Effect of Video Games on Children - Term Paper Example

 Effect of Video Games on Children Since video games were first released in the 70’s followed by the overwhelming popularity of stand-alone games in the 80s such Nintendo and the PC in the 90s games have taken forefront of children’s entertainment (Ferguson 309). Modern children and fairly good number of adults spend hours every day engaged in playing video games; while they have undeniable entertainment value and a host of advantages that are cited in their justification, it is important to also recognize their down sides. Typically video games are played on a computer, Xbox or any one of the many gaming consoles, currently the video game industry has expanded to such an extent that it rivals the movie and music industry with thousands of games being produced each year. While there is a clear deficiency in effects of gaming activities on children, insights and be gleaned from various sources such as results of numerous studies on the subject, especially given that these are the most popular downloaded software by children despite the proliferation of numerous others. Given that children spend a substantial fraction of their time playing games, it is stands to reason that the effects of these activities should be investigated so as to determine if there needs to be remedial or mitigate action to prevent negative effects. To this end, this paper will examine the various effects of video games on children which can be divided into physical, psychological and mental. Video games are sedentary in nature and just like watching TV or using a computer for extended periods it is believed to be a key factor contributing to the fact that over a quarter of America children are obese and overweight. While there is no study that has proven with a degree of definitiveness that obesity and computers are related, there is compelling evidence in support of the fact that children who spend over 5 hour a day watching TV or playing video games are at a higher risk of obesity. When children spend so much time with their game consoles they end up not having enough time for active play activities and the fact that video games rob them of play time also contributes to their chances of being obese. In addition to obesity, numerous studies have linked increased exposure to video games with cases of video game related seizures. The fact that refraining from video games has been found to be the most effective way treat these seizures is ample evidence that they are in a major way contributing to them. The flicker frequencies in video games as well as rapidly flashing images in some videos can actually cause seizures in patients with photosensitive epilepsy. Excessive playing of computer games has also been related to a “nintenditis” a form of tendinitis named for the famous Nintendo game consoles which is characterized by severer pain in the extension tendon at the right thumb due to reported pushing of buttons during game play. In addition many of the games involved long and complex plots which require that the player sits in the same position for hours on end which increases their vulnerability to back pain. Spending a lot of time staring at the screen can also result in migraines which become more severe with exposure and the fact that the players concentrate on it and the games are very stimulating makes it easy for them not to realize they are having one or ignore it which could result to escalation in the discomfort and health complications. Nevertheless there are also considerable advantages of video games in the physical sense which cannot be ignored. For one it improves the fine motor and spatial abilities especially in young children, games such as call of duty require the player to focus on multiple things at the same time. They may be shooting running and trying to prevent themselves from being shot at, taking all these to consideration, the player must account coordinate the brain’s interpretation with the visual spatial ability, as a result develops sharp psycho motor skills. “A 2013 meta-analysis found that playing shooter video games improved a player’s capacity to think about objects in three dimensions, just as well as academic courses to enhance these same skills” (Granic) Some studies have suggested that exposure to video game in adults tend to make for better surgical skill and it is speculated that children who play video games stand to become better at jobs such as piloting planes. The students who fired at and killed their colleagues in columbine high school and at the movie theatre in Aurora has one common thing between them, they were avid gamers and it appeared as if they were acting out some bloody video game fantasy. It was suggested that their exposure to video games may have influence them to go on rampage and try out the shooting sprees they engaged in in real life in school. One again there is no definitive proof that video games can interfere with a child’s psyche to such an extent that they would resort to randomly shooting at people but the evidence arguing in support of the assumption is rather compelling. Due to the advancement in gaming technology, the games are more realistic and bloody than before and more and more children have access to them. Consider a game like Grand Theft Auto (GTA), the primary objective is to commit crimes with intricate themes mostly related to organized crime; players get points for carjacking people and killing random pedestrians including those who are not armed. There is conclusive evidence that playing violent video games such as call of duty and kill zone makes one more likely to be aggressive and even violent in the short run (Anderson and Brad 354). However there hasn’t been sufficient research to make sufficiently justifiable conclusions in the long term. There is no doubt that those who engage in violent gaming tend