, but yet somehow we are stuck here in la-la land blaming anything and everything else except the one thing that is the issue. I want to voice myself along with the students and survivors of all the mass shootings that have happened and say “Enough is enough! Stop pushing the blame around when we know how to solve this already! Just fix it!”