This past week Grand Theft Auto 5 was released and reached over $1 billion in sales in just over three days. When I saw this, the first thing I thought was that it was a sad commentary on our society. This week I’ll share my view of video games and discuss problems I see with their popularity; especially violent ones.
Growing up, I played video games. I didn’t play a ton, but we had the original Nintendo, a Game Boy, and then Sega. Once I got to high school I quit playing video games about the time the James Bond 007 game came out. I remember all my friends playing it all the time but it never did anything for me, and I thought it was boring. I didn’t play video games in college and don’t now either. We don’t even own a gaming system in our house. I understand it can be great entertainment for some, and even provide great educational resources. However, most of the popular games contain the killing of people or animals, drug use, criminal behavior, sexual exploitation, and obscene language. What bothers me is that too many kids are growing up playing violent video games and spending way too much time doing so. I think that today’s kids spend too much time playing video games and not enough time outside playing real games.
I’m not saying all video games are bad. I’m not saying playing video games are bad. I am saying that the rate at which our society plays violent video games is bad.
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One of the problems I have with video games is that I think it desensitizes our kids to violence. I’m not saying just because a kid plays video games that they’re going to be a violent criminal; that’s just not true. What I am saying is that kids who are continuously exposed to violent forms of media are more likely to act out aggressively and problem solve with violence. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology, children who play violent video games are likely “to show more aggressive behavior, become numb to violence, accept violence as a way to solve problems, and imitate the violence they see.”
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