to have a higher propensity for violence in school but this has been discounted on the assumption that children who are violent by nature are more likely to be attracted to digital violence not the other way round. However even with these contradictions, one thing that is for sure is that video games tend to reward violent and illegal actions such as brutal killings speeding and road range (Carnagey, Anderson and Bushman 490). The US supreme court overthrew a California law that prohibited the sale of violent video games, however even with the supreme courts liberal views; one is still left to wonder if the ban was entirely unwarranted. There is after all a clear link between physical aggression and video games which is proved by numerous studies on the same carried out on subjects around the world proving that there is a distinct albeit not very well understood connection between video games and aggressive behavior, thoughts, psychological arousal and increased heart rate. However, even here the positive effects of video games to the players mind should also be taken to account, it has been found that avid gamers are able to make faster decisions without losing their accuracy which is a vital skill in the contemporary world (Bushman & Anderson 1680). Moreover, games do not always have a negative effect on the psyche of the player and while some like call of duty can excite negative emotion, simple games like angry birds can actually improve the players mood and help the relax while warding off anxiety. In addition, gamers learn skills such as perseverance since in many cases they pay and fail and have to keep doing it again until they succeed, video games also require one to test out numerous hypothesis for every attempt they make. For example someone playing project IGI or hit man both which are highly complex fighting games may be forced to try out different combinations of strategies and weapons so as to decide the best one to defeat the enemy. At the end of the day, gamers develop a high level of mental dexterity and their decision making skills tend to improve especially if they play complex games. Many types computer application not the least of which are computer game are designed to emphasize on the visual as opposed to verbal skills in information processing, action games for example tend to include intense movement and action occurring simultaneously at different parts of the screen. Exposure to such experience is can be highly beneficial to children as the often develop visual intelligence skills and these may act as training wheels for computer literacy and any other job that requires them to manipulate and control data on a computer system. (Anderson, Gentile and Buckley 24) emphasize on the aggressiveness that stems from exposure to video games since the aggressive action is in most cases repeated several times throughout the game, this has after all been used as a teaching method in which learning patterns are reinforced. Therefore based on this reasoning, it is not surprising that a player may seek to mirror what they do on the console in real life. Additionally, video games tend to encouraged players to identify with their favorite character who is in most cases a violent criminal; while the players improve their decision making skills the nature of these decisions in the context of the game is often one that would be perceived as morally unacceptable in the outside world, it was found that; “laboratory exposure to a graphically violent video game increased aggressive thoughts and behavior” (Anderson & Dill 772). There is a common stereotype about gaming based on the assumption that those who engage in gaming tend to lose their social skills and ability to team up with their peers. This is based on the fact that in most cases children will keep to themselves as they play the games and tend to go for as long as days without speaking to each other of their parents. While there is an element of truth in this, it is worth noting that a huge percentage of gamers world over play in teams and compete with other gamers on online platforms. Inasmuch as there many of these games include violence and killing each other there is also an element of teamwork and gamers actually can gain critical skills in working together even with strangers. At the end of the day, there is no doubt that video games have serious effects on the players and many of which are negative, however there is evidently more than meets the eyes and more research needs to be carried out so that the negative elements can be pinned down and the positive ones capitalized on. Works Cited Anderson, Craig A., and Brad J. Bushman. "Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature." Psychological science 12.5 (2001): 353-359. Anderson, Craig A., and Dill, Karen . "Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life." Journal of personality and social psychology 78.4 (2000): 772. Anderson, Craig A., Gentile, Douglas A., and Buckley, Katherine E.. Violent video game effects on children and adolescents: Theory, research, and public policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print. Bushman, Brad. & Anderson, Craig . “Violent Video Games and Hostile Expectations: A Test of the General Aggression Model”. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, (2002). 28, 1679-1686. Carnagey, Nicholas L., Anderson, Craig A., and Bushman ,Brad J. "The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence."Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43.3 (2007): 489-496. Ferguson, Christopher John. "The good, the bad and the ugly: A meta-analytic review of positive and negative effects of violent video games." Psychiatric Quarterly 78.4 (2007): 309-316. Granic, Issabella. “Video Games Play May Provide Learning, Health, Social Benefits, Review Finds” American Psychological association. 2013. Web. 5 June 2014 Read More