There are any number people who would never consider video games to be a problem of any kind. They might think, what harm there can be in a game? Games have always existed and always attracted people. Moreover, in our advanced computerized age, the game might be considered as one of many contemporary forms of entertainment that just give us relaxation, relief, rest, or a distraction from our everyday routine. But is this a sensible and intelligent approach? On the contrary, from a psychological perspective, video games present a number of concerns that show that they are, or can be, more problematic than just a relaxing form of entertainment. In other words, video games are psychologically harmful.
Video games raise the degree of violence in the game player’s mind. To better understand this aspect of their danger, some background it necessary. First, video games are mostly popular among teenagers and young people. Using the data from the Pew Research Center, it is possible to confirm that about 97% of teens often spend their free time playing video games. Of the video games that teens play, a great majority prefer action and adventure games. These are the games which are famous for bloody and violent scenes and activities (“Violent video games and young people”). Accordingly, this is a cause of worry, not only because the popularity of the games, but their character as well. The characters are interactive, so they involve the player into the action as if it is some real activity. Hence, the game player should develop his aggressiveness to meet the competitive nature of the game. He wants to win, that’s why he must be blood-thirsty and not at all thinks about his opponent’s feelings or concerns. It is also necessary to highlight the gender structure of the game players. According to the official data, the majority of action game players are men of different ages (Kleinman, “Violent video games and young people”).
Psychologists and parents may worry or not, but video games have become an industry, and a mighty one at that. In fact, it is an industry which brings the games’ authors a handsome profit. Besides, this profit allows involving the professional web designers, artists, actors and other high-rank specialists in the process of game creation. Consequently, such games are becoming better and better in all aspects of their quality and thus more attractive for the players. Thus, this factor causes the emotional issue. Any person who has made an unwelcome interruption of a game player while they are at some crucial point in the game, has most likely experienced the shock and pain of being shouted at, cursed or even bullied. An interrupted game player often demonstrates rude and wild behavior, even to his closest friends. He often would not listen to anything while he is playing. So, nobody can deny that these games are absorbing. Then the question arises: what is the player concentrated on while playing? The answer is simple and evident: he is focused on the fight, chasing the enemy and searching for the ways of destroying this enemy in the shortest possible time. The logic of such games is based on the philosophies of hunting. In other words, if you are not a hunter, you are the game; and nobody wants to be a victim. The game is time-consuming too. Most often video game players don’t notice the hours flying away. Hence, for hours and hours people (mostly very young people) are deep in the state of aggressive chasing and murdering of their video enemies, not permitting themselves any sympathy or warm feelings for anything in the game because they would lose! And it seems to be an important observation, as nobody knows exactly how such a particular long-term emotional state affects the player’s mind. Therefore, it is difficult to understand the direction of the player's strivings and the methods he would choose to solve his personal conflicts. Indeed, Anders Breivik, the man who had shot 77 random people in Norway in 2011, for example, admitted that in the process of preparing for his crime, he was guided by his experience of the first-person shooter in a popular video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (“The contested field of violent video-games: Research roundup”). The results of another research on school violence showed that about 50% of attackers at schools admitted their interest in video games and other kinds of violent media. It is such examples that serve as the most convincing evidence that video games bring evil, making people more aggressive and depriving them of sympathy and other warm feelings. And it is important to remember that within all the time devoted to playing these aggressive video games players are absent from all other kinds of activity. However, this time could be devoted to more humane entertainment, such as sports, taking care of animals, family talks, reading books, learning arts, gardening, and dozens of other activities which do not presuppose aggressiveness or violence.
Violence in video games possesses one more (and probably not the last) worry and danger. The matter is that much in these games is a make-belief: in real life people can’t jump down from the roof of a three-storied building undamaged and go running further on, but in the game it is a norm. No person can knock his head and back hard against a wall or rock, shake himself lightly and continue chasing his enemy; though in the games it happens again and again. There is hardly any vehicle which can crash thick tree trunks like grass blades and continue its way at a high speed chasing the enemy; however, it is a typical episode in most games. And a player, especially a young and inexperienced one, is very likely to develop an entirely wrong idea that some of such things may really happen that they do happen. This player very often doesn’t realize that most blows exchanged in video game fights are in fact lethal if given or received in reality. Thus, the boundary line between a fight and murder, between necessary defense and its violation is not understood and felt. And it brings the possible danger of severe aggressiveness in solving the every-day problems.
Besides, there is an educational aspect of the issue in question: usually games develop individual skills and can develop a player’s outlook to some extent. Is it possible to answer positively such a question referring to video games: what do they teach or develop, is their content really useful for a contemporary person? There are dozens and hundreds of video games now, exercised with the very high technical and artistic quality. If we consider several very popular games, like Dead Island 2, Doom, Dying Light, Counter Strike; what particular useful skills except virtuoso operating a computer mouse do they develop? How are the games helpful in developing the experiences a player obtains in playing them? Are the games only benefit, if that what it can be called, that they provide a player with the feeling of being a master in the hellish scenarios that are often part of the game? Alternatively, perhaps it is regular nightmares and nervousness during the daytime and the desire to get away from one’s daily worries and duties and escape into that imaginary video world? There can be very many doubts as to the educational value of playing video games, as well as concerning the possible direction of a player’s personal development under their influence. The examples mentioned above and evidence seem to support these doubts and may explain the worries of parents and educationalists who care about the inner world and values of the younger generation as concerns the popularity of video games. Many specialists would claim that the growth of aggressiveness and violence is determined by a whole set of risk factors and reasons of various kinds (“Do video games make people violent?”). However, the general feeling and belief are unmistakable: playing video games really contribute as one of such risk factors. Thus, the issue of the video games deserves much public and professional attention, study and concern.
In conclusion, I would like to state that I really believe in the contribution of video games’ popularity into the growth of aggressiveness in personal and public behavior. It is a serious risk factor, and each individual should define his/her attitude to video games as to one’s own involvement and as a possible activity of close people: family members, friends, present or future children. I believe, there exist hundreds of possibilities to entertain or distract a person, if necessary, excluding video games as such, especially entertaining aggressive video games. Perhaps, avoiding such video games can make us happier.
Works Cited
Kleinman, Zoe. Do video games make people violent? BBC News. August 17, 2015. Web. 17April 2016.
“The contested field of violent video games: Research roundup”. September 8, 2013.Web. 17April 2016.
“Violent video games and young people”. Harvard Mental Health Letter. October 1, 2010.
Web. 17April 2016.
