The Relationship Between Video Game Violence and Real Life Agreesion
Learning Across the Life Span
July 29, 2009
The Relationship between Video Game Violence and Real Life Aggression
In every generation there is a form of media that is frowned upon, usually by traditionalists who have not experienced said form of media in their lifetime. This has happened with books, movies, television and music without exception. Over time, as the critics die out and the advancing generation becomes productive members of society, these forms of media become main stream. The fight that has brewed over video games has been fought for 30+ years and with the advancement of technology it may last 30 more. Video games, for the most part have taken the place of the old ‘Cowboys and Indians’ or ‘War’ games that most of us played as kids.
Video games have more often than not been thought to be the purview of children. With the advancement of technology and the success of a string of violent First Person Shooter (FPS) games this is not necessarily the case anymore. Current statistics show that between 40% and 50% of video game players (gamers) are women, and currently the average age of a gamer is between 29 and 33. (Flew, 2005)
Like every controversial issue, there are two sides to this one. Those that advocate for the games, say there is no causal link between video game violence and aggressive tendencies in youth or anyone else. In fact in 1999, the Office of the Surgeon General of the United States sponsored a study which concluded that there was no causal link between video games and aggressive tendencies. (Torr, 2001) This caused then Surgeon General David Satcher to declare, “"We clearly associate media violence to aggressive behavior. But the impact was very small compared to other things. Some may not be happy with that, but that’s where the science is."
On the other side of the argument...