Essay Outline

Do video games and media desensitise us?

Much argument has been made that violent video games and explicit media have made current generations much more accepting of violence in reality. It has also been put forward that exposure to such media makes people more aggressive. Not only accepting violence but instigating it.

The army would certainly hope this to be true and they have strongly believed in using military games as not only a recruiting tool but on another level a training tool. The military would also dearly hope that violent video games gives unexperienced troops more confidence in situations that have never, in reality, been involved in.

The other problem that the army have faced and would no doubt hope that violent media would solve is a human’s ability to kill. Interviews with veterans have revealed that most of them never even shot to kill. It has been claimed that, usually in a company of 100 men, there would 2 men capable of doing the killing. The rest either never shoot to kill or pretend to load the guns as an excuse.

These testimonies were taken some time ago. So how has that changed since past wars and how do soldiers react to killing these days. There’s no doubt that violence has become much more accessible in media. Anyone with a camera phone can film there to school friends fighting and then quickly upload it to Youtube. But does watching that really make it easier to punch someone in the face the next day?