The Result of Video Games on Little Ones - Research Paper Example

The Effect of Video Games on Children Student name Student ID University Affiliation Subject Date My Name The Effect of Video Games on Children Video games are a pervasive feature of most children’s life, especially in the developed countries. Video games are a powerful attraction to children and have become part of the children’s culture. Video games may have some advantages, but also some negative effects. Whereas pro-social and positive children’s game may have some positive impact, video games mostly have negative effects with violent games having more severe negative effect on children. There are substantial negative effects of playing video games. Video games that have violence have the most perverse effect on the children. Increased emotional hostility and decreased empathy are two main attributes of violent children’s video games (Denise, 2010). For instance, various studies have indicated that there exists a relationship between aggressive behavior and video game play in children (Holder, 2012). Children engaged in violent video games that involve killing and shooting reflect increased levels of anger (Gunter, 2000). Such anger may contribute to aggressive behavior in the real life. Denise (2010) adds that even short-term exposure to violent video games increases the children’s hostility levels. In addition, violent video games reward children for violent behavior. Children are likely to be motivated tor replicate the same behavior in their real life situation (Holder, 2012). Children may develop a feeling of normalcy in regard to violence and may not feel remorse or guilt in displaying aggressive behavior such as clobbering their peers and their siblings. Various studies have also sought to identify the relationship between video games and academic performance amongst children. Such studies have shown that playing video games is significantly correlated to the poor academic performance of children (Denise, 2010). This is supported by the view that since video games are significantly an addictive behavior, children who play video games spend a lot of time playing games at the expense of time that would have been spent in other activities including academic pursuits. Too much involvement in video game playing: whether violent or non-violent, leads children to ignore their studies and thus resulting to the subsequent poor scores in academics. Other studies on the effect of video games on the children’s social behavior behaviors have explored gender bias attributed to video game play. Most video games inculcate the gender differences in society to children at a very young age. Most games reflect the traditional gender biases against women with men and women in video games taking different roles to depict their assigned gender roles in the society (Gunter, 2000). Such introduction of gender bias at an early age cements the views of children on the expectations of males and females in the society in a mostly negative manner. Such early exposure to gender biases may significantly affect the way children treat their peers from opposite gender. Studies have also been conducted on the effect of video games on the physical health of children. Playing video games involve sitting for long periods of time and this may negatively affect the children health. Playing video games for long hours has been associated with various physical risks such as muscular disease, carpal tunnel syndrome and skeletal and postural disorders (Holder, 2012). Video games may also contribute to obesity as children playing video games are more likely to consume snacks and other unhealthy foods (Denise, 2010). Spending too much time on the video games is also likely to be associated with less physical exercise as these children are less likely to be physically active through outdoor play with other children. Video games may have more adverse effects such chronic illnesses that include high blood pressure and increased heart rate. Besides the negative effect of video games, video games, especially pro-social video games may have some positive effect on children (Cheryl, 2010). For instance, pro-social games may have a positive effect on the social behavior of the children on such aspects such as sharing (Holder, 2012). For instance, games that may involve guiding animals under attack to safety result to more positive intention to help after playing a game compared to games that involve attacking opponents or even neutral games such as Tetris. Video game may also positive impact on the way that the brain works. Prensky (2001) asserts that the Tetris effect is an example of ways that video games positively affect the brain by enhancing the efficiency of the brain. Various brain-train games, for instance, are used to enhance various skills and abilities in children (Prensky, 2001). Playing video games in children is also associated with increased motivation, development of motor skills and spatial ability (Prensky, 2001). Such games as speed, for instance, can improve the motivation of students to learn by making content that may be boring to be more interesting. In the academic video game, players are represented with rapid succession of words and they are required to determine whether a cluster of words exist in the word or not. For instance, in the term, ‘highlight’, a player answers whether there is a cluster of ‘hli.’ Due to the limited time, players are able to make judgments fast and this may motivate the children to learn as it makes the material more interesting (Holder, 2012). There is an increased use of video games in learning where innovative video game designs are used to enhance particular skills and in acquisition of knowledge in children (Cheryl, 2010). There is an evident shift in the education sector, for instance, to use video games as part of the learning process for children. For instance, in order to improve children’s skills in language and math, various games such as Math Blaster and Reader rabbit are significantly deployed as practice drilling games (Prensky, 2001). Other games such as BrainAge for instance, involve various activities such as problem solving, drawing pictures, memory drills, and music. Such games are designed to improve children’s memory, math speed and skill, word fluency, and numeracy (Prensky, 2001). Sclafani (2012) asserts that technology, including video games provides children with self-confidence especially when the children are successful in their play. Interactive games, for instance, engage the attention of the players and these may contribute to either an increase in the arousal levels or a decrease in the arousal levels of the children. This causes the child to be distracted from the real world problems although it may increase in the case of competitive games. Other researchers have focused on the effect of video games on children’s cognitive abilities. When available, children play video games at very early ages and as young as three-year olds can manipulate computer based games. Gunter (2000) asserts that evidence from children, teenagers and young adults have shown that specific skills can be learnt from playing of video games and such skills can be transferred to other tasks. In such a study, playing of a video game called Evolution, which was a non-violent game, indicated that there was transfer of learned skills when an education video was later given to the participants. Subsequently, some scholars have argued that video games have a role in the developing of children’s cognitive abilities and should thus be utilized constructively and embraced as part of the modern culture. The negative effects of video games in children are more pervasive and thus the need for parents to limit children play with video games (Cheryl, 2010). For instance, children should be encouraged to play pro-social games rather than violent games. Considering that most of the negative effects such as poor academic performance and negative health impact including obesity and postural disorders are related to the lengthy time that children spend in playing games, parents should restrict the amount of time that children spend in playing video games (Sclafani, 2012). Gunter (2000) thus suggests that children should be restricted to not more than two hours each day in playing video games. From the foregoing, it is obvious that video games have both negative and positive effects. Parents and educators should thus aim to shape positive outcomes by providing guidance to children. This is helpful to enable children to gain the benefits of video games while preventing the obvious adverse consequences that video games may pose to children. References Cheryl, K. (2010). Children’s motivation for video game play in context of normal development. Review of General Psychology, 14 (2), pp. 1180-187. Denise, B. H. (2010). The developing child. New York: Pearson publishers. ebook Gunter, B. (2000). The effects of video games on children: The myth unmasked. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. Holder, M. (2012). Happiness in children: Measurement, correlates and enhancement of positive subjective well-being. New York: Springer. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Game-based learning. New York: McGraw-Hill. Sclafani, J. (2012). The educated parent 2: Child rearing in the 21st century. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. Read More