Evaluation of Social Media Sources

Scrolling through social media sources describing violence in video games, there were many articles and tweets which caught my eye. First, I looked at an article found on Story which described the effects of violent video games on teens. Researchers discussed why playing video games has more of an effect on people rather than just watching a scary movie. They explained that video games are active while watching a movie is a passive action. It explained that players of a violent video game are more likely to identify with a violent character since they technically are acting as a killer. Last, they explained that video games reward violent behavior by gamers being able to move on to the next level or win a new weapon etc.)

The second article I looked at was from the TIME's website. This article discussed the issues with those who have acted out in a violent manner due to partaking in violent video games. It also reports that President Obama funded research to see how violent video games effect the minds of teenagers and their behavior. The article further explains interviews with children that play these games. One boy even stated that it would be okay to strike another person if they said something negative towards them. The article also shared many links to studies discussing how video games specifically affect the brain as well as if there is correlation between kids swearing and playing violent video games. Last, I also discussed a tweet written by Donald Trump stating, "Video game violence & glorification must be stopped-it is creating monsters!" Therefore, for the most part, the idea of violent video games is poor in the eyes of social media today.

Information about the articles:
The first article was to prove that actively participating in video games has more of an affect on behavior than watching violent movies or television shows. This article was written by Brad Bushman, a professor of Communication and Psychology from Ohio State University. He does not have a twitter however people are able to comment on this article. He has 1.6 Facebook followers, which is where he posts the links to his articles, his followers are mostly those interested in psychology and other professors. This information is reliable and has many other linked sources. Not only this but this article is only a few years old and is still a very common topic today.

The second article was written by a TIMES reporter named Alice Park. One has the ability to Facebook, email, or follow her on twitter because her TIMES articles are linked directly to these social medias. Millions of people follow TIMES for news stories and just general concepts and ideas of what is going on in the world today. The information they are posting definitely involves other research and articles which are linked to the original post. This question of controversy is very current and the sources are reliable.