Human-Computer Interaction and Negative Impact of Video Games on Children - Literature review Example

Video Games have impacted children negatively Introduction Over the past 30 years games have become a common phenomenon among the vocabularies of many young people. A large consumer group drawn from all parts of the world and the rising number of games which provide young people with a wide variety to choose from are some of the factors that have necessitated and fuelled the rapid growth in different types of games in the contemporary world. One such type of games is video game. Video games are one type of software or applications available to the general public and particularly among the young generation. Based on its attractiveness, ease-of-use, addictiveness, aesthetical appearance and engagement, video games have a very high demand across the population. A research study conducted by Carnagey, Anderson & Bushman, B. (2007) revealed that, Nintendo, one of the companies in the video game industry sold an average of three games every second for 12 years resulting into a total one billion games sold in the period between 1983 to 1995. Amazingly, this trend has continued to escalate with more than 2 billion video games being sold after every two years. This means that video games have become part and parcel of human life with most people spending their time in video games and foregoing other useful activities in their lives. Video games have also resulted into development of aggressive behaviours in little children especially when the young people watch violent video games for long hours. Although, video games have had some positive aspects in the life of children it has impacted the lives of many children negatively. Video games have been associated with poor and deteriorating school performance which is attributed to the fact that children spend most of their time playing video games rather than spending quality time reading story books or completing school assignments. This is particularly true because children are easily drawn to any slight entertaining games. A research study conducted by Fisher (1994) revealed that video game addiction was not a joke and it was a form of non-substance abuse. The author compared video game to the gambling game which is another type of non-substance abuse. By applying pathological measures in his research study Fisher (1994) established that some children had become “pathological players”. This means that such children do not only play more but they also commit almost every part of their lives in video games thus forgetting other responsibilities such as reading and doing the assignments given by their teachers in school. Such children end up performing poorly in their assignments and exams. In this perspective, video games have contributed immensely to the deteriorating performance of the children in school. Video games have also resulted into the development of aggressive behaviour in children. This includes both aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviours such as fighting, biting, hitting other children (to mention a few). According to Lynch et al., (2004) the violent nature of the video games increases the aggressive attitudes of teenagers and young children especially the boys. This is particularly the case with the children who spend more time watching video games with war themes. It is imperative to note that children learn more from what they observe than what they are taught. In this regard, when children observe people fighting and killing each other in different styles they practically desire to emulate or copy the example of their stars in the video games. When provoked by their classmates they employ what they observed in the video games to defend themselves resulting into numerous injuries and to some extent deaths. The aggressive behaviour is extended to the home and the school environment where children become rude to their parents and teachers and fail to execute their responsibilities just because they also observed a certain child in the video game refusing to obey his/her parents. The aggressive behaviour is also extended to the manner in which the child performs his/her obligation at home. This is evident when children begin to break utensils at home and running up and down when asked to perform a certain duty because they strive to emulate a certain tactic or technique observed in the video game. Hence, video games have also been the major cause of aggressive behaviours and aggressive thoughts in children. Video games impact negatively on the development of the child. Carnagey, et al (2007) observed that video games impact negatively on the development of the child because children spend most of their time sitting alone in the house or video room or in front of a computer watching video games and fail to interact with other children as it is supposed to the case. The continued interaction with a machine rather an interaction with other children leaves the child with minimal social skills on how to interact with other people including the family members. The researchers reiterated the importance of child play such as running and playing different types of games which provide the child with necessary copying skills in different environments (Carnagey, et al, 2007) The researchers noted that children that spend most of their time playing video games are at risk of developing into anti-social adults later in life because they lack social skills which are vital in the development of a person into a “whole” being able to interact and carry out duties with other people. The authors also associated too much time spend watching video games with increased cases of obesity among the children. The reason for this is that when children eat their meals they are also supposed to engage in physical activities to enable proper digestion to take place. However, video games steal away the time children are supposed to engage in physical activities thus denying the children enough time for play. The result is the accumulation of sugars and fats in the body which pave way for obese condition to set in. Hence, video games have been the major factor that has contributed to poor child development. Video games erode creativity in children because it steals away the imaginative thinking capacity. According to Barr, Noble and Biddle (2007) children are creative beings and they spend most of their time on imaginative thinking which drive them to create, design and develop different types of games, equipments, shapes or roles which keep them busy in the playground. The authors noted that this kind of creativity and imaginative thinking develop slowly later in life giving way for innovators. However, video games do not contain or allow children to creatively play with different types of materials on the ground such as sticks, papers, metals wires, grass, stones because children observe what is happening rather than engaging in different types of experiments. For example, through creativity children are able to create and design vehicles from boxes and wires particularly among the boys. In the same perspective, young girls are able to design and create plates and other utensils from clay. This increases the child’s creative skills and imaginative thinking capabilities which can be applied later in life in developing new inventions. However, video games obstruct this channel or pattern of creativity in the life of the child because instead of engaging in creative activities outdoor the child spends most of his/her time watching and playing video games. Such video games do not impart the imaginative thinking and creative skills in children which leaves the child with fewer copying skills later in life (Fisher, 1994). Hence, video games erode creative skills in children limiting the child’s copying skills later in life. Furthermore, video games also impart wrong values in children partciaulry when children observe in the video games that aggression, vengeance and violent behaviours are rewarded. Most video games also teach children that non-violent solutions and negotiations in resolving disputes are not the best options and that revenge and violent attacks work best. These are some of the wrong values that children acquire from different video games. Additionally, other video games also impact negative sexual values among the children such as early engagements and pre-marital sexual activities (Carnagey, Anderson & Bushman, 2007). The consequences of these types of video games include increased cases of young people engaging in sex early in their lives as well as increased cases of teenage pregnancies as children set out to experiment on what they observe and witness in the video games. Thus, video games have been detrimental in the life of the children particularly in the moral values of the children. In conclusion, video games have become part of life of many children and young adults. The past 30 years have seen an escalation in type of video games which have continued to affect and impact negatively on the lives of children. Video games result into aggressive behaviours and aggressive thoughts in the life of the children. Video games also affect social skills that develop in the lives of the children because children spend most of their time watching and playing video games rather than socializing with other children. Video games also impact negatively on the performance of children in school because children lack adequate time to read and complete their assignments which results into poor performance in assignments, class work and exams. References Barr, P., Noble, J., and Biddle, R. 2007. “Video Game Values: Human– computer Interaction and Games”. Interacting with Computers, Volume 19, Issue 2, Pages 180-195. Carnagey, N., Anderson, C., & Bushman, B. (2007). “The Effect of Video Game Violence on Physiological Desensitization to Real-life Violence”. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 43, Issue 3, pp. 489-496. Fisher, S. (1994). "Identifying Video Game Addiction in Children and Adolescents". Addictive Behaviours. 19(5), 545-553. Lynch, et al (2004). “The Effects of Violent Video Game Habits on Adolescent Hostility, Aggressive Behaviours, and School Performance”. Journal of Adolescence, Volume 27, Issue 1, February. pp. 5-22. Read More