How Far Do You Agree That Video Games have had a Negative Effect on Society - Essay Example

How Far Do You Agree That Video Games have had a Negative Effect on Society? Introduction Technology encompasses every aspect of our lives today. As man steps into a new century, his life is covered my machines from dawn to dust. It would be extremely difficult for most of us to pass one full day without help of machines and we would feel like being thrown into Stone Age again. There are different aspects to how we are being influenced by all these invention and naturally, just like every other thing, it has a bright side and a dark side. We use technology not just to make our daily chores easy but to it has certainly been widely used as one of the biggest means for entrainment. Introduction of Nano technology with highly sophisticated equipment has transformed it to a compact state in the shape of various cell phones. Among the various sources of leisure that technology provides, Video games would surely be ranked among the top of the list. Outline of Negative Aspects Video Game is a source of entertainment which is based of devices like Play station and X box attached with television or can even be shifted on cell phone by special introduction of 3D technology. In past couple of years, this trend has grown very strong among the young generation of our time and has spread like a malignant cancer. The actual purpose of the creation was to use it as fun in spare time but this addiction of video game has now developed in such a way that it is difficult to spare time for other important activities of life. It is an addiction which takes over the mind and takes a person to the world of fantasies. They have surely done more harm than good and have affected some of the basic fabrics of the society. The negative aspects of Video games can be seen in various dimension of one’s personality. There can be physical hazards to a person’s health or his social and family life is greatly hampered. More over there have been several incidences of increase in violence because of excessive use of video games and the negative effect on a student’s studies or professional’s lives can never be compensated for. Health Hazards It is said that Healthy mind needs a healthy body which means that there needs to be certain level of balance in life. A person needs proper outdoor activity as to refresh his mind and make it energetic to handle what life has to offer. This is the traditional concept of games and health that has been successful for ages. Video Games totally negate this aspect and physical activity is totally lost in the whole process of so called ‘fun’. Players have to sit in front of their monitors or laptops for hours and hours. If this trend is carried on for long time, it can have serious adverse effects on eye sight and would cause severe mental fatigue afterwards. Moreover, in recent times there has been strong implication of weight gain and obesity among youngsters. For example, previously the age for onset of Diabetes Mellitus type 2 was 30 years but recently there has been a significant rise in cases of Diabetes in adults with obesity being a main predisposing factor. Video games have surely played a noteworthy part in this weight gain issue and also decrease pre frontal activity causing various changes (Eleni Kardaras 2008) Most of the players now prefer to play with lights off since that apparently creates an environment in which they enjoy the most. Excessive of gaming can cause severe aggression among players (Anderson CA 2001). This puts extra stress on their eyes and their eye sight is affected causing difficulty in performing normal activities. Other health Hazards that can be caused by excessive gaming might include ther case studies have reported adverse effects of playing video games, including auditory hallucinations, enuresis, encopresis,wrist pain, neck pain, elbow pain, tenosynovitis, hand-arm vibration syndrome, repetitive strain injuries and peripheral neuropathy (Mark Griffiths 2005) Inter-Family Relationship Problems The basic fabric of society stands for any individual when he is comfortable with his family. Ideally certain amount of time should be taken from daily routine as to sit and share activities with other family members who make a strong bond and strengthen relationships ( Durkin 2002) . Video Games rarely spare such time in anyone’s life who is addicted to them. Players would feel more comfortable sitting in front of their screen rather than sitting with their family. This would allow a tense environment in family and according to various studies is proved to be one of the causes in hampering relationships among members of a family. This would allow true feelings to get suppressed and attention is diverted towards virtual world and graphics rather than expression of true feelings. Ultimately, it will create an environment of depression among family members which would further frustrate children. One is badly deprived of sleep and loses track of time which in majority of the cases puts