Media have long been considered crucial for personality development, as people are regularly exposed to enormous amounts of information on various topics. Nevertheless, the video game industry has arguably leaped forward in this direction, as people have a chance to control characters’ actions, which in some instances can be completely irresponsible and even horrible. Moreover, the abundance of genres and the increased use of violent scenes that are highlighted using various visual methods have made violent video games popular among the youth. Even though such entertainment is not meant for children and teenagers, many people nowadays believe that the violent video game industry should be held responsible for numerous aggressive episodes.
People generally tend to copy the types of behavior they are frequently exposed to. Albert Bandura, for instance, emphasized the importance of observing and imitating for personality development (Schultz & Schultz, 2017). People nowadays do not need to interact much with others daily. Therefore, what they see on their screens may significantly alter their perception of accepted behavior, social norms, and violence. Moreover, Greitemeyer (2018) claims that violent video gameplay does not only have an impact on the player but also on the player’s social network. Aggression is believed to spread rapidly among connected individuals.
Nevertheless, playing violent video games itself cannot make a person want to kill others. Despite the increased levels of aggression that some studies show, it is vivid that observing peers and adults is a more important social-learning factor, as children can easily distinguish between games and real life. Moreover, people are frequently exposed to violent scenes while watching news and films. Thus, the violent video game industry should not be held responsible for the high levels of violence, as it is just a recent phenomenon that is popular among a few social groups. Moreover, the number of violent crimes has decreased substantially since the 1990s. Therefore, there are some other legal, cultural, and economic aspects of people’s lives that influence violence levels significantly.
References
Greitemeyer, T. (2018). The spreading impact of playing violent video games on aggression. Computers in Human Behavior, 80(3), 216–219. Web.
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2017). Theories of personality (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.