Stop the Madness

In general, when looking to prove a point, one must determine if there are long and short-term affects. If both exist, it is valid to conclude that their argument is correct. In the case of if violent video games affect young children in such a way that it causes high levels of aggression, both long term and short term affects are present. 

 

Short-term:

      The experiment conducted by Bushman and Anderson (which can be found under the experiments tab) illustrates that playing violent video games negatively affects the cognitive processes of children. Playing for just twenty minutes caused the participants to experience increased levels of aggression. It is said that violent video games "prime aggressive thoughts" (Anderson and Dill, 787).

 

Long-term:

      "Long-term effects also involve learning processes. From infancy, humans learn how to perceive, interpret, judge, and respond to events in the physical and social environment. Various types of knowledge structures for these tasks develop over time. [...] Each violent-media episode is essentially one more learning trial. As these knowledge structures are rehearsed, they become more complex, differentiated, and difficult to change" (Anderson and Bushman, “Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature”). Since violent video games are considered learning devices, a child who is exposed to such media is learning how to deal with conflict. These games are teaching children to act aggressively in times of discomfort or struggle, which can be seen in the figure below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The graph above illustrates the long-term effects of violent video games. According to Anderson and Dill, the creators of this chart, "each time people play violent video games, they rehearse aggressive scripts that teach and reinforce vigilance for enemies, aggressive action against others, expectations that others will behave aggressively, positive attitudes toward the use of violence, and beliefs that violent solutions are effective and appropriate" (Anderson and Dill, 772).

 

Now that we have shown both the long-term and short-term affects of violent video game use, we safely conclude that a child's exposure to such media is dangerous (as it "desenitizes" them) and hinders their futures.