Connor Winkle
November 7, 2012
ENG 111
Mrs. Betsy Woods
Writer’s Later
When beginning to write this persuasive essay, I struggled with making a decision
on my topic. I didn’t know if I wanted to tell a personal story to make a point or not.
Then, thinking to myself, I couldn’t come up with a personal story that would persuade
people to do something. I saw a documentary on the television about the Columbine High
School incident. After watching some of it, I decided to persuade parents and children to
stay away from violent video games because there may be consequences that weren’t
recognizable at first. I even chose to put information and beliefs about the Columbine
occurrences into the essay because it gives a strong opinion about how violent video
games can affect children.
In this persuasive essay, I chose to use three sources in order to bring some logos
and ethos in the essay because I didn’t know as much about this topic as I do now. I
attempted to strike the emotion of the readers by using the Columbine incident as a
reference to why not to buy violent video games for children. I used a very descriptive
and supported argument in order to set a meaningful tone. My main audience is the
parents who choose to buy these types of games for the children. I chose this as my
audience because many parents may not be aware of the negative effects that these games
can have on their children. While they may think that their children won’t be hypnotized
by virtual realities, I chose to give them more evidence and support that could possibly
persuade them to do differently. Altogether, I used logos, pathos, and ethos to make a
strong case on why parents and children should avoid buying and playing these violent,
graphic, and explicit video games.
The Effect Violent Video Games Has On Children
Violent video games have an effect on children in many ways. These types of
video games can desensitize children to believe that murdering people, doing drugs, and
having sex are not critical actions in real life. Being shown these things and being able to
control characters that undergo such actions can cause these children to become used to
these things. When shown something over and over, it tends to become a more normal
experience. Many people believe that these video games do not actually have a direct
impact on children and that it is truly dependent on the type of personality the kid has;
however, there are many therapists and psychologists that believe otherwise.
Many researchers have conducted studies in order to show that violent video
games can in fact cause desensitization to violence and cause aggression. Bruce
Bartholow, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Missouri, did one of
the studies. Bartholow did an experimental study where he gave a kid a nonviolent game
or a violent one. After having the children play for twenty-five minutes, he gave the kids
a collection of photographs. These photographs showed violence in some and
nonviolence in some. While undergoing this procedure, Bartholow measured brain
responses during the viewing of photos (HCP Live Network 1). “Researchers used
reduced brain response to the violent photos—an indicator of desensitization— as a
predictor of the aggression levels of their participants” (HCP Live Network 1).
Bartholow used the measurements to show that a smaller brain response to the violent
photographs meant there was more aggression and desensitization. Every parent tries to
limit what their children see in order to protect them until they mature, yet parents allow
their child to play these violent games where they “could suffer from desensitization and
become accustomed to violent behavior as their brains are forming” (HCP Live Network
1).miami
On April 20th, 1999, the Columbine shooting occurred. Two kids, Eric Harris and
Dylan Klebold, “launched an assault on Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado,
murdering 13 and wounding 23 before turning the guns on themselves” (Shin 1). There
was nothing that proved that the shooting was caused by violent video games; however,
the two kids did play many of these types of games (Shin 1). This example where a
shooting may have been caused by playing violent video games causes us to be aware
that there may be a direct causation between playing violent games and becoming more
violent.
“The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which tracks Internet hate groups, found in its
archives a copy of Harris' web site with a version of Doom. He had customized it
so that there were two shooters, each with extra weapons and unlimited
ammunition, and the other people in the game could not fight back” (Shin 1).
The fact that Eric Harris customized a game where he killed people that couldn’t fight
back supports the belief that maybe partaking in these games can cause desensitization.
Obviously, when the shooting occurred, the students being targeted could indeed not
protect themselves due to the fact that these two students had weapons. Just like in
Harris’s customized game, he was killing people that couldn’t fight back. True, this may
only be a correlation, but there is doubt in saying that this is a mere coincidence.
“For a class project, Harris and Klebold made a videotape that was similar to their
customized version of Doom. In the video, Harris and Klebold were dressed in
trench coats, carried guns, and killed school athletes. They acted out their
videotaped performance in real life less than a year later” (Shin 1).
There is not a correlation here. The videotape showing two characters dressed up and
shooting school athletes can only portray that there is causation between playing this
violent video game and making the actions come to life. The video game must have had
an effect on the two students because they acted out the same things that were being done
in the game.
Nowadays, there are more violent and more realistic video games made that
attract children to them. These games show graphic images of killing, drugs, and sex, yet
parents buy these games for their kids and let them become witnesses to this violence.
“Research shows that children are also spending increasing amounts of time playing
them: an average of 13 hours per week for boys and five hours for girls” (Dr.Phil.com 1).
The amount of time spent playing these games has to have an impact on children because
something shown to you regularly can cause you to be desensitized to these type of things
or actions. “According the American Psychological Association, violent video games can
increase children's aggression” (Dr.Phil.com 1). In accordance to that, Dr. Phil states that
in most cases kids will externalize the emotions through an act of aggression or violence
rather than expressing or talking about them (Dr.Phil.com 1). These children ‘“do use
more aggressive language, they do use more aggressive images, they have less ability to
control their anger and they externalize things in these violent ways. It's absolutely not
good,"’ says Dr. Phil” (Dr.Phil.com 1). Dr. Phil proclaims that these video games are not
okay for young children to be exposed to, and he urges parents not to allow these types of
things because the children don’t know the true effects it could have.
Children with young, immature minds should not play violent video games until
they are old enough to understand and realize that these actions occurring in the games
are not ones to be toyed with. Parents shouldn’t buy these games for their kids because
many kids become desensitized to reality. Any violent video game can cause aggression
in the player. The point is to not play these video games until you are mature enough.
Parents shouldn’t be providing these things to their children because you never know
what may actually happen in that child’s mind. In certain cases, these dangerous and
violent video games can cause desensitization and aggression in a young child.
Works Cited
Shin, Grace. "Video Games: A Cause of Violence and Aggression." Serendip Studio.
N.p., 4 Jan. 2008. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
<http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1723>.
"Violent Video Games Desensitize Brain to Violence, Increase Aggressiveness." HCP
Live Network. N.p., 26 May 2011. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
<http://www.hcplive.com/articles/Violent-Videogames-Desensitize-Brain-toViolence-Increase-Aggressiveness->.
"Parenting: Children and Violent Video Games." Dr. Phil.com. Peteski Productions,
2012. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. <http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/297>.