PBS Culture Shock

On the PBS website, Victor and I were partners in deciding whether or not a violent video game image should be used on the homepage. It wasn't hard making certain decisions together, based on the image, because we actually had the same view points. It was almost instant for us to disagree with violence in video games and the exposure to children at a young age. Violence doesn't solely come from violent video games, but it can be influenced depending on the environment you live in and the age of the viewer. Our final decision was that we don't think that the video game image should be used on the websites homepage. Victor and I were part of the minority vote which was 7% compared to 92% who said that image should be used. With the question of video games being a form of art, we agreed because of the graphics and fantasy part of it, but not the violence part being considered as art. I personally found some of the other images on the website to be offensive, not necessarily the image chosen for the homepage, although I still didn't think it should be shown for a PBS website. During the exercise, none of the quotes swayed our decision because to us the quotes weren't very powerful in changing our thoughts or perspectives on it. Only except for the last quote that says, "what if it just shows the world as it actually is", because violence is a reality of life, even though we don't think about it all the time. We think that yes, video games are there to entertain but on the other hand, violent video games are not meant for young immature children. Kids get way too into video games, let alone violent ones are even more intense, and it seems they get more angry when they lose the game. Therefore it is not an outlet for aggression, and doesn't reduce murder and mayhem. Violent video games would most likely increase crime.