In his article “Do Video Games Inspire Violent Behavior” Greg Toppo questions whether violent video games provoke aggression in real life. Toppo discusses different investigations held by various researchers who try to find out how these games may affect young players. The author tries to provide different opinions regarding this problem and draws his own conclusions.
All in all, Toppo’s main claim lies in the fact that there are no true evidences that violent video games inspire violent behavior. The author believes that such games may be served as a diagnostic tool as aggressive people are more drawn to such games. At the same time video games is only a play or, as Toppo states, a simulation. So, if a child fights in a game it does not necessarily mean that one would like to do it in real life.
As for his reasoning, Toppo claims that there are no scientific evidences that video games with violent content contribute to aggressive behavior. The author also provides an argument made by a psychologist Albert Bandura, who with the help of an experiment found out that those children who observed a mistreatment of a toy (clown Bobo) for a certain period of time, were more likely to repeat such behavioral pattern. However, Toppo proposes counterargument, claiming that “there is no evidence to suggest that punching an inflatable clown has any connection to real-life violence” (Toppo).
It is worth considering that there is a logical connection between the author’s reasons and evidences. Moreover, all of his reasons support his claim. First of all, the author tries to be objective and provides different views to the problem. Second, it is true that there is no evidence that playing aggressive video games would encourage rude and aggressive behavior in real life.
In order to prove his position, Toppo uses statistics, claiming that according to the U.S. Department of Justice “as violent video games proliferated in recent years, the number of violent youthful offenders fell – by more than half between 1994 and 2010” (Toppo). This statistics clearly shows that playing these games doesn't inspire violent behavior in real life.
In general, it is possible to agree with Toppo's claim that violent games don't provoke aggression. In fact, there are no real evidences that those who fight in a game will do it real life.
It should be also noted that the author's reasoning sounds quite strong as well. Thus, many researchers and psychologists try to prove that video games can provoke rude and aggressive behavior. However, their arguments seem to be misleading. The thing is that none of the studies proves that these games contributed to violence in real world. Of course, they produce a certain affect on people. But at the same time they understand that it is only a game and has nothing to do with reality.
It is also possible to say that Toppo sounds rather convincing as his claim is supported with evidence. For this, the author provides data, according to which despite the popularity of the games with violent content, the number of aggressive young offenders fell. It is clear that there is logic in the author's claim.
The statistics provided by the author is rather useful as it shows that violent video games don't turn young people into criminals and don't provoke aggressive behavior. Furthermore, if a child has no problems with his emotional state, one can understand that a game is just a game and there is no need to do the same things in real life. Indeed, people shouldn't forget that kids are intelligent enough to distinguish between the world of fantasy and reality.
Works cited
Toppo, Greg. “Do Video Games Inspire Violent Behavior”. Scientific American. 1 Jul. 2015 Web. 29 Jan. 2015.