the person in a miserable condition. Several studies done at University of Texas have shown significant results to show that excessive gaming can lead to negative interpersonal relationship among family members (Drea Christopher 2011) Effect on Education Youth years are said to be make or break years in an adult’s life. If he can make good use of time by properly utilizing his resources, a successful future is ensured. Every second and every minute of this age counts but sadly this is something that video game addicts fail to understand. Their studies, grades and future all gets to be of secondary importance. The introduction of various gaming circle competitions and promotion of online gaming has even made things for parents to handle this issue. Gaming for long hours is considered part of fashion in social circles and every passing day makes it even harder to control this problem. This virus is not limited to any age group or gender rather it hampers the activities of individuals of all age group. Educational loss is probably irreparable because of this addiction as the time once spend and wasted can never be brought back or accounted for. . Research done for this purpose has clearly shown decrease in academic performance of most of gamers and has even suggestion ways of legislation as how this problem can be delt with through proper public policy. (Douglas 2006) Increase in Violence Modern trend of gaming has changed in recent times as with the geo-political scenarios of the world. Most of them are now based on ciaos, shooting, warfare and other related topics and have attracted millions of users around the globe. Some of them are even fascinated from the fiction characters of movies and gives them a picture of reality. When such ideas take over the mind of a person, he would continuously imagine the same in the society around him. The effect of this Voiilence has been so serious that it even lad to ban of some of the games like Grand Auto Theft (GTA) from some of the states in USA (McCauley 2009). This turns out to be a serious cause of Violence in modern times. Youngsters actually start fascinating those guns that they had seen in different games. There have been special studies about the effect of such violence in modern world. According to a research published by Ed Vitagliano(2004), it was clearly established that hostility, an increased likelihood of being involved in fights, more tendency of getting into arguments with teachers and other people and even the increased tendency and desire of using these arms. In the same context, several other studies have also quoted the same results with showing an increase tendency of violence with gaming (Pollard Sacks 2011) The Bright Side However, here is a bright side of video games as well as it is applied in some families. If used in a properly controlled manner, this can be a good source of family entertainment for a peaceful weekend and can turn out to be a good activity. Various model of gaming software’s are especially designed for this purpose. Moreover if properly controlled, this can be a good sporting and informative event for a child provided that proper choices are being made. This side of this is sadly limited in today’s world and is mostly used only for promotion in television advertisements. Conclusion Just like everything else, Video games have a bright side and a dark side but as shown with various dimensions above that its negative aspects totally over dominate the positive side. It is advised to keep a proper check on this and this should never be allowed as the sole source of entertainment. No one can deny the importance of physical activity. For a person’s mind and body, half an hour running every day is far better than playing videos games for couple of hours. This seems to be high time we promote strong family ties, better physical health and lead a health and progressive life rather than being dominated by technology. Reference List Anderson CA, Bushman BJ. (2001) Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior. Psychol Sci Vol 12, pp: 353-9 Drea Christopher (2011). Negative Effects of Video Game Addiction. www.livestrong.com Durkin, K., & Barber, B. (2002). Not so doomed: Computer game play and positive Adolescent development. Applied Developmental Psychology, 23, PP: 373-392. Douglas A. Gentile and Craig A Anderson (2006). Violent Video Games: The Effect of Youth, and Public Policy Implications. Handbook of Children, Culture and Violence (pp 225-246). Ed Vitagliano (2004). Negative effects of Games becoming clearer. The Journal of Adolescence. Eleni Kardaras. (2008), The Effect of Video Games on the Brain. Biology 202,Web Paper On Serendip. Mark Griffiths (2005) Negative effects of video games on health BMJ.; 331(7509):PP 122–123. McCauley, D. (2009). GamePolitics. Retrieved February 16, 2009, from GamePolitics Web site: http://www.gamepolitics.com Pollard Sacks, D., Bushman, B. J., & Anderson, C. A. (2011). Do violent video games harm children? Northwestern University Law Review: Colloquy, 106,PP: 1-12. Read More