Violence in video games - Research Paper Example

Violence in Video Games Video games are played on a computer or other devices such as mobile phones using computer graphics display. In the United States, games have become part of many childrens lives. The larger potion is of those that must play video games if at all they are to call it a day. This obviously means that there exists a possibility of video game addiction over a large population of students and small children. The addiction might not be more harmful as compared to alcohol or any other drug addiction but the fact that it is an addiction too means that it has its side effects. In the recent times, it is disturbing how almost every child is connected to a video game bearing in mind that there could be negative outcomes. This has stimulated the aspect of game addiction and it is very unfortunate when one gets to think of the expected outcomes. This kind of addiction can develop problems varying from education and various disorders to problem solving skills and even generating criminals. Some solutions should therefore be devised by the parents especially. Firstly, the major harm created by playing video games is the dangerous physical health effects brought about by playing video games. When older people and children sit down for long playing hours, it does not help in any way about their health status. Many have a playing style where they just sit and play as they take snacks and other types of junk food. This results to eating too much with less exercise. Such a lifestyle could only cause the individual to develop obesity among other poor health conditions, which can stimulate other health problems such as heart diseases and blood pressure. Research has gone ahead to show that playing video games increases the risk of suffering from many other diseases such as arthritis, diabetes and many more. Still on the health effects caused by video games, children and other players are likely to experience failing of vision. It is not healthy to the individual’s eyes when one spends long hours staring at the screen of the computer due to too much harmful radiation emitted as light. Many are the times when game addicts spend sleepless nights playing games. Those that do better will sleep late in the night for very few hours. Doctors and other medical officers have done their research and recommended that every human being should sleep for at least seven hours to keep mentally fit. Anyone therefore failing to follow this recommendation could be exposing themselves to risks of mental illnesses. This therefore means that by spending sleepless nights playing video games as many addicts do, may most likely invite mental instability to themselves. This implies that sleeping disorder is another health effect caused by playing video games (Gunter 18). When students and children get addicted to playing video games, it becomes time consuming. This is how children end up wasting time that could have been used in carrying out better and meaningful activities such as reading and performing other chores. This has become a chronic problem that teachers and parents keep complaining about. Students fail to complete assignments as all the time is spent in playing video games instead of doing pending schoolwork. The same thing happens to exams. Students and pupils do not remember to read for their examinations due to attention drawn by the video games. The exciting feelings that are acquired from the experience of playing these games make it impossible to overcome the attraction to playing the games. This means children find it difficult to prefer the boring bookwork to video games. This has therefore a great negative impact on the progress of the student’s academic performance in school. The only thing that is expected from a child by their parents is excellent performance in school. This means a child that is poor in their academic work does not appear pleasing to the parents. Parents should therefore take control of their children to make them vessels that they wound be proud of and make their future promising. They need to understand that video games, as enjoyable as they may seem to be, can ruin their future. It is all a matter of controlling their feelings and affections towards playing video games. This is therefore another negative effect that comes along with video games (Windhurst). People who do so much gaming also happen to be affected in the way they behave and their altitude is altered. This is because these games have an influence in their emotions and the way they behave. The game life is one thing they are unable to differentiate from real life. The animations they experience in the games they play influence their way of viewing things and life situations. This ends up leading to misunderstandings between the children and their parents. With this kind of misunderstanding, parents are not able to handle their children as they are supposed to. This makes communication between parents and children complicated meaning the relationship between them is unstable. Parents are not even able to address issues in the family boldly when this communication is not perfect. Isolation also creeps in when such a condition develops. Children lock themselves up in their bedrooms playing the video games and people in the family are not able to interact with them due to the gaming interference. Parents who love spending time with their children feel lonely when video games take over. This disconnects the children from random parental advice and guidance. The guidance is quite helpful in solving some of the problems the children face. With this kind of condition, parents are not even able to know how their children are carrying on with life. How will they make it when the time they spend together with the kids is limited all because of video games? This makes it another negative effect experienced from paying video games (Berger, 6). Video games are also expensive and promote misuse of money. Many people play video games online. These games require high-speed Internet connection that may require installation of some equipment. Most of this equipment requires monthly subscriptions, which leads to wastage of the parents money. This means an addition to the monthly bills that are taken care of at the end of every month on top of the initial installation cost. This brings out the sense that video games are expensive and are a waste of money as they drag with them