Mariya Lyn Stubblefield Participated in Blacks in Government (BIG) Scholarship Program
CORONA, CA—Mariya participated in the Blacks in Government (BIG) scholarship program this past spring with her speech entitled “Do Violent Video Games Promote Violent Action” and earned first place along with the accompanying $100 dollars. See speech below.
ABC news, “Auburn University Lacrosse Player went on a real-life crime spree inspired by ‘Grand Theft Auto’. CNN breaking news, “An 8-year-old Louisiana boy intentionally shot and killed his elderly caregiver after playing violent video game”. Events such as these would not have even been conceivable before the era of modern gaming came about. I could spout off study after study linking violent behavior to violent video games, but it’s not hard to put two and two together. Virtual or not, spending hours every day committing mass murder, without the slightest hesitation would make anyone, especially children, prone to a deficiency in empathy. Which is exactly what violent video games do. Brad Bushman, a professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University was quoted in USA Today saying, “We found that violent video games unmistakably raised levels of aggression and heart rate, and decreased feelings of compassion toward others.” Video games encourage mindless and monotonous actions of senseless violence. Now many claim that the effects of video games are not that serious, or that the age ratings are what make them safe because adults make better choices than children. Even though, as I’d like to point out, an adult has much easier access to the guns in these games than a child. But America has increasingly accepted the violent culture we now live in.
A well-known YouTube gamer named Adande Thorne is an advocate of video games, he makes a living playing them. And yet even he dedicated an entire video just to explain the dangers of video games through his own experience. He realized he had to stop playing certain games such as Grand Theft Auto because of the influence it had over his everyday thought process. Just as mentioned in a New York Times article “A dose of violent gaming makes people act a little more rudely than they would otherwise, at least for a few minutes after playing.” But Adande didn’t only get ruder. He explained that as he was driving down a street in a residential area he noticed a woman with a baby carriage walking on the sidewalk. Ever so slowly he felt the rush of adrenaline course through his veins and the car started to drift towards the sidewalk. Luckily, he snapped himself out of the moment and got back onto the road. But it was a very scary experience and he felt awful inside because he never expected for the game to affect his real life interactions. And Adande was a normal, functioning person, imagine if he had some mental illness to go along with the hours of exposure to such violence. As Adande said, “human beings are like sponges, whatever we come into contact with, we soak up and as soon as something comes along to apply a little bit of pressure, whatever is on the inside, comes out.”
There is one scene in the game Grand Theft Auto V where the player gets to pick out weapons they use to put a character through a realistic torture scene; and another where you have to shoot your, quote on quote, “enemy” down. This enemy just happening to be the police. So do we really want to be filling children with the knowledge of the best weapons to use, crimes to commit, or the methods to kill and torture? Because it only takes one instance for someone, especially a developing kid, to snap. And I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather have them snap growing up with Lord of the Flies, To Kill A Mocking Bird, and Gone with the Wind, than Call of Duty, Halo, and Grand Theft Auto. Now, while playing violent video games will not directly cause more violent behavior, it will increase the chance. So lets stop taking chances and start taking action to discourage our young people from playing these types of games. Because it’s always just a game, until someone ends up dead.
