Video Games Boon or Bane - Research Paper Example

5 December Video Games – Boon or Bane? Since their inception, video games have become a very integral part of every child’s journey as the child grows up from a toddler to an adolescent, and loses out on his teenage years. Most children grow up playing with arcade and video games because parents believe that these games provide them with a good sense of practising their reflexes as well as hand eye coordination and provide them with enjoyment to pass time as well. However, video games have been teaching children a number of incorrect things that they should not be adopting into their lives. These games have taken over children’s lives and have made them believe that living in the virtual world is better than the real world. Video games thus have a number of pros and cons which have been discussed within this paper. In earlier days, when children did not have video games to play with, they often spent time playing outside their homes, with their friends and family members; they spent time reading and inculcating various hobbies and habits that helped them to pass time as well as develop varied interests in different fields. Video games had never been a part of that period or culture for people. A few games did begin to develop with the advent of the 90s but during that time they were far too expensive to be affordable by the common man. It was for this reason that parents and children alike were able to spend time together and interact with each other. As video games started becoming a part of children’s’ lives, parents began to complain that children were not giving them enough time, or putting in much effort into their homework from school. (Norcia, Andrea) Video games popularized themselves in the 90s with a number of games like Super Mario and Tetris taking the lead and steering the way for children into the virtual world. Instead of running around and gaining some physical exercise, children now began to move joysticks sitting in one place for hours at an end, making the characters within the game run and jump around. Today, there are millions of different video games produced all around the world as children have become completely addicted to playing them in an attempt to reach higher levels every time. These days, most movies also have begun to develop their video games versions and every time children finish watching the movie, they run to the stores to purchase the video games and relive the experience. Very few children today can be seen without video games because they have formed a very connected part of every child’s life. As soon as children get back from school, they get glued to their video games for hours at a stretch. This makes them extremely lethargic in nature as playing these games does not provide any time for physical exercise. Children lose out on playing outside and making new friends as well because they get so used to spending time on their own with their video games. They remain glued to the screens; may they be game-boys, play stations, x-Boxes, or the old age games where one inserts a cartridge in the playing slot. With time, as video games have become more and more portable, children have begun to carry them everywhere with them, with the hope of not losing out on playing time. A number of these games are also very violent in nature, teaching children all kinds of wrong things. There have been a number of incidents of children beating other children up and bullying them with potential weapons like big bats in order to get what they want. Violent video games also have dialogues and scripts these days as the characters aim to tell a gruesome story; this further instigates children into using bad words and believing in the way of life of these characters on screen, not understanding that they are not a part of reality. Games like Grand Theft Auto and Sin City only make children fight and beat up other people. They teach them how to commit theft, and are full of bad and abusive language. Children are prone to learning these things and adopting them into their lives which is not necessarily a good thing. Thus, these games tend to cause a great amount of aggression in the people that play them because they tend to view life as a video game after a point of time. After a point, children even fail to understand what separates the real world from their imaginary and virtual discourse of life because they become so used to playing with their video games all day long. Despite this however, a number of parents have said that video games provide a number of benefits and advantages to their children. Not only children, in fact, today, there are a number of adults that are hooked onto these games as well. Adults say that these games help to improve their hand eye coordination and keep their reflexes in check along with providing them with a constant source of excitement and rejuvenation from their work lives. Most adults are also able to regulate their time slots on these video games. A number of games require a large amount of concentration. When a person begins to get old, most doctors help him find ways to improve his attention and concentration span, and a number of video games help people increase the same by making them provide constant attention at one go. Some games also help to improve memory skills and sharpen a person’s interactive skills as they make people talk to them and find solutions to various problems. Thus, in a way, these video games have also been proven to be a boon. A number of people even practice driving on video games before they can go and drive on a road. Games like Dance Dance Revolution help a person physically exercise at home, while having fun, as they make people dance and stretch their limbs with different moves. These games