Video games has always been widely criticised due to the immense influence it holds over the adolescent and pre-pubescent alike. In fact, whenever a violent tragedy unfolds, video games would often become the scape goat for modern media as the primary source of violence-inducing entertainment among teenagers. However, some have advocated that the growth of agression may attributed to not just video games, but also other factors in the fray and it would be entirely unfair to not adress them as accordingly.
While it is true that teenagers, especially young men, are prone to increased agressive tendencies after repeated exposures to violent games, according to APA. But consuming violent media and having an agressive trait is not entirely a cause and effect situation, as concluded by one research made by Griffith University, “Trait anger is how susceptible people are to anger as a personality trait compared to episodes of anger caused by a situation” said Professor Devilly, meaning an individual’s personalities and chronic mental problems have to be accounted for in order to fully realise if video games truly encourages agression and violence or it just acts as a stimuli for existing traits. Bear in mind that, other acts of violence had been committed way before video games became mainstream, many acts of serious offense such as school shootings or murdering sprees were often regarded as a bi-product of oppressive, stress-inducing living environment.
Expanding upon the previous sentence, an ideal living conditions can bring about many benefits for the mental well-being and overall productivity of a person, if those variables are non-existent then one could possibly hypothesize the strain upon their own mind and sanity. Sigmund Freud argued that being agressive is on of our own survival instincts, hence the harsher the environment the more agressive and violent we become. Not just that, societal interactions in places such as schools and homes can sometimes be very problemtatic, a timid boy could switch into assault mode when he feels threatened by others, or neglecful parents could psychologically harm their child by not giving them the adequate education or help them during their ubringing; In times these would develop into bad habitual traits that could result in anxiety and enhanced agressive tendencies. Therefore, forms of entertainment such as video games may provide them with an escape from reality rather than contributing to their agression.
In the end, it is noticeable that more teenagers are getting more addicted to gaming which could potentially affects them psychologically. But, it would be irresponsible to wholly blame video games for their antagonistic behaviours and not fully address other root problems at play.