Video games, in this regard, may be likened to a gun lying on the table. The firearm is amoral - it’s neither good nor bad. What determines whether it’s good or bad is how it’s used. A gun in the hand of Seung Hui-Cho or a gun in the hand of an honest cop makes all the difference.
Our second point is that it’s way, way easier to hold video games responsible for acts of violence than it is to hold ourselves responsible. Oftentimes, people prefer to attribute something outside of themselves because those things are far easier to confront and to deal with.
This is not to say, of course, that we should just let kids play anything they want to play without providing proper guidance first. There are games that require a certain amount of maturity from players. In those cases, parental concern will go a long way in helping younger players distinguish between right and wrong.
It’s a mistake, however, to conclude that kids go around hurting people because they merely saw it in a video game. If that were the case, then everyone who’s played violent video games out there should be serving life sentences, or worse, they should be dead.
Conclusion
This brings us to our final point: video games don’t necessary influence us to do bad things - they’re more reflections of who and what we are. Games are, after all, products of the human imagination.
It is perhaps this last factor that is both the most sobering and the most ironic one. The more people condemn video games for their alleged negative influences, the more these people end up ultimately condemning themselves in the process.
After all, why go through the painful process of admitting that there is something really wrong with human nature when a convenient scapegoat is readily available? Working on improving oneself can be very difficult business, and people tend to shy away from it.
In closing, we leave you with the words of George Bernard Shaw:
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can t find them, make them.
‘Nuff said.
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