Only logged in members can reply and interact with the post.
Join SimilarWorlds for FREE »

Do you think video games turn people violent or incite violence?

Poll - Total Votes: 36
Yes
No
Show Results
You can only vote on one answer.
Heartlander · 80-89, M
Yes.

In one of my previous lives I spent dozens, if not hundreds of hours inside flight simulators. The purpose of those simulators, among other things, is to give pilots and crew members an opportunity to gain confidence as they walk through very serious inflight emergencies and help them program their brains to stay ahead of their fears and apprehensions.

It was not uncommon to see seasoned pilots in simulators fail and have to repeat over and over as they gain confidence. Bang! Engine fire on takeoff! Do you continue the takeoff or abort? What's the airspeed? How much runway do you have left? Oh no!!! Not enough runway to stop, and not enough airspeed to stay airborne. Oh wait??? It was a false alarm, the engine isn't on fire. May I please have another cup of coffee? To have responded inappropriately to a false alarm could have been as devastating as a real engine fire.

Some video games are like those flight simulators. They program the brain to reach beyond ones apprehensions and fears, and perform with mechanical actions managed by a brain that has factored in all of the details.

Video games can make meaningful contributions to our lives, much like flight simulators help make better pilots. But video games that help kids kill others, even simulated others, make it easier to reach beyond their fears and apprehensions about harming someone.
4meAndyou · F
TBH I think the horrible, rude, vicious and abusive people on the internet and the media are far more to blame for pushing people over the edge than otherwise.

I think the media, in particular, needs to be held to account for their vicious and virulent rhetoric. I believe we should restore the standards of public broadcasting that were originally put in place in 1943 and later removed. We need some revisions, to be sure, but we also need some controls.

I think everyone, on social media sites and on news and opinion shows needs to step back and really THINK about the people who are holding onto sanity by their fingernails, and what will be the effect upon THEM of constant and poisonous rhetoric. Yes, Joy Behar, Don Lemon, and Morning Joe...this means YOU.
I certainly think the violent ones do.
Caprice · 41-45, F
Not at all, but I do believe that it can desensitize someone to violence and gore.
Cierzo · M
In past decades metal music was blamed for violence, nowadays it is videogames...anything but admitting that we are not equal and some people are naturally more prone to violence than others.
easterniowegin · 51-55, M
Games don't specifically cause violence, but virtual environments do cause desensitized perceptions. When you're used to killing human forms on a game, it sure doesn't help to instill any sort of respect to human life.
It's an epidemic of insanity. When I was in school the junior and senior guys would have pick up trucks with full gun racks in the parking lot. You never even thought twice about some nut job shooting up the place. People are losing their minds right and left. It's just signs of the times.
Heartlander · 80-89, M
@puck61 White racism was probably at its peek in the 1950s. While there were many abuses committed by racist until then, it was generally older people who refused to turn loose of their segregationist ideas. BUT ... there was no mass shootings of random people.

This is new. And while political opportunists keep trying to play the race card when they happen, it's usually about disgruntled males who seem to have fallen through the cracks, or feel that they have been betrayed by society.

Well, maybe not so new. When and why did the term "going postal" sneak into our vocabulary? Mid 1980s? When did Tim McVeigh declare war against America? 1995?
@Heartlander Excellent points. Thank you.
[c=#359E00]i'm only violent in video games because i'm not violent in real life[/c] 😂
SerenitiesScars · 31-35, M
They’ve already proven that unless the person is a violent person already they do no such thing... However if they are a violent person it causes their violence to spur exponentially.. 🤷‍♀️

Pretty much the same as most people not being allergic to strawberries having no effect but someone who is will have an increasing allergic reaction.. 🤷‍♀️
Northwest · M
No more so than playing with toy guns, incite violence.

Video games are even more prevalent in some countries that have very little, to no violence in real life.

They're grasping for straws. Reminds me of when the Moral Majority, was trying to blame porn for Ted Bundy.
KidAzazel · 26-30
I think they can do the opposite in a lot of circumstances actually. Like, when gta v was first released, crime rates were drastically reduced. I think video games give people an alternative outlet at times and they can work really well for curbing violent tendencies
Carver · 31-35, F
No. With the first generation of violent video games in the early ‘90s, everyone was saying the youth back then were going to become violent themselves, but the youth back then are the parents of today and you don’t see them bringing up a generation of serial killers because of video games.
SW-User
I think it may help someone with anger issues to channel it.

But then for someone already disturbed could be worse. Like porn is for sexual molesters. They don't have enough. For a normal person can be something inoffensive. Same happens with these games.
Harriet03 · 41-45, F
[image deleted]Blame television!!! 🤦‍♀️
PlumBerries · 31-35, F
[c=#7700B2]no not at all.. I have been playing video games my whole life and never once committed a violent act towards anyone [/c]
Ishtar · 22-25, F
Nope.
It's human nature to be violent at times. There were violence even before these games were introduced. Can't blame it on em now.
SevIsPamprinYouAlways · 56-60, F
[image deleted]
Sroonaka616 · 31-35, M
If video games had any influence over my life. I would be eating a lot of funky mushrooms.
Keepitsimple · 51-55, F
No. It’s because people have no self control and don’t take their meds.
samueltyler2 · 80-89, M
No, no one has ever been able to link them scientifically.
Semya · 22-25, M
Nope, its a cheap deflection tactic.
The violent ones
smileylovesgaming · 31-35, F
Yes it does
SW-User
DDonde · 31-35, M
No, do I look like a violent person to you? 😅
SW-User
I spent most of my childhood playing violent video games and I've never felt inclined to hurt anyone. Violent people don't need an excuse to be violent.

 
Post Comment