What the Media Says

Lately one of the favorite topics of the media is about how video games are causing violence and ruining lives at an alarming rate. There have been a few cases in which murderers were killing on an impulse or curiosity derived from a game. Depression is another common “symptom” of this video game fever, which is often followed by addiction. Oh video game developers, why do you poison our youth?

What is Really Happening

In a world where war is raging, threats of global warming, and every other doomsday theory is running rampant, there are more factors than just video games. Much of today’s entertainment expresses violent ideals, video games, movies, television shows, etc. Video games seem to be the scape goat for all of these media types, because video games make the violence “interactive”, which is inaccurate. Yes, in video game you are the one pressing that darn button to shoot that virtual cluster of pixels that looks like some bad guy or any other common target. The problem with saying this promotes violence is like saying that the youth of today are incapable of separating reality from a virtual reality. The media also chooses to grab extreme cases of people that clearly needed mental help far before video games could have ever affected their lives. A favorite is the linking of the Columbine Shooting to playing “Doom”, a shoot-em up type game.

How nice of the media to also make us all aware of the fact that video games are causing depression and severe addiction. Well, when what you see is all telling you that if you don’t die of factor X, then you are going to die of factor Y, but that is only if you don’t get killed by factor Z before anything else happens, then why would you not be depressed? What does this upcoming generation have to look forward to? A failing economy, threats of doomsday from so many different factors, and threats of invasion from that big bully, China. This is a great way to kill optimism and hope, thus creating depression. Video games offer an escape from this terrible world we live in, so people just keep going back for more, much like a drug. The only difference, is that if parents were more aware of these “problem children” then they would know they need professional help to overcome their disease instead of self medication. The question for you to think about now is, if people can’t determine what is real and what is not real, do you think they are a good case study for why video games are the work of the devil?