this title makes me realized somthing...
from www.jaesonma.com
I can’t lie. I must confess that I like to play video games! In fact, I used to host a video game TV show, that’s how much I like to play! Video games can be a lot of fun, but at the same time certain video games can be very dangerous. The videos games I started out playing in the 1990’s (Atari, Nintendo, Sega Genesis, etc) are very different from the video games that young people have access to playing today. I used to play harmless games like “Duck Hunt” and “Super Mario Brothers.” Today, they have games like “Grand Theft Auto” (where you get to play a street gangster that kills, steals, and destroys society) or games like “Resident Evil” (where you literally mass murder, mutilate and genocide people and demons) things have definitely changed since the first hit video game Pac Man!
Don’t get me wrong, I believe there are a lot of great video games out today that are harmless, good fun and a great entertainment experience. At the same time, there are video games out there today that can seriously cause damage not only to the person playing it, but sadly others. There have been many case studies proving that violent video games produce violent behavior in young people. Many of the mass school killings in North America that have been carried out by students, have been proven to be influenced by excessive violent video game playing.
A research done in 2000 revealed that playing violent video games can increase a person’s aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Two studies were conducted by psychologists Craig Anderson and Karen Dill published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that looked at the effects of violent video games in the lab and in real life. The results of these two studies presented that indeed there was persuasive evidence that violence in video games do increase aggression in some, but not all those who play it. The psychologist performed two studies one in the real world and the other in the lab. Both studies resulted in factual findings that students or young people exposed to long periods of time in playing violent video games would act out in delinquent behaviors or act on violent or aggressive traits. They even used the Columbine High School shooting with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (where more than a dozen innocent students were shot and killed) as an example of how violent video games influenced their planned massacre. It was discovered that they modified a version of the violent video game “Doom” on their computer where there were two shooters, extra weapons and the other people in the game couldn’t shoot back. Sadly, they essentially acted out this game at Columbine High School.
It is clear that violence in video games has a direct influence and correlation with young people behaving violently. With these facts, we must as a society do what we can to limit these kinds of games from being distributed, made and played. If I knew that a video game my son was playing was causing him to not only hurt others, but possibly murder and kill would I let him keep playing that game? Certainly not! We need to be proactive in speaking out against violent video games being made, we must also make sure that we educate youth on these games negative effects. In this postmodern generation many spend more time socializing with a video game than they do with actual people. Life for a youth is isolated, individualistic and focused on ones own experience. Whether that is through at TV show, movie, video game or something else, we need to encourage and show young people that God’s purpose for their lives can be more entertaining than these life absorbing and fruitless activities, especially violence in media or video games.
If you are a young person reading this, trust me, video games are fun, but don’t become addicted to them. There are plenty of fun things to do with your time. Don’t waste your time use it wisely, productively and creatively. Video games absorb your creative talent and potential to do things that actually make a lasting difference. Instead of getting brain fried on video games all day, you should instead use your brains and gifts to change the world, help somebody, invent something, read a good book, serve your community, pursue your dreams and seek to know God more. There is nothing more entertaining than giving your life to a purpose and cause worth dying and living for!
God bless,
Jaeson Ma
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