In a story that makes me cringe for all the wrong reasons, we reported earlier today about a new study that shows how playing violent video games has an effect on certain areas in the brain:
Compared with the group that played the nonviolent game, the group that played the violent video game demonstrated less activation in the prefrontal portions of the brain, which are involved in inhibition, concentration and self-control, and more activation in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional arousal.
My reaction is, “So what?”
There is an obvious need for some concentration and self-control in playing any video game, violent or not. The fact that someone playing a violent video game — a game specifically designed to arouse an emotional, not a logical, reaction — has less of an emphasis in these areas is not a surprising finding. In fact, it is exactly what any researcher in video game research would have expected.
The fact is, video games have been around now for over 30 years. That’s 3 decades worth of examining their negative effects. And looking at how a whole generation (or two, or three, actually) has grown up with these video games and what their effects are on their productivity, happiness, likelihood to commit a criminal act, etc. No research has shown that these effects lead to long-term changes in behavior.
Next, they’ll conduct a study that shows when a person is riding a roller coaster, it has similar effects on the brain!
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4 Responses to “30 Years Too Late: Video Game Violence Affects Brain Activity” (Pingbacks/trackbacks not shown below)
Ray Jones at 1:23 pm on
November 30th, 2006
*sigh* - it would be interesting to see a study of the confusion between the words “Effects” and “Affects”.
30 years? Pong does not really fit into this equasion. 15 years perhaps.
John M. Grohol, Psy.D. at 12:19 pm on
March 14th, 2008
Pong was created in 1972. But Coleco and Atari released their consoles in 1976 and 1977 respectively and games like Football, Gunfight and Space Invaders were all available by 1978.
So yes, 30 years ago we were very much at the start of the “violent” video game revolution. Throughout the 1980s, as more and more violent video games were released, parents and others sounded the warning bell that these games were causing a whole generation to grow up “addicted” to either the games or violence or a combination of both.
So 10, 20 or 30 years, doesn’t matter… the point remains, they’ve been available a very long time and we don’t have entire generations going around shooting up prostitutes in inner cities ala GTA because of them.
Mathew Giso at 7:23 pm on
May 6th, 2008
I agree with you on this topic, but the large argument is that now video games are so realistic, and the voilence seems more real then it did 20 years ago.
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*sigh* - it would be interesting to see a study of the confusion between the words “Effects” and “Affects”.
30 years? Pong does not really fit into this equasion. 15 years perhaps.
Pong was created in 1972. But Coleco and Atari released their consoles in 1976 and 1977 respectively and games like Football, Gunfight and Space Invaders were all available by 1978.
So yes, 30 years ago we were very much at the start of the “violent” video game revolution. Throughout the 1980s, as more and more violent video games were released, parents and others sounded the warning bell that these games were causing a whole generation to grow up “addicted” to either the games or violence or a combination of both.
So 10, 20 or 30 years, doesn’t matter… the point remains, they’ve been available a very long time and we don’t have entire generations going around shooting up prostitutes in inner cities ala GTA because of them.
I agree with you on this topic, but the large argument is that now video games are so realistic, and the voilence seems more real then it did 20 years ago.
