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Why does everything have to be someone's fault to begin with? This whole notion of cause and effect should just be abandoned completely... life would be a lot simpler.
Anyhow.... I have done some research on this, and it would seem that there are absolutely no studies or evidence that suggests videogames cause criminal behavior. There is lots of evidence that shows that young children are more likely to behave aggressively after playing videogames (fighting with siblings, throwing tantrums, etc), but again, no evidence to suggest that young children are more likely to behave violently (hitting siblings). With regards to teenagers and young adults, there's no evidence at all that suggests it has any more effect on the consumers of media than, say, Martha Stewart. Okay, bad example, I admit that Martha Stewart does drive me into a murderous rage. My point is, however, people tend to make an illogical association with regards to aggressive behavior and violent/criminal behavior regarding this type of research, when there is in fact no indication that they are related.
So, how does that apply to street racing? Well, I don't know... I'm sure the kids didn't intend to kill anybody, they're behavior wasn't exactly violent, can videogames cause this sort of thing? Can the videogames cause themselves to be played? Do the kids cause the videogames to be played? Does society cause videogames to be played? Well... like I said... so much for cause and effect. We'll never know exactly what caused this tragic accident, but people always feel the need to find order in the world to try and maintain the illusion of control, and so people will assign cause to something that is inherently incapable of cause in the first place.
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I'm swimming in the digital residue of a media-drenched world. It's too cold.
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