Splashing Mud

Do violent video games cause their players to be violent? Some studies say yes, some say no. Those who want to protect children tend to believe the studies showing such inclinations while those who make money off of these types of games like to believe the opposite. Texas A&M International University's Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson,a criminal psychologist, was recently interviewed by a video gaming website (guess which studies they like) in regard to violent video games and their effect on children.

Dr. Ferguson's take on the studies is that 90-95% of the research is very bad and that he's seen conclusions that the research just doesn't support. Said he, "The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent." Hmm, sounds like he's talking himself and the vast majority of social scientists out of their jobs. So according to Dr. Ferguson if all, or at least most, of the studies are not to be trusted, then what do we base our conclusions on?

It really boils down to this: are we affected--even in the most minute degree--by anything and/or everything that touches our lives? If we walk down the street and a passing car splashes mud on us, have we not been affected? Whether it's one spot of mud or we get soaking wet, yes, it affects us. We may not care that we got one drop on the side of our foot (our response to what has touched us) but we have been touched! Everything that touches our lives has the potential to change who we are (someone who's completely clean or someone who has mud on them). How much "touching" and how we react to it are the two elements that make the difference.

Many people will say, "I play tons of violent video games and I'm not going to go out and repeat the Columbine High School massacre." My response is you may have a high tolerance for mud and you may make the conscientious decision to not let it affect you in that manner, but obviously there were people who let the mud (wherever its origin) affect them and they did enact the massacre. Do any of us know exactly where our breaking point is? Do we keep piling on the mud until it crushes us? Why would we purposely throw mud on ourselves in the first place?

The question isn't: do violent video games (or music or movies or whatever) affect us. That answer is an emphatic yes! The question is: how much does it affect us? The answer is different for each one of us, but it should engender another question: why are we going around splashing all this mud?