Advantages and Disadvantages of Video Games - Essay Example

Advantages & Disadvantages of Video Games by Video games have become inevitable part of entertainment for all generations in the modern world: children and teenagers are part of the community of gamers as well as adults and young people. For the last fifteen years the popularity of video games was proving its increase from day to day. The market of video games does everything possible and impossible to attract new consumers: championships and contests attract gamers from all around the world, video games become connected to the movies and music, and so the place of video games in the popular culture is very significant. Most often video games are still perceived as harmful, time-consuming, and provoking violence in young generation. However, the pros and cons of such huge popularity of video games given by technology progress cannot be formulated based only on the opinion of those who do not play games or devoted gamers. So it is important to examine the influence of video games weighing accurately the advantages and disadvantages, and before judging video games it is crucial to examine them according to their impact on cognitive skills, language skills, emotions, memory, and reaction. I consider that moderate playing right video games can be beneficial to people of different ages. It looks like it is impossible to escape video games playing, and children will be involved in this process in some way sooner or later. Nevertheless, relying on stereotypical perception of video games is illogical, because a lot of new research data proves that video games can be useful. First of all it is crucial to pay attention to the fact that there is a number of very different video games that is why generalizing their common effect is very wrong. Some games presuppose that players are involved into common action online that is why the game imitates reality. Some games, such as Starcraft for example, require serious analytical skills, multitasking skills, and the ability to create chess- like strategies. The games, such as Sims 3 are designed to enhance people`s communication skills and the speed of taking decisions. Therefore, it is possible to suggest that right video games created for the right auditory can have positive effect in terms of motivation, reaction, social skills, and analytical skills (Granik et al., 2014). Most video games are associated with intellectual laziness and escapism; however, there is a scientific data that proves that playing video games, shooters in particularly, can boost cognitive skills. In the experiment conducted with naïve players (those who did not have any experience playing) positive effects on cognitive skills were revealed. Those players who are engaged in shooters showed higher results when it concerned attention allocation, spatial resolution in visual processing, and improved rotation abilities (Green & Bavelier, 2012). Problem-solving skills are probably one of the most useful skills that develop as a result of video games playing. The reason is most video games are designed in such a way that each step leads to certain consequences and multiple choices are possible. Therefore instead of following some instructions which are the basis of certain games, video games require from a player a strategy and the ability to calculate the consequences of his decisions. Problem-solving skills include the possibility of gathering information, assessing it in a right way, developing a plan, and correcting one`s actions in the course of plan implementation. All this is crucial for many serious video games, such as World of Warcraft, for instance (Steinkuehler & Duncan, 2008) Video games have another positive impact on creativity regardless of the genre of the game. It is proved that children and teenagers who regularly dedicate some time to video games turn out to be more creative I their decision making processes and are ready to regard their tasks from numerous perspectives (Jackson et al., 2009). However, there are certain negative sides of playing too many video games which are based on violence. Exposure to video games violence has short-term and long-term effects. In laboratory conditions it was revealed that even brief consumption of violent video games (even 15 minutes) tunes player`s mind on aggression (Anderson, Carnagey, Flanagan, Benjamin, Eubanks, & Valentine, 2004). Long-term effects are more threatening. Since children and adolescents do not have stable world perception and are unable to see the difference between real violence and video violence, players show decrease in normal emphatic response to real violence, which is called desensitization. Thus, loss of normal emphatic reaction to violence, blood, death, and aggression is the major negative effect of video games. Adolescents who get too involved in video games and spent more than 5 hours playing violent games are prone to behaving more violently in real life. It happens because a brain of a teenager is still developing and it reacts more impulsively on violent and sexual imagery (Walsh, 2004).Therefore, when it concerns children and teenagers it is very important to control their choice of video games to prevent harmful emotional effects. Video games can also have another unexpected positive effect: though they are connected mostly to lying on the sofa or sitting in a comfortable arm chair, it is a rather archaic vision of video games. More and more products are designed in such a way that they presuppose active involvement, and people can literally play tennis or surf with the help of the latest video games. Moreover, some games help people with obesity as they include dancing and moving. The research described by Epstein et al., suggests that children with overweight sometimes feel shame and stress and that combining physical activity with games is one of the most effective ways to lose weight for them (2007). Forgetting that video games have negative effects would be still pointless because it is necessary to take into consideration all factors. Among the negative effects it is necessary to mention