How violent movies and games affect young people

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Introduction 

Violent movies and games have gained prominence in the last several years. Many people are watching these movies and playing video games today (Ferguson 2015). My research evaluates the thoughts of young people about violent movies and games and how violent games affect them. There are a lot of conflicting studies done on the issues. There is an observed difference in the manner in which young people think about video games and how the adults view it. The adult people believe that violent movies and games are the roots of rot among the youth. But the young people, on the other hand, believe that there is nothing wrong watching or playing video games with violent content on them (Psychology Today 2018). The essay takes a neutral stance, with open-mindedness considering arguments of conflicting studies done in the past. However, it conceded that young people could be wrong in their thought about violent movies and games content. Still, it maintained that media violence has no negative influence on the youth as a stand-alone factor.

What the youths think about violent movies and games 

I found out that an overwhelming 97% of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 years are reported to have played some form of video games. It demonstrates the extent to which the youth are indulging in such an activity. Of them all, 67% are said to have played video games that have violent content (Commonsensemedia.org, 2020). Critically, young people are exposed to violence because of the video games and movies that they watch. They have to take care not to over-indulge in the activities so that they do not pick up violence from the media. It has been observed that boys are more likely to emulate violent behaviors that they observe n the media than girls. Indeed, buys are more likely to watch movies and play games that have violent content in them. The young people have been asked about what they feel and think about violent movies and video games. The responses attempted to find out if they understood the impacts of media violence on their behavior.

Their answers were categorical and overwhelming. Young people think that watching movies and playing video games is fun. They believe it is exciting and also take it as something to do with friends. Above all, they think that violet movies and games watched to counter boredom. The youths think that not taking movies seriously. The youths think that video games do not make one violent. It is one’s choice to follow the examples that the watch on the movies and games. They further argue that the violent games they watch and play have nothing to do with violent acts (Psychology Today, 2018). They say it is just a game, and no one needs to copy them in real life. They believe that media violence is probably unreal, and the youth needs maturity not to engage in violent acts after watching such violence in movies. They claim that video games do not cause destruction asserting that people do. Studies have been done to find out if violent movies and damages can result in aggression, poor performance in school and lack of empathy(Ferguson 2015). The conclusions have been leaning towards violent movies and games having impacts on the behaviors of the young who watch them. It is suggested that they tend to be aggressive after watching the movies and playing the games since they want to directly imitate the actions on their screen.

Media violence may not result in youth violence 

Other studies dispute the results saying that it is alarmist and misleading (Markey, Markey, & French 2015). They say that there is no evidence about the relationship between increased movie sales and increase violence and crime in society. They assert that violence rates have decreased even though there has been a mammoth increase in sales of violent videos. They deduce that there could be an inverse relationship between an increased number of youths watching violent movie and game content and the rates of crime and violence reported in society.

Research that has been conducted on violent movies and games are prone to false negatives and positives. In that regard, they are likely to lead to faulty conclusions about the entire issue. These studies have been affected by publication bias (Ferguson 2007). He says studies or articles that perpetuate the idea that violent moves and games promote aggression and violent behaviors among the youths are given the first precedence in publication. Many publishers believe that such an article will be well received by the readers (Ferguson 2015). But the result is biased towards a negative attitude towards movies and games that exhibit the slightest violent content. They argue that there is no link between violent games and movies and negative outcomes.

Kaplan says that violence on the media has increased exponentially to dangerous proportions. Today, it is everywhere in movies, games, and TVs, etc. It is estimated that about 66% of all TV contents have some physical violence aspect. The average American youth spends five hours a day watching videos. About 98% of these videos are watched on TV (Kaplan 2012). They are likely to watch violent content given the rate at which they appear in movies. It will be remembered that the rate of violence has decreased over the years. But the public perception is that violence will increase as many youths continue to watch movies with such content.

There was a violent crime victimization rate decrease by 40% from 2001 to 2010. It also shows that the murder rate dropped by 50% from 9.8 per 100,000 people to just five between 1991 and 2009 (US Bureau of Justice Statistics 2020). These are statistics that show that violence has decreased. The assumption is that the youth are more likely to poise violent stances than adults. For instance, in 1999, two teenage boys murdered a teacher, 12 classmates and injured another 21 people at the Columbine High School in Colorado. After the event they also killed themselves. Investigation showed that the boys lived in a pathological environment that only knew violence and crime as a way of life.

