Thread by @Cobretata

I disagree with blaming violence on videogames, but to play devil's advocate: imagine driving back to the 50s with Marty McFly, showing them headlines about mass shooters, and then saying "oh, by the way, here's one of the most popular pastimes for young men who don't socialize."

For that matter, imagine time-traveling back to Marty McFly in the Eighties and showing HIM those headlines and modern ultra-violent videogames.

You can imagine what a lot of the people you met during those time-traveling expeditions would say. The fallacy would be all the variables they don't understand about America in the new century, all the other factors in the lives of the very small number of people who snap.

I can understand why people might point to videogames or the overall level of amoral violence in our culture as factors when violence is perpetrated by young people. (We focus too much on the headline-grabbing mass shootings and not enough on everyday violence and gang activity.)

Maybe videogames are in the mix somewhere - not just because they glamorize violence or desensitize people to it, but because they are among many factors in modern life that give kids shorter attention spans, make them more easily frustrated, and distract them from socializing.

The answer is not ham-fisted censorship or scapegoating, but rather giving young people more guidance in how they interact with videogames and popular culture. Teach them to be good tourists in the worlds of fantasy, rather than becoming permanent residents. /end