Argument research paper - Essay Example

This is harmful for teenagers in many ways as it obscures their vision of reality and social relations as they exist. According to Danielle Dai and Amanda Fry, the average teenager spends around fourteen hours a week playing video games. They argue that this takes away time that could be used for studies and for developing their social skills (n.p.). The time that teenagers spend on video games does in fact, reduce the amount of time that they would be able to devote to their studies at an age which is crucial in deciding which school they would be able to attend.

It therefore, influences teenagers for the rest of their lives in very significant ways. This time, even if it is spent playing video games together with friends, would not be able to create social bonds as the game occurs not at the level of reality but at a virtual plane. This would mean that the kind of social bonds that are created during outdoor games are all but lost while teenagers are engaged in such an activity. Such bonds would have the power to influence the teenager in the direction that the rest of his or her life is to take.

In other words, teenage years are very crucial in the life of a person and should not be squandered with video games. On the other hand, researchers have also suggested that video games have in certain elements in common with traditional games that would fulfill the functions that traditional games are expected to play. The child would develop, according to these researchers, an ability to communicate and engage with peers at a social level. They have gone on to also argue that video games may not have any effect at all on the cognitive development of a child or teenager (Shapiro n.p.).

This, however, makes the argument a tenuous one, at best. The kind of social skills that may develop as far as the teenagers are concerned would aid them only in the virtual world that is created by the video game. This world