Influences Of Media On Children - Research Paper Example

Influences Of Media On Children Abstract Over the year, video gaming has increased greatly with more video games in the market. The main video game players are the kids and the adolescents; they however have different effects on these players. Video gaming has both negative and positive effects on children; these effects vary according to the types of the game, genres, and ratings. This research paper gives and tries to explain both the negative and the positive impacts resulting from gaming by kids. It explains the character traits children derive from both the violent and the good games Effects of video games on children Video games have different impacts on the children; they are a form of unique behavior. Video games encourage the player playing them into becoming part of the whole script; the current available video games are sophisticated and require the player to pay constant attention. The players tend to engage deeply both emotionally and physically than they do when watching the TV or a movie. Currently, many parents regard video games as time wasters, to the education experts the video games tend to corrupt the brain of children and almost everyone else playing it. Video games can result to both violence, educational advantages, and disadvantages and can have both negative and positive impacts. The most negative effects arise from the violent games. Playing the violent games can result to violent itself, and can lead to antisocial behaviors among the children. However, psychologist and scientists find it that video games have a lot of benefits, the main benefit being that of making kids smart and improving their computers literacy and manual dexterity. When children play those "pro-social" games, they show empathy and helpfulness in their day-to-day lives (Douglass gentile Ph.D.). A game that rewards players for helping others or building a town tends to change the way kids think about life Allowing children play violent games for a long period is one cause of the increase in aggressive behaviors. According to Gentile playing, violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children as this violent actions occur all through the game. Those children who play violent games at the beginning of their school years show a lot of aggression than those that play later in life (Prot, 2014, P.109) Continuous play of the violent games also increases angry feelings, psychological arousal, and aggressive behavior. Violent games also change the way people speak, for example, many violent video games use a lot of abusive language, once the children keep playing this games continuously they tend to change the way they speak. Video games may it be the violent ones or the pro-social ones, change the brain's physical structure, this may be in a positive or a negative way. The concentration required while playing the games may help strengthen the way the children think in different perspectives Positive effects of playing video games When children play video games, the concentration, they give tend to give their brains real workouts. Currently in many video games for one to win, he or she requires to involve in high levels of thinking and abstract. Through playing video games, the following mental skills improve; Problem solving and logic and following instructions- When a child plays some video games, for example, cut the rope he needs to come up with very creative ways that help him solve the available puzzles. Planning, logistics, and resource management- Many games tend to have limited resources that the player has to learn how to manage, children tend to transfer these skills to real life. The skill games such as Sim city and the railway tycoons encourage a lot of players in taking careers related to architecture and urban planning (Prot, 2014, P.113) Spatial, fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, in those games involving shooting the player may be shooting and running at the same time. All these require a lot of coordination as the player need to know where he or she is heading, where he is shooting, if he is hitting the intended targets and also where the gun aims. These factors bring about the aspect of coordination; the player ensures that there is coordination of the brains reaction and interpretation with the movements of the fingertips and his hands. Some research states that some fighter pilots derive skills from playing video games. Managing multiple objectives, and multitasking, some video games force players to be quick and flexible in order to make certain moves- This helps in real life where the children can manage two or more objectives and complete them in time. Making fact analysis, decisions, and quick thinking- This mainly helps give brain workouts, playing action video games help the brain in making quick decisions. Those children that play these action games enhance their thinking and enable them make decisions quicker. The games involving making certain analysis before completing a certain level help the children in the outside life when it comes to matters of making analysis and decisions. Management; playing video games improve the managements skill for the kids. Games such as zoo tycoon teach the players on how to make manage the effective use of limited resources and make fine management decisions. The importance of this skill is unmeasurable when transferred to the real life experience. Teamwork; teamwork skills improve in cases where there are two or more players. The kids learn the importance of working together. Joan Ganz survey shows that students those children using digital games in class are better collaborators (Prot, 2014, P.116) Video games in general introduce the kids to the online world and the computer world. Through playing these video games, children adapt the rising concept of computing. When the kids play together the boning skills improve, some children tend to teach their parents how to play these video games. Parents should use these opportunities to know what are their kid's skills and talents. Through playing these video games, the kids have fun and at the same time, the game motivates them to keep on practicing. This is a very important way to learning skills. When children keep on playing these video games, their creativity increases in almost all fields Children who play video games tend to make decisions even faster; this mainly is for those who play action-based games. Research shows that action gamers can pay attention to more than five items as compared to only four of an average person. Negative effects of video games Most negative effects of video games arise from the violence in these games; children tend to do what they see from these video games in school. They tend to have an increase in aggressive thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and decreased prosocial helping (Bushman and Anderson, 2001). This violence is worse for the kids that play games interactive in nature; in these violent games, the more violence one commits, the more the reward. When playing the games the kids are in total control of the violence, he or she tends to experience the violence that is the kicking, stabbing, shooting, and the killings. This active participation, the rewards, and the constant repetition are the main effective tools for the learning behaviors. Through playing these video games, the kids tend to adapt or try what they see and hear in these video games. The evidence of the effects of violent video game includes that of the children involved in the columbine massacre. The two children kid's a lot of time playing violent video games (Prot, 2014, P.124) Through playing too much video games the kids become isolated, those addicted to video games tend to isolate themselves from others. They tend to spend less time in other important activities such as reading, doing homework and sports. This children spend more time on the screen playing the games that even the interactions between them and their family members reduces The values from these video games also affect the children; some of these values include vengeance, violent behavior, and aggression. In cases where kids adapt to these kinds of values negotiating becomes a "non-option" for them. These games also tend to confuse fantasy and reality. The video games also result to negative achievement; this is because of the time spent playing the video games. These results to negative achievements in almost all aspects, that is from school life to outside the school. Study show that video game addicts tend to argue a lot in schools with their teachers, they score lower grades and fight a lot with their friends. Video games results to health effects, they at times lead to health issues such as video induced seizures, skeletal and muscular disorders and obesity. This is because these kids spend a lot of time sitting in one place playing. For those engaged in online gaming, they tend to pick up bad behaviors and language from other people (Prot, 2014, P.126) The parents should take caution on how their children spend their time; they should adapt to some strategies to help them protect their kids from addiction. This may include; failing to install game equipment's in the kid's bedrooms, set time on how long they should spend playing and know the ratings of the video games these kids play. References Prot, S., Anderson, C. A., Gentile, D. A., Brown, S. C., & Swing, E. L. (2014). The positive and negative effects of video game play. Chapter in A. Jordan & D. Romer (Eds.) Children and Media (109-128). New York: Oxford University Press. Read More