Gaming & Violence

A story as old as time. “This new fangled typewriter is gonna make people forget how to write!” or whatever else they said back then. I will say, with typing nowadays, writing isn’t becoming a taught skill. I vividly remember being in first grade during the shift when cursive was removed from school. As the years went on, Chromebooks were slowly becoming more and more mainstream in place of pencil and paper. Now, I dropped out and got a GED to graduate high school two years early however during the tail end of my schooling I hardly ever wrote on a paper.

I wrote a paper on the supposed correlation between video games and violence in middle school, needless to say, I am well versed in this subject. Many years later, here I am typing out an article on the same subject as an adult. History does not repeat, it rhymes!

Why is there a belief that gaming causes violence? Because violent people supposedly like violence in their media. Unfortunately, reality is often disappointing. The 2012 Newtown Connecticut sandy hook elementary school shooter played violent games, however his favorite game was said to be Dance Dance Revolution. A dancing and footwork game. (1)

The 1997 West Paducah, Kentucky Heath high school shooter played violent video games as well. The 2019 El Paso Texas Walmart shooter mentioned Call of Duty in his manifesto, as referenced by Dan Patrick, the Texas lieutenant governor at the time. How was the video game series mentioned? (1)

“Remember: it is not cowardly to pick low hanging fruit. AKA Don’t attack heavily guarded areas to fulfill your super soldier COD fantasy. Attack low security targets. Even though you might out gun a security guard or police man, they likely beat you in armor, training and numbers. Do not throw away your life on an unnecessarily dangerous target. If a target seems too hot, live to fight another day.” (2)

I don’t know who had to hear that however, that should be obvious. Unfortunately, the lowest common denominator has to proclaim their intelligence as often as possible. This passage, an exact excerpt from the shooter’s manifesto, sounds like the Syrian government attempting to justify a violent chemical weapons attack against unarmed civilians. This paragraph mentions the Call of Duty Franchise, owned by video game company ‘Activision Blizzard’. This franchise has more than 400 million registered users. If Call of Duty caused violence, why aren’t there more infinitely more shootings?
(3)

How about something more substantial? Mental health has been declining lately. MD Ragy Girgis, is an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry. He released an article reviewing, and ‘debunking’ the theory of a link between mental health and violence. However, his analysis reviewed pure diagnosis.
(4)

Stanford university medical center freelance writer Emma Yasinski wrote an article reviewing the work of MD Ira Glick, professor emeritus of psychiatry at the university and MD Nina Cerfolio, a psychiatrist in New York. Their team studied 35 mass shooters who survived, and found that 28 of them suffered from an un-diagnosed mental illness at the time of the shooting. None of the shooters were on prescribed medication or treatment for physiological disorders. The team then reviewed the cases of 20 randomly selected mass shooters who were killed.
(5)

For five of these shooters, there was insufficient data. For seven, there was sufficient data to suggest that the shooters had experienced psychosis. One shooter had a form of epilepsy based on autopsy results. For the final eight shooters, the team found data suggesting they were afflicted with schizophrenia. According to media reports, none of the 20 shooters had received any treatment. Although circumstantial, this analysis can reasonably conclude that mental illness may lead to mass shootings.
(5)

Is this substantial enough? Maybe, maybe not. If this is substantial, what can we do about it? Since 1960, numerous studies have shown conservative families raise mentally healthier children, and liberal families raise children more likely to be mentally unhealthy. Although indecisive, an unstable foundation makes an unstable house. Now is that substantial enough? No. I’m just throwing darts at the wall and seeing what sticks.
(6)

I believe this is a broader issue spanning through many different topics, including hormonal birth control leeching into drinking water, harmful ingredients in food, genetically modified organisms, bio-engineered food ingredients, and political propaganda driving many people insane. However, that is just my belief.

Thank you for your time reading this, and may God be with you.

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Gaming & Violence

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