more negative effects as compared to the positive ones. It makes it even worse for the addicts as the more people play the more the bill gets high. Apart from the Internet bill, the video games also increase the electricity bills. For any computer to operate, it must be connected to a power source. Many people use their power sources as electricity and few use other sources of power such as solar. Computers and other machines are well known for usage and consumption of a lot of electricity so as to operate. This therefore means the more these machines are used in playing the games, the more the amount of electricity consumed every month. Many people therefore, game addicts especially, end up paying more at the end of the month with no benefits as the video games have very few positive effects. It is therefore unfortunate how video games are such a bad news to the addicts as they add on the cost of living and other disadvantages. Another disadvantage that comes along with playing video games is the effect being violent to others. Many children react violently to others in their homes and schools. When schoolmates and neighbors happen to cross their paths, children who are addicted to game playing happen to react violently under the influence of playing violate games (Sabella). This may cause great harm to the involved neighbors and schoolmates, as they may be seriously hurt. This does not only apply in the influence of how they deal with cases involving relations with others but also with the way, they handle other life circumstances. Addicts make actions that are out of the real world due to the influence of the violent games that they keep playing every now and then. Serious damages may be caused due to this virtue interpretation. Parents are forced to pay expensively for these kinds of damages. This therefore contributes to the point that the addiction only adds to the expenses that the parents pay. Many will claim that the video games increase the speed in functioning of the brain and the quick understanding. It is said that the experience contributes in enhancing the level of understanding to students and the way they think. Creativity and quick response of the brain are boosted helping them in tackling questions in class and quickly understanding what they are taught by their teachers at school. It is all true. Students become sharper in school and are able to solve mathematics questions more easily. Creativity also helps them in subjects such as literature. They are able to write compositions that require them to be creative within limited amount of time. This therefore boosts their performance. However, the parents and supporters of children using video games forget about the addiction part of it. They forget that when the video games are over used, the advantages are not felt anymore and the video games turn out to be harmful to the children. Too much playing brings about addiction, which drags with itself all the disadvantages and negative effects. This education impact changes from being an advantage to a negative effect in the sense that the addiction leads to wastage of too much time in playing video games rather than doing some bookwork. The child will even go ahead and sneak out of school to play video games with friends, as the games are too attractive and exciting to overcome. Others fail to concentrate in their classes only to fantasize and think of how they would get back home and play the video games they are used to playing. This leads to disruptions in schoolwork. On getting home, the children have no time to do their homework as they get straight to the computers and spend their time playing video games. They will even have no time to remember that they need to study for their examinations. Even with the fact that their ability to comprehend things quickly is boosted by the video games, it ends up not helping at all (Hutchison 13). Recommendations have been suggested on how to handle the addiction situation brought about by video games. It is noted that the blame for this situation is on parents mostly, as they are the most influential on what their children do at home after school. Though the teachers too could help, they may not be as effective as the parents in controlling this behavior. In the first place, it is the parents that initiate the whole danger by buying their kids the devices and having video games installed in them. The children would never be addicts to it if they do not own it. They would only be experiencing them probably at their neighbors’ where the chances are slim of getting addicted to them. However, it is not a fault to let the kids have the devices. The big problem is just that the parents allow too much usage of the video games, which is the beginning of the harm, created. If parents would therefore buy their children the devices and set the timetables for them to control the amount of time wasted on the video games, it would be of much help. The parents could also take the advantages of the children’s affections towards video games and use it to stimulate learning and motivate them in bookwork. Parents could achieve this by maybe restricting the usage of the video games and promising to cancel the restrictions if good academic performance was registered. In conclusion, video games can be helpful but many are the cases in which they turn out to be dangerous with devastating negative effects. This is due to the relationship between time and playing video games. When it is not balanced with other activities, video games turn out to be dangerous even to the victim’s health. When excessive time is spent in playing video games, addiction creeps in with all the negative effects it causes than include but not limited to heart diseases, disorders, and obesity. Works Cited Berger, A. Video Games: A Popular Culture Phenomenon. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. 2009. Print. Gunter, Barrie. The Effects of Video Games on Children: The Myth Unmasked. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998. Print. Hutchison, David. Playing to Learn: Video Games in the Classroom. Westport, Conn: Teacher Ideas Press, 2007. Print. Sabella, Russell. Negative Potential of Video Games. 29 Apr. 2010. Web. 18 May. 2015. http://www.education.com/reference/article/negative-potential-video-games/ Windhurst, Tiffany. Disadvantages of Playing Video Games. 12 Dec. 2010. Web. 18 May. 2015. http://www.populararticles.com/article292298.html Read More