can be played both alone as well as in a group, making people feel comfortable at the comfort of their own home, and not embarrassing them in front of a large group of people. Despite this, a number of people get addicted to playing video games over and over again because it provides a constant means of enjoyment and helps people to escape from the reality of the situation at that particular point in time. Video games also provide knowledge to people in limited amounts; some games are based on wildlife and nature and others are based on events and happenings taking place around the world which help people to gain more intelligence and make them smarter. Many video games also teach people about different aspects of life and help them to inculcate their hobbies through the virtual world instead of doing it in real. A number of video games provide creative tips and solutions for young children to adapt into their lifestyle. (Dr Phil) Such video games have proven to be advantageous in the past as children are able to learn and understand a number of things about life from them. Such games thus need to be played on a moderated level so that children and adults are amused as well as have learned something new instead of playing something over and over again which does not help in any manner. However, children have been proven to become very aggressive after continuous amounts of playing video games. These days a number of parents are also not aware of the kind of content that children are exposed to within video games. (Violent Video Games Make Teenagers More Aggressive) Children also tend to have more confrontations with their parents and teachers because of this growing level of aggressiveness. They also tend to engage in fights with their peers and furthermore, see a decline in school achievements and concentrating on their school work because all they think about is getting back home and finishing their games. (Bushman, Brad) By playing video games, children tend to participate in violent activities first hand as opposed to watching such violent shows on television or in the movies. These violent acts are repeated continuously within the game, causing children to again and again be aggressive. Therefore, parents must take time out in order to understand the kind of games that their children engage in. They need to set limits on the kind of games that they play and for the time limit that they play them for. They also must ensure that they do not install these video game equipments in their child’s room because then the child might end up playing games all night long, and this will interfere with his sleep and concentration. He might end up seeing dreams where he is being violent, and this will affect his thought process greatly. (Harding, Anne) As a parent, if my child were only 5 years old, I would not allow him to play video games for the fear of it becoming a habit and intertwining into his later years. Even when my child would be only about 10 years old, I would still regulate the kind of television that he watches or the kinds of games he would be exposed to. Today, in a technologically advanced society children are easily exposed to video games by other children and therefore, I would try and indulge him in activities not involving video games, or letting him understand that there are better mental and physical activities in life. At the age of 15, I would allow my child to play video games but sometimes also lay them with him in order to regulate the kind of games that he plays or the time that he spends on them. (Daily Mail Reporter) Therefore, parents must be able to minimize the potential harm the violence that may be brought to the lives of their children through continuous usage and playing of video games. They need to understand and discuss the appropriateness of each and every game that their child indulges in so as to not end up having a very violent or aggressive growing teen that only likes to confront and fight with his peers. If used well, video games have been known to increase will power, determination as well as concentration and coordination skills within people because of their demand of constant attention. Thus, it is up to the user in order to make sure that video games are used in an advantageous manner, more often than never. Works Cited Norcia, Andrea. "The Impact of Video Games on Children." Doctors, Patient Care, Health Education, Medical Research | PAMF. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. . Dr Phil. "Advice - Children and Violent Video Games." Dr. Phil.com. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. . Harding, Anne. "Violent Video Games Linked to Child Aggression - CNN." Featured Articles from CNN. 03 Nov. 2008. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. . "Do Violent Video Games Influence Children? | LoveToKnow." Fun Kids Activities| Kids Games| Printables for Kids. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. . "Violent Video Games: Do They Really Cause Teens To Act Aggressively?" Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. . "Violent Video Games Make Teenagers More Aggressive, Study Finds." The Telegraph. N.p., 8 Oct. 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. . Bushman, Brad. "The Effects of Violent Video Games. Do They Affect Our Behavior?" ITHP. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. . Daily Mail Reporter. "Violent Video Games make Teenagers More Aggressive towards Other People (and Girls Are Affected as Much as Boys) Read More: Http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2214346/Violent-video-games-make-teens-aggressive-girls-affected-boys.html#ixzz2CeTzkqmN Follow Us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook." Mail Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. . Read More