Video Games And Its Effects - 824 Words

Main Idea/ Claim: Violent video games are causally linked to untreated mental illness, as identified in recent mass murderers. Introduction: Adam Lanza. Eric Harris. Dylan Klebold. Jared Lee Loughner. Anders Behring. James Holmes. All six of these teenage shooters have one thing in common. They were all addicted to video games. Each of these young men spent hours and hours on end watching violent films and playing video games. According to a study by The New York Times,â€Å"80 percent of high school-age boys say they play video games, most of which are thought to be violent, and perhaps a third to a half of those players have a habit of 10 hours a week or more.† Could these boys grow up to be mass murders like the others? Research has†¦show more content†¦Reason #1: Multiple recent mass shooters were addicted to violent video games or films. A journalist, Benedict Carey, from the New York Times suggests, â€Å"the young men who opened fire at Columbine High School, at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and in other massacres had this in common: they were video gamers who seemed to be acting out some dark digital fantasy. It was as if all that exposure to computerized violence gave them the idea to go on a rampage — or at least fueled their urges.† This evidence demonstrates that these monsters that committed these awful crimes seemed to have been acting out massacres only found in the horrifically violent video games. â€Å"The video games these days are more realistic and bloodier than ever.† This quote shows that the addicted shooters were taking the horrendous circumstances, as shown in the violent video games, and acting it out in real-life. Some people think that playing violent video games can let out anger in a fantasy-like setting and not real life. On the contrary, violent video games teaches children that it is okay to assassinate someone when you are wrathful, but these situations are only allowed in violent video games. In conclusion, multiple recent mass shooters were addicted to video games, so they had seemed to be acting out a digital fantasy, only legal in violent video games. Violent video games are teaching kids that it is right to bomb a