The Truth about Video Games and Violence - Adam Ruins Everything

[Music] so fam in sweeper 666 treatment for you live from the reef den today we're going old-school with a classic luck cruncher three blood populist Roger it's time for lunch dad get out wait what is this are you playing violent video games again you're gonna wind up on the six o'clock news don't worry dad the idea that video games cause violent crime is a total ban that is disgusting they're trying to brainwash you into thinking that video games are safe nope you're the one who's been brainwashed for as long as video games have existed they've sent American parents into a frenzy of fear in 1976 the National Safety Council panicked over the arcade game deathrace calling these tame little pixels six six six actually and in the 90s politicians had a full-scale freakout about a little game called Mortal Kombat Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman claimed it taught kids to quote enjoy inflicting the most gruesome forms of cruelty but despite these repeated parades and pearl clutch and panic there's still no actual evidence linking video games to violent crime moral outrage unnecessary I don't know I'm still not convinced well let's look at the fans as video game sales in America have spiked violent crime has actually gone down and other countries where games are popular have even lower rates of violent crime soda we all know America gianni mota gamers forget Oh King June uh Saturday McHugh judoka by scone I'll hide you and despite the lazy media narrative connecting mass shootings to video games multiple studies including an analysis by the Secret Service have found that school shooters actually consume significantly lower amounts of violent media and video games than their peers so you're saying video games don't have any effect on our kids at all not even that game fork knife where you killed people with pickaxes it's called the port night dad pickaxe is a harvesting tool well some studies do show that violent video games can cause a temporary increase in aggressive thoughts and behavior but those studies are pretty flimsy because they didn't measure anything the average person would actually consider aggression one study just measured whether more likely to feed their opponents hot sauce hmm and even if these studies had tested real-world acts of aggression the change in behavior they measured was tiny just two percent on average other studies have shown a similar effect in racing games and even real live sports that does reach out whenever I beat him at ping pong that's cuz you play dirty Henry oh I see it now guys meet video game researcher and level 30 Demon Slayer dr. Patrick Marquis sup Reaper 666 hope you don't mind I already defeated that final boss blaming video games for real-world violence really took off after the Columbine shooting and it was an understandable mistake because we all desperately wanted some reason why someone would commit such a horrific act of violence but today we know video games actually aren't what's to blame and yet politicians across the political spectrum still scapegoat videogames as recently as the 2018 parkland tragedy the President of the United States was saying things like I'm hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people's thoughts and reporters pair at this lazy narrative right back after the Newtown school shooting it was widely reported that the gunman played video games but what they left out was at his favorite game the one he play up to ten hours a day was Dance Dance Revolution the fact is it's just easier to blame video games than to tackle societal problems that actually impact rates of violence things like educational and employment disparities stigma against seeking mental health treatment and especially in the case of shootings and access to guns instead we're wasting time and tax dollars on even more research to try to prove a link between violence and video games that just doesn't exist that's right I'm a video game researcher and even I think this is a waste of time and that's why I'm taking a break to beat the next level oh man it's underwater see you guys the truth is scapegoating and banning violent video games doesn't protect kids it just distracts us from figuring out what we really need to do to keep people safe yeah you're right Henry you can play that gut game with supervision okay dad you just got a narrate everything for the stream mmm we got did you just shove that gun up his fan Oh God [Music]

Channel: CollegeHumor

Views: 2,452,977

Rating: 4.8711843 out of 5

Keywords: Collegehumor, CH originals, comedy, ruins everything, adam conover runis everything, adam conover ruins everything, videogames, frenzy of fear, everything adam, are videogame violence, adam ruins violent videogames, adam ruins videogame violence, videogames to violent crime, videogames to violent crime myth, adam ruins videogames to violent crime, adam conover ruins videogames, adam videogame violence, fortnite, adam fortnite, adam ruins videogames, adam ruin everything

Id: 6P2fw7ZftF8

Length: 5min 10sec (310 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 23 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/MetroidJunkie]

I don't know why but, when I saw it was an Adam Ruins Everything, I was going to think that he would side with the people who think violent video games cause violence. Thankfully, he's on the right side. Violent video games cause temporary feelings of aggression, which would be adrenaline, but no more than listening to violent reports on the news or reading a violent book.

[u/usaokay]

If y'all didn't know, Adam streams on Twitch, so (I think) he personally knows the whole topic about violent video games and its behavioral effects, especially since he tortures himself with Bloodborne and Dark Souls lol

His show also had a segment about the unbiased nature of video games for women (S1EP9 is on Netflix).

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Also, don't judge a book by its cover/title/whathaveyou.