Modern computer games can have a negative effect on the way young people think and behave - Essay Example

Modern computer games can have a negative effect on the way young people think and behave Ever since the evolution of technology in general, and of the computer and the Internet in particular, computer games have taken the world by storm. Young people are encouraged to play 24/7 as almost any gadget that does not provide them with the facility of gaming is rendered useless. “97% of U.S. adolescents play video games” (Price-Mitchell, 2014). Advertising, marketing, campaigns, social and digital media, all forums have drawn young people into gaming.

Playing computer games negatively affects the behavior and psychology of the young players. Computer games take a lot of time of the young people. Children keep playing games till late in the night as a result of which they are not able to get up for the school in the morning in time. They arrive late at school and are preoccupied with the thoughts of the game. As a result of this, they are not able to pay attention at the lecture. This reflects in their poor academic performance. Students’ interest in the studies is also marred because they find the real life very uninteresting, unattractive, and boring compared to the fantasy world of gaming.

Violent computer games have a tendency to make young players violent. Computer games diffuse the sensibility of the players over the passage of time. Murder, rape, bullying, racism, drug trafficking, and other different forms of violence that seem obviously condemnable in the real life become norms in the world of gaming. “Rather than just passively watching a rated-R violent movie, when kids play a game, they are one of the main characters” (John, 2013). Many young players are radically transformed into potential criminals before they can even realize the harm that has been done to them by gaming.

Modern computer games have a huge role in creating negative stereotypes about gender. Women in the computer games are portrayed as objects of sex. The bodily features of the female characters in games are enhanced so as to give them perfect and ideal look to entice the young players. Many games require the male characters to seduce the female characters into different kinds of acts of fraud, adultery, and violence. For growing children raised in an otherwise controlled and regulated environment, computer games portray a world where there is a lot to explore in terms of freedom, and yet all of that is based on fantasy and is fake.

Particularly the less conscientious and less agreeable children become hostile as a result of playing computer games (MNT, 2010). To conclude, modern computer games have a lot of negative effects on the behavior and psychology of the young players. Young players are typically at risk while playing computer games because they find unprecedented freedom in it. Many young players’ parents are not technologically competent or literate enough to be able to deter their children from accessing violent or sexual content in the games.

Sitting behind the screens of their desktop computers or laptops, children dodge their parents into believing that they are spending their time in a useful way studying whereas they are playing games in reality. These experiences equip the children with dodging and cheating skills. References:John, LS 2013, 8 Ways Games Are Bad for Your Kids, HuffPost, [Online] Available at m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3875846/ [accessed: 28 May 2014]. MNT 2010, The Effect of Violent Video Games on Teens, Medical News Today, [Online] Available at www.

medicalnewstoday.com/releases/191171.php [accessed: 28 May 2014]. Price-Mitchell, M 2014, Effects of Video Games: More Good than Bad for Youth Development, [online] Available at www.rootsofaction.com/video-games-for-kids-more-good-than-bad-for-development/ [accessed: 28 May 2014].