stereotyping. It was revealed that video games usually portray women in a stereotypical way showing intended anti-women attitude. It results in distortion of normal perception of women and such negative phenomena as domestic violence or rape. Moreover, video games usually portray representatives of minorities in a perverted way (Dill, Brown, & Collins, 2007). So once again it is very important to understand what games are chosen and how much time children dedicate to them. Another negative effect that video games can have is that they can teach teenagers and children to escape from reality. Teenagers are unable to manage their time effectively that is why video games if consumed enormously can soon become their drugs: they will use them in any moment of their life when they would need to deal with problems (Dill, Brown, & Collins, 2007). Moreover, video games can give is emotional stability in critical situations because they teach how to remain cold-hearted and wait for the real ending instead of praising intermediary victories. In this case video games remind chess, one of the most interesting intellectual games. Video games players usually learn very fast that temporary loses re nothing compared to the final victory and elaborate patience and emotional stability. Our emotions are our answer to the irritants of the outside world. It is clearly that emotional stability is the guarantee of a person’s normal and healthy existence as an individual. Video games are proved one of the most certain ways of achieving positive emotions. They are based entirely on the gratification theory- as soon as a person passes some ordeals; he/she gets rewarded for it. Thus, one the one hand video games help a player to maintain motivation (which is another positive aspect), and on the other guarantee positive feedback (Fredrickson, 2001). And the last but not the least what must be mentioned is the effect of video games on social skills. Though again players are usually depicted as reclusive nerds playing games all days long, in reality people mostly choose to play video games in a company of friends and relatives. Additionally, most video games are set online, which means that they involve millions of users. For instance, World of Warcraft has more than 12 million of regular players while Farmiville gathers more than 5 million every day in Facebook. So many games promote interaction, negotiation, and communication skills because they are based on cooperation. For most shooters the ability to be a part of a team is crucial. To summarize the study I should state that there are more neutral or positive than negative effects of videogames on the different aspects of a person’s behaviour, social skills, emotional stability as well as memory and reaction. People are still prone to make complicated things simple and when it comes to judging something they react fast with bad/good answer instead of examining the concept closer. It turns out that stereotypical perception of video games does not have serious background and those who still claim that video games teach violence and limit social contact in reality are among those who have never tried modern video games at least once. So speaking about video games as of some entertainment for retarded and lazy people is illogical because there is enough scientific evidence that video games enhance cognitive skills, creativity, motivation, social skills, and certainly reaction. People dedicating moderate time to playing video games show better results in visual spacing and reaction. Shooters teach gamers to analyze the situation quickly and to elaborate chess-like strategy. Making decisions in real life does not differentiate much from making decisions in the virtual world: people need to assess the conditions, create a plan and correct this plan adapting to the changing reality. Video games also improve creativity-the ability to act in unexpected ways in common situation. It is also necessary to emphasize that video games can improve person`s social skills because they are often played in a company and if there is no company, they are played with other online gamers. That is why apart from pure entertainment (which is also an important factor because games provide people with valuable positive emotions) games can be a serious assistant in developing and training cognitive skills, analytical skills, reaction, motivation, and social skills. Therefore, it is important to choose video games for specific ages and specific purposes so they could be useful and not harmful. References Anderson, C. A., Carnagey, N. L., Flanagan, M., Benjamin, A. J., Eubanks, J., & Valentine, J. C. Violent video games: Specific effects of violent content on aggressive thoughts and behavior, 2004, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 36, 199-249. Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56. Gentile, D. A., & Gentile, J. R. Violent video games as exemplary teachers: A conceptual analysis, 2008, Journal of Youth and Adolescence. Granic, I., Lobel, A., Rutger, S., & Egels, C. (2014). The Benefits of Playing Video Games, American Psychologist, 69, 1. Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2012). Learning, attentional control, and action video games. Current Biology, 22. Dill, K. E., Brown, B. P., & Collins, M. A. Effects of Media Stereotypes on Sexual Harassment Judgments and Rape Supportive Attitudes: Popular Video Game Characters, Gender, Violence and Power, 2007, Manuscript in Preparation. Epstein, L., Beecher, D., Graf, L., & Roemmich, L. Choice of interactive dance and bicycle games in overweight and non-overweight youth, 2007, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33(2), 124-131. Jackson, L. A., Witt, E. A., Games, A. I., Fitzgerald, H. E., von Eye, A.,& Zhao, Y. (2012). Information technology use and creativity: Findings from the Children and Technology Project. Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 370–376. Walsh, D. Violent and Explicit Video Games: Informing Parents and Protecting Children, 2006, Testimony given before the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection. Read More