Violent Video Games and Their Influence on Young Minds

Video Game Violence and Its Effect on the Common Man Video games are basically known as a staple among American teenagers. Many teenage boys and even some girls spend hours of their day staring at the TV screen and rapidly pushing buttons on a controller. Many of the top selling games in America strongly involve violence in their gameplay. These types of games raise many questions about how they affect the people playing the games. Are there negative consequences or are these claims just made up? There is research to back up both claims but the negative effects of violent video games seem to overpower the positives of recreational violent video game play. Manufacturers should enforce their own policy towards people who play their games in a more efficient way. Video games have multiple severe problems associated with the violence that is so heavily incorporated into them. Video games can give a false sense of reality and allow gamers to become so immersed into their game play that lines between real life situations and game play situations begin to blend together. Playing video games can also become an addictive distraction. Many avid gamers can spend hours at a time glued to their TVs playing on their Xboxes, PS3s, and other gaming consoles. This time spent playing games can take away from other activities. Important things like schoolwork and grades can be affected by spending all one’s time playing games instead of focusing on more important things. It can cause people that play the games to go to sleep super late in the night. The students then have to wake up early and go to school tired and will not be able to focus and stay awake to learn the material being taught. Video games also spur a sedimentary lifestyle. Obviously, not getting enough daily exercise leads to weight gain and other health issues. Violent video games also cause behavioral and social problems. These games desensitize people towards killing and steer them in the direction that killing is