Violence and Video Games

Yet another study has been released showing that violence and video game play are somehow related. Unfortunately, all these studies rely on a leap of faith and rarely do the articles call them on it. Fortunately, this article does.

Jonathan Freedman, a psychologist from the University of Toronto in Canada, said: “All we are really getting is desensitisation to images. There’s no way to show that this relates to real-life aggression.”

That is really the important point in all of this. Who cares if I am desensitized to an image. Television has the same effect. I’ve seen so many people get killed, blown up, and tortured on television that another picture of that won’t really turn my crank, you know? Hell, the new movie Hostel is supposed to be the most grisly thing on earth. With special effects that make it look like they really cut off a toe, who’s going to get more worked up by seeing another image of the same thing?

The fact is I’ve played video games since I was about 10. I’ve run the gamut from Atari’s Adventure (I don’t get worked up seeing squares or arrows, either) to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (the hot coffee edition). You know what? I’ve never felt the urge to kill anyone. The only thing that makes me feel that way is assholes in traffic. Maybe these guys should spend more time studying jerk offs who drive badly and why that turns a mild-mannered CPA into a death-dealer.

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