Study's Have Proven That Interactive Mediums Such as Video Games Have a Significantly Larger Correlation to Violent Behavior Than a More Passive Experience Such as Television Does.

            

• There is a significant difference between interactive and non-interactive experiences that proves that interactive experiences result in a higher level of violent activity.

• Video games create real life experiences that make participants believe the actions are real.

• Video games have created a perception of the world that is violent and has therefore decreased people's sensitivity to others' harm.

Recently, exploration and inquiry have holistically proven that media has a direct correlation to provoking real world violence. The two main media subjects, video games and television, have different experiences as video games create interactive entertainment versus television that creates non-interactive entertainment, which concludes that a highly interactive medium has greater effects on media users.

Interactive experiences require participants to take an active role in constructing the involvement of the game versus passive experiences that are already properly constructed.        

There are considerable differences between an interactive experience versus passive. Films and television represent passive and video games depict interactive. For passive experiences the audience are observers and as a result are not able to participate and interact with the film. Therefore, the audience is powerless and unable to change their experience or outcome directly. Also, a film or television show is already properly constructed. It is a complete and concrete matter regardless of whether the audience is there to see it or not. On the contrary, for interactive experiences the audience members are people who are taking part in the activity and the sole purpose of the video game is for their interaction in the experience. Their interplay is required to complete the construction of the video game because the game is not in a specific structure and order. The video game allows users to know what it is like to kill someone as the games are more realistic then ever and encourages violence as it is a way to win the game. 

Furthermore, passive and interactive experiences evoke different emotions out of the audiences. For passive experiences the audience is only observing what is going on, therefore showing that the emotions are reactive towards the experience they have. The audience will feel for the characters, but it does not guarantee that it will feel the same. However, with interactive experiences, because the participant is collaborating with the experience they are having, all emotions are direct and personal meaning additional emotions can surface for the participant such as guilt, revenge, etc.

Study's have shown that there is a direct correlation between video games and violent behavior. 

Study’s show that this theory of interactive experiences causing direct influence on media users is valid. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ released a statement saying, “playing violent video games has been found to account for a 13% to 22% increase in adolescents’ violent behavior.”  They continue to say that children learn by observing and trying out behavioral scripts and repeated exposure to these scripts can lead to increased feelings of hostility, expectations that others will behave aggressively and desensitization of the pain of others. This concept is derived from the hypodermic-needle model that is derived from learning theory that states that media has a profound, direct and uniform impact on the public. Moreover, the Academy addresses how media maximizes the prevalence of violence in the real world, harvesting mean-world syndrome in its users. As talked about in Converging Media by John V. Pavlik and Shawn McIntosh, mean-world syndrome is the idea that the world is a more dangerous place than it actually is as a result of interacting with violent programming. This leads to a universal fear of being the victim, provoking people to believe “I will get them before they get to me.” For the younger generation, media exposure has proven to cause depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder.       

A study conducted by Christopher Barlett, a psychologist at Iowa State University, tested 47 undergraduate students playing “Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance” for 15 minutes. The research team tested physical and psychological arousal and whether students would behave more aggressively by having them give hot sauce to a fellow student who they were told did not like spicy food but had to swallow the sauce. The results were as expected as the group that played a non-violent video games versus the group who had played Mortal Kombat, gave significantly less portions of the hot sauce. An example of the results of this experiment being transformed to real life is seen through open fire shootings such as Columbine High School, the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and the elementary shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. All of these shooters were video gamers who were acting out from a twisted fantasy. Adam Lanza, the shooter at Sandy Hook, was reportedly acting out his fantasies making the deaths resemble a “score” and even practiced shooting guns with his mother at a range. Overall, there is a significant amount of supporting evidence that justifies the relationship between video games and violence.

            Another experiment conducted by Nicholas Carnagey, Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman had participants play a violent or nonviolent video game for 20 minutes and then watch a 10 minute videotape that had filmed scenes of real violence. The point of this experiment to was to monitor heart rate. The results showed that those assigned to the violent video games had lower heart rates and were less physiologically aroused by violence concluding they had unfortunately become accustomed to violence. Additionally, the creators of the game had successfully executed the concept of framing which is the notion that the way messages are communicated can influence our attitudes and actions.

BOTH video games and television are major problems not only in the United States, but in the world. 

In conclusion, both video games and television have been integrated into American culture and it is not something that will disappear anytime soon. More than 1.2 billion people across the world are actively participating in video games. Therefore, it is our own responsibility to limit or completely stop being an active participant in video games that portray violence or become aware of the consequences that can come out of being an active user.