Article 1

             The article over violent video games and its effects on youth, goes into great detail on exactly what the title says. The article begins by creating a timeline of video games and how they have progressively become more and more violent. The reason they have become more violent is because that is what sells. Nintendo released a cleaner version of the game Mortal Kombat than their competitor Sega. Sega in turn sold more games than Nintendo. When a later version was released and Nintendo kept the gore, they sold more copies. After this timeline is set up in the reading, the article then describes the studies held on the effects on children. There are three types of studies; experimental, correlational, and longitudinal. Experimental studies are when people are assigned to groups such as violent games and non-violent games. Once the groups are separated and people have had time to play the game, they are given tests and their aggression is calculated. In a correlational study, there is a basic two and two together sort of idea. In that I mean that if a child plays more video games they are more likely to be aggressive. This ranges from physical fights to arguing with the teacher. The kids that tend to play more violent games tend to show trait hostility. The third study is longitudinal, this is the study done at two points in time and the change shown. Each study is best done when there is a large sample size of over 200 people, the difficulty level in the non-violent games and the violent games are equal, and there is a clear and valid description of aggression. All the studies proved the more video games played, the more aggressive people were. The article continues to answer some of the other variables that come to mind while reading the article. It states that the amount of time playing video games affects the study. It later states that age does affect the study as well. The article continues to implicate ways to help the issue with public policy, parental responsibility, and a good ratings system. The article finishes with a couple of graphs showing male and female aggression when they play violent video games, and states that the debate is over. The conclusion sums up that the debate is over that the studies are conclusive and that there needs to be strict public policy implicated.

                As I read the article, I was very skeptical. I tried to maintain an open mind. As I grew up my family really did not sensor much of what I watched or what games I played. As I read about the studies I felt that it was sort of common sense. I wondered if there were studies that included the amount of time children played the video games. The article later addressed that this was a variable that could change outcomes. I also thought that people or children cannot devote their time to video games. Of course this will create an asocial personality. I can admit I played most of the games on the timeline, including Mortal Kombat (I own the newer version now) and Doom. I was terrified of Doom when I was a kid. I have played violent video games for years and I don’t believe that it made me any more aggressive. There are times that I do struggle with the thought distortion that every negative action presented by another person derives from hostile intent, but I believe or at least I tell myself that it is a victim complex to think that way. A person can spend hours playing video games but it is vital to maintain healthy person to person interaction. We cannot look at video games for how to live our lives. If anything I see my Call of Duty game as an outlet. I also believe in the experimental studies that it only makes sense that after someone plays an aggressive video game that they will be more competitive. I have had very heated games of Uno that left me feeling aggressive afterwards. My point is that a person cannot base their lives off violent videos games and that is where their parents come in and shut the game off and give them reality. Lastly, I do not believe children should play violent video games. When my daughter is a teenager and has gathered a strong idea of right and wrong, then I will let her explore those outlets. Until then, she will be stuck with Mario and Zelda just like I was.