Following the Columbine school shootings in April 1999, investigators had learned that the shooters were heavily into video games, and had played a lot of "Doom." Its my theory that from a psychological perspective, I believe that violent video games can influence people to act out, and make fantasy into reality. Its a fact that teen agers account for a significant sales in video games. Go to any college campus, and its likely at least 90% of the male students play video games at home when they're not studying.
After news orgs had revealed that the Columbine shooters played a lot of "Doom," there was an effort to pass laws to require retailers to ask for ID, just like tobacco and alcohol, when purchasing video games. The retail marketing industry is currently policing themselves not to sell M-rated video games to minors, but I've heard that store managers will discretely sell a violent video game, so long as there are no witnesses to the transaction.
Do you ever wonder how many of these young shooters were into playing violent video games? And that their video games had been contributing factors to their actions?
I took intro-psychology a few years back, and the textbook had a section on the topic of "identity crisis," which is very common among teenagers and young adults. The author had suggested that the lack of guidance, brought by parents too busy working long hours, had produced a society where more kids are undergoing "identity crisis;" and are susceptible to outside influence of drugs, alcohol, gangs, and other negative influences.
After news orgs had revealed that the Columbine shooters played a lot of "Doom," there was an effort to pass laws to require retailers to ask for ID, just like tobacco and alcohol, when purchasing video games. The retail marketing industry is currently policing themselves not to sell M-rated video games to minors, but I've heard that store managers will discretely sell a violent video game, so long as there are no witnesses to the transaction.
Do you ever wonder how many of these young shooters were into playing violent video games? And that their video games had been contributing factors to their actions?
I took intro-psychology a few years back, and the textbook had a section on the topic of "identity crisis," which is very common among teenagers and young adults. The author had suggested that the lack of guidance, brought by parents too busy working long hours, had produced a society where more kids are undergoing "identity crisis;" and are susceptible to outside influence of drugs, alcohol, gangs, and other negative influences.
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