5. Violent Video Games Inherently Cause Violence And Aggression
As an ongoing study forever knocked one way or the other by more powerful rendering technology and/or ways to interact with what's on the screen itself, gaming's link to violence is never going to be unequivocally stated as fact or fiction - but the supposed 'fact' that by plonking anyone in front of a device turns them into a homicidal maniac? That's - as Penn & Teller would say - "Bulls**t". One particular breakthrough that came about in April 2014 was social researcher Andrew Przybylski's delve into the psychological effects of gaming on the brain. He concluded that it's not violent imagery or gameplay scenarios that bring about aggressive reactions in real life - especially as the former in particular is seen everywhere from movies to nightly news reports. Instead, he stated it's the challenging aspects of games, the frustration felt through difficulty, boss battles and challenging learning curves etc. that are to 'blame' for someone getting annoyed - like they would in heavy traffic, a heated debate, etc. Nothing more. It might be a strange distinction to make, but considering gaming is forever being tackled with pitchforks rather than pens, it's something you can easily point out to any reactionary thinker attempting to reignite the "digital violence begets violence" debate again.