This is a subject that has been brought up a lot lately. Michael Moore mentions it in Bowling For Columbine. Achievement Junkies recently had some great arguments against it on a recent podcast. Please forgive me if I give some of the same reasons they did, but I have some of the same thoughts I’d like to put in my own words.
I’m tired of hearing “Columbine and Virginia Tech where caused by violent media, such as videogames and movies that glamorize violence.” “Children can’t separate reality from fiction as well as adults, so all of today’s children are going to grow up to be mass murderers.” “Today’s kids are so desensitized to violence” “Killing in videogames is training for killing in real life.” “This book, movie, or videogame made this kid crazy.”
First off, I can’t tell what caused tragedies like Columbine and I’m not about to guess.
The media is getting more violent? Violence has always been a part of entertainment. There were gladiators before, King Arthur and his knights spilled blood freely in books before, and there have been songs about revenge for as long as their have been songs. It’s just more obvious now.
In a recently Sociology Class discussion about this I argued that children are much better than adults at separating reality from fiction. Some replied with one of those “Are you crazy?” rebuttals. But really, children have imagination, adults don’t. A kid might pretend that they had a friend that was a giant pink elephant, but if they actually saw one they’d probably ask what it was and if it was real. When I was a child I used to play with my Hot Wheels, pretending I was a in a Stock Car Race. If someone asked me what I was doing, you know what I said? “Playing”. Not “Racing in the Daytona 500.” As I child I understood the difference, but I guess most adults just can’t now because they lost their imagination.
Bettleheim has a much more eloquent argument than mine in Understanding Fairy Tales.
Today’s kids are desensitized to fictional violence. A kid could watch a lot of violent martial arts films and not be disturbed by it. But if he saw someone snap someone else’s neck right in front of him, he probably would be disturbed.
I don’t think any game is to the point where it realistic enough that it could train you to do anything very well in real life. I’ve played a lot of shooting games in my life but if you handed me an Anti-Aircraft Gun and told me to take down some helicopter, I a) wouldn’t really know how to use it and b) would probably be scared of killing myself and everyone around me. But you know what? I’ve taken down about 15 helicopters in Ghost Recon so I must be desensitized to violence.
Apparently some kid played Grand Theft Auto over and over and over again and then mimicked what he did in the game in real life. He stole a car, was arrested, and then grabbed a police officer’s gun at shot at 3 police officers. When he was brought down for good he said “Life is like a video game, everyone has to die sometime.” Some people are trying to blame the kid’s actions on the game, but the kid’s own statement shows his mental instability, he couldn’t distinguish reality from fiction. Did the game make him mentally unstable or was he already that way and just happened upon a game that encouraged violence and he couldn’t distinguish whether it was real or fiction?
We’ve been told that the Columbine killers watched Natural Born Killers over and over and over again. Firstly there must have been something in their own personalities that attracted them to that movie. The movie didn’t give them their personalities. Additionally, you do anything over and over again you’re probably crazy. If I play the same game of chess without ever changing the moves, I’m probably crazy. If I only ever read one book over and over again. I’m probably crazy. The game of chess or the book didn’t make me crazy, they just show my symptoms.
There’s another thing about violent videogames. They help relieve stress and get rid of aggression. Sometimes you had a terrible day and you just want to go home and pop Nazis in the head. Suppose you didn’t have the outlet of doing it virtually. You may not go out and kill anyone, but you may start a fistfight with someone. Or you may just go home and punch a hole in the wall.
So the next idiot who comes up to me and says something asinine like “videogames are making kids violent”, I’m going to do what I learned from playing the Godfather game. First I’m going to shoot him in the kneecaps to make sure he can’t run. Take out Tire Iron and deck him twice on the head and once in the gut. Then I’m going to push him onto a parked car, throw a Molotov cocktail at the car to blow it up and start a fire. And then watch him try to run around on fire on his busted knee until he burns himself to death.