Essay on Julius Ceasar

Submitted By trentd378
Words: 1103
Pages: 5

Simply Numb There is no doubt that violence is a major problem in today’s society. With murder and robberies happening nearly everyday in some parts of the country, the numbness to violence is becoming more and more like that in George Orwell’s novel 1984. However, some people are starting to realize that we have a problem on our hands when it comes to violence. Unfortunately, these same people have also begun to search high and low for something to blame instead of searching for a solution. The blame usually falls upon the shoulders of violence in video games and television shows. Parents claim that allowing shows such as Criminal Minds and NCIS, which depict murders in nearly every episode, on television for their kids to see is causing the children to have more aggressive behavior and an all around more aggressive attitude. These shows are not the problem. In my opinion, violent video games do cause a change in the brain, but they do not make a child suddenly become more violent. Rather, because the child is always around violence, they simply become numb to it. Violence is everywhere; it is unavoidable. In books, television shows, and in almost every video game there is violence. “Some of the more alarmist voices in the media violence field have claimed a young person will witness 200,000 simulated violent acts and 16,000 dramatized murders by the age of 18” (Trend 1). While I do not believe that violence in video games causes people to want to be violent in real life, I cannot deny that playing video games does have an effect on the brain. Dr. Wang, an assistant research professor in the department of radiology and imaging sciences at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, studied the effects of video game violence on behavior. “We found that activation [of an area of the brain that controls emotion] is decreased after playing violent video games” (Gordon 1). This was only confirmed as more and more tests were given. One study even states, “notably extended play has been observed to depress activity in the frontal cortex of the brain which controls executive thought and function” (Gruel 2). This means that there is without a doubt an issue with playing too many violent video games. However, they do not make a person become a killer. Instead they cause the player to become accustomed to seeing violence nearly everyday. The kids are used to controlling a player in the game and being in control of the violence. This virtual violence that besets them everyday causes them to be unaffected when they hear about real violence in the world around them. The media plays a major role in making violence nearly impossible to avoid. It seems that nobody can ever go a day without hearing of a murder or a mugging or a robbery. In 1984, the people of Oceania are surrounded by violence. They are at a constant war and even have a period of two minutes everyday where they are supposed to scream at a telescreen while images of their enemies are shown The violence is all around them. In fact, after a bombing, Winston sees a severed hand lying in the street. However, the sight does not disturb him in the slightest. He simply sees the hand, kicks it out of the way and off to the side of the street then continues on with his day. We think we are nowhere near as bad as this, yet every time news of killings in Iraq or Iran come on we remain unaffected. With war around us constantly we hear of killing nonstop. It has gotten to the point where it is odd for us to not be at war or hearing news of violence. It is suggested by the FCC that how strong the aggression effect is depends on the type of violence ad how the violence was portrayed in the movie or game. However after tests were conducted and results measured it was stated, “the research does not indicate any effect on aggression regardless of the type of violence”(Freedman 2). The effect of virtual violence, as stated before, is not one that directly relates to