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Caleb McKinney Louis Ann Abraham Video Game Paper Game Works What are we doing to our teenagers in American society' With all the exposure to the media, there is no possible way we can keep teens from witnessing certain things. Some may say this is the cause of aggression and violence. For many years people have been wondering what really makes our adolescents aggressive or violent. Over decades there have been books and articles explaining theories of what makes teenagers become violent. With all their research they have drawn the conclusion that it’s from what we allow our children to witness. Dave Grossman, On Killing, believes that when we let our children view or partake in violent video gaming we open a gateway to aggressive and violent behavior. He says just like army conditioning, video gaming desensitizes the player from the emotions of killing. This means by letting our children play these types of games we are training them to be killers. Aggression refers to a feeling of hostility that arouses thoughts of attack. It is safe to say that there are many things besides violent video games that trigger aggression, for example, a child not having their way, conflict with another peer, getting a bad grade, etc. Violence is an action intended to cause destruction, pain, or suffering to another being. So do violent video games really cause destruction, pain, or suffering to others from the person playing the game' In years to come, just as all technology will be more advance, video gaming will also have an innovative approach. We would have virtual technology in our home. I can see the commercial for it now. In a convincing voice, “it will be a world away from the real world, cyber-land.” What would that do to our society' Would it cause an increase in aggression and violence in our world because it seems so real' Grossman would say that it may be used as a boot camp simulator. He claims that playing violent video games eliminates the conscious of a person’s killing intuition, making it easier to pull the trigger. “Does Game Violence Make Teens Aggressive,” by Kristin, Kalning involved a combined study with the researchers from Indiana University school of Medicine, to test and see aggression levels in adolescences playing certain types of games. One was a violent was game and the second a harmless racing game. They immediately brain scanned the adolescence after a session of game playing. Their study showed that there was a significant difference in the brain activity when playing violent video games. They came to the conclusion that, “kids who played violent video games show an increase in emotional arousal and a corresponding decrease of activity in the brain areas involved in self-control, inhibition and attention. ” Does this mean that violent games make adolescence want to kill after playing, or even fight, for that matter' I believe that people play games just for entertainment purpose. It doesn’t make sense to me that we are being “desensitized” by violent video games. It may cause an increase in emotional arousal like stated earlier, but that can be merely from the excitement of playing the game. From my experience with playing Violent games such as Grand Theft Auto, I play in a vigorous manner. In this game they have gangs, drugs, and a load of killing. When I’m playing games like this one I never associate the real world with computer images. So to say I want to kill someone, or sell drugs after playing is another form of stereotyping. Because of the columbine shooting, people assume that the same game will affect everyone who plays it the same way it did him. Through my research on the effect violent gaming, I found that mostly everyone believed that playing violent video games made adolescents more susceptible to violence in our society. In the article “Being Strong,” by Gerald Jones, he looked at violent video games in a more positive way. He says that adolescents playing video games enjoy doing so because it connects to them in some way, whether it being a stress reliever, or a way to leave the real world problems. He emphasizes all the beneficial things playing games such as “shoot em up” games can be for teens. “This outlet makes children feel stronger, able to fight their way through emotional challenges, and lift themselves to higher development levels,” he states. He believed that adults put their fear on the youth. Those teens aren’t playing to plot another Virginia Tech shooting, but they just want to enjoy life and play. If parents really don’t understand why our youth choose to play certain games, they should ask the children how it feels to them when they play those types of games. I think they would come to find out that playing violent games may just be an outlet of self-expression. Picture it as being creative in a different but effective way. Jones says that children are learning strategies by beating the game, the best way to use their attention skills, and a way to escape real world violence. I say let kids be kids. I wonder why would stores release games and make the ratings for teens if they are too violent for them to play. Better yet why don’t they just stop selling and making violent video games as a whole' It’s because of the great deal of money the country makes by developing and releasing these games. Teenagers are their main targets so getting rid of games that make large profits would never be an option. According to the article, “Keep Violent Games Away From Our Kids,” video game makers want to sell violent video games by advertising mature games in adolescent’s magazines, selling action figures and other action figures, toys that appeal to them, based on such games. With this being the case the producers are going out their way to find more appealing ways to sell their product. More, more, more, is what our country has developed into. Everything has to be bigger and better than the past, nothing is ever good enough. So they say let us fight violence with violence by making games more violent. I can see why parents and others may have a skeptic belief about violent games being beneficial. The article says that it is the parents’ duties to stop the youth from playing these types of games. There will always be violence in our world. It really is just a way of life, and we cannot blame video games for it being the root of our problem. In order to understand what causes violence we would first have to accept that violence will always be around, whether they are banned, or the youth partaking in them. So let kids express their creative side any way that works for them.