Were you surprised when you learned about the shooting that took place on Sunday, August 26?

I wasn't.

I wasn't surprised by how I found out (Twitter). I wasn't surprised to learn that the perpetrator was a white man. I wasn't surprised that it was in Florida.

And I was especially unsurprised by the fact that it was connected to competitive video games.

Video games, like all forms of media, are an industry. They're a business, and to say they are wildly successful is a massive understatement. A 2018 Venture Beat article estimates there were "2.6 billion gamers in the world" as of last year.

Well, before this population reached the billions, however, was the question of the industry's effect on individuals, especially children. Research dating all the way back to 1998 doubt the ways video games positively affect identify formation in young people. By normalizing violence as a strategy and necessity and promote sexism and racism, video games and the stories they tell have a strong impact on children's ideas of gender roles. The conversation between masculinity and video games is one that has existed long before massive conferences like E3.

Other data reveal more than troubling statistics (for example, 21% of video games depict violence specifically at women).

Despite these red flags, however, video games have not only become more violent, but more immersive. In expanding their capacity through streaming events video games now allow people to play with, but usually against people all over the world. Virtual reality continues to blur the lines between player and character, reality and story.

These steps are labeled "innovation," and events like conferences and live competitions are meant to promote "good sportsmanship and teamwork and just good vibes." (CNN)

But I'd argue that these sorts of shiny events cover up the messages an overwhelming number of video games promote. Messages of violence being not only acceptable but necessary. Messages of women being tools, sexual objects, or nothing of value at all.

Messages of hegemonic masculinity that do not support emotional openness and communication, but instead the ideas of domination and control.

Before you start calling me "grandma," this is coming from someone who grew up playing "Pokemon Diamond" and "Kirby Super Star," who loves playing "Super Smash Brothers."

I'm caught up in the mind-numbing routine of beating fake bad guys, shooting animated guns, and wielding pretend swords as much as I binge watch violent shows like "Law and Order: SVU."

I don't think I, any other person, or any man necessarily become more violent because of video games.

But we do become less sensitive to it.

The shows we watch present someone (usually a women or person of color) being raped, murdered, or some combination of horrors.

The news stations we instinctively listen to agree with our own biases and tell us stories we're more likely to keep listening to.

The video games we play are media. 

We need to remember that all media has an impact on how we grow, what we see as right and wrong, and what we deem acceptable responses to when we feel uncomfortable, scared, or angry.

We can't be surprised about a lot of the things surrounding the Jacksonville shooting. We especially can't be surprised that, despite mental health concerns and the sixth strictest gun law in the nation, a man was able to enter a major public space and begin shooting into a crowd.

We should be surprised, however, that we aren't asking ourselves how media, but especially video games, aided the social norms that placed us in this position in the first place. Video game companies certainly aren't.

Will we all sit in complicity on not just policy, but our own lives? Or will we take the steps necessary to start being more aware of the ideas we witness every day?

What do the advertisements we pass by, the television shows we binge, the podcasts we listen to, and, yes, the video games we play, really part on our psyches?

Let's remember that the media we consume has always been and will always be important, especially when remembering that gun violence is not normal.