Media violence as one of the factors linked to youth aggression  

There is a similar association between media violence and aggression across cultures. Within a high-risk population, violent games are usually linked with violent antisocial behaviors among youths (Anderson et al. 2017). If youths are exposed to fast-paced violent games, it triggers their brain, changing their function when processing violent images. There is a link between media violence and aggression. But one study further shows that media violence is not the only factor promoting the influence on the youths (Gentile & Bushman 2012). It is one among other factors such as physical victimization, physical fights, low parental involvement and bias towards hostility. Gentile says that there is an 80% chance that young people, who engage in violence are a boy, have fought in the past year and have consumed media violence. It is proof to help understand that media violence alone does not influence violence in the youths, fighting and consuming media violence are also factors that lead to negative impacts of aggression.

It is argued that the best single predictor of aggression is past aggression. The implication is that aggressive youths who watch violent films and play violent games are likely to be violent in society. On the other hand, non-aggressive youths who watch violent videos may not take up the vice since it is not in them. It explains their thinking that these could just be games or movies and nothing more could happen to influence them into violence. Other predictors are violent media exposure and if an individual was a victim of aggression in the past (Anderson et al. 2017). Critically, these ideas were raised to cool down the arguments for media violence being the prime cause of increased violence in society. Youths who watched video games at the beginning of a school year are 25% more likely to engage in a fight during the year. It did not matter whether they fought in the previous year. It is also said that 8% of gamers have serious problems with their habit. They are influenced by the video games that they play.

Conclusion 

My research conceded that young people could be wrong in their thought about violent movies and games content. But it acknowledged that as a lone factor, media violence has no negative influence on the youth. The youths thought video games do not cause violence asserting and that only people do.Violence rates have decreased even though there has been a mammoth increase in sales of violent videos. There could be an inverse relationship between an increased number of youths watching violent movie and game content and the rates of crime and violence reported in society.Youths that engage in violence probably are a boy, have fought in the past year and have consumed media violence. There is a link between media violence and aggression. But media violence is not the only factor promoting the influence on the youths. Others are physical victimization, physical fights, low parental involvement, and bias towards hostility.

References

Anderson, CA, Bushman, BJ, Bartholow, BD, Cantor, J, Christakis, D, Coyne, SM, Donnerstein, E, Brockmyer, JF, Gentile, DA, Green, CS and Huesmann, R 2017, “Screen violence and youth behavior”, Pediatrics, vol. 140, no. 2, pp. S142-S147.

Commonsensemedia.org 2020, Does Exposure To Violent Movies Or Video Games Make Kids More Aggressive? [Online] Commonsensemedia.org. Available at: <https://www.commonsensemedia.org/violence-in-the-media/does-exposure-to-violent-movies-or-video-games-make-kids-more-aggressive> [Accessed 14 April 2020].

Ferguson, CJ 2007, “Evidence for publication bias in video game violence effects literature: A meta-analytic review”, Aggression and Violent behavior, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 470-482.

Ferguson, CJ 2015, “Does media violence predict societal violence? It depends on what you look at and when”, Journal of Communication, vol. 65, no. 1, pp. E1-E22.

Gentile, DA and Bushman, BJ 2012, “Reassessing media violence effects using a risk and resilience approach to understanding aggression”, Psychology of Popular Media Culture, vol. 1, no. 3, p. 138.

Kaplan, A 2012, “Violence in the media: what effects on behavior?”, Psychiatric times, vol. 29, no. 10, pp. 1-1.

Markey, PM, Markey, CN and French, JE 2015, “Violent video games and real-world violence: Rhetoric versus data”, Psychology of Popular Media Culture, vol. 4, no. 4, p. 277.

Psychology Today 2018, Do Violent Video Games Make Kids More Violent?. [Online] Psychology Today. Available at: <https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/evidence-based-living/201807/do-violent-video-games-make-kids-more-violent> [Accessed 14 April 2020].

US Bureau of Justice Statistics 2020, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) – National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). [Online] Bjs.gov. Available at: <https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=245> [Accessed 14 April 2020].

Literature review of sources