Common Sense Media

Video games are enjoyable for people and have good benefits for children who use their multiple skills to play and interact with others. In many parts of the world, the common video game is often seen by parents as something that is wasting their child's time or “rotting their brain”. It is a popular misconception that video games are bad for children. What parents do not know is the positive things about video games. Video games have a positive impact on people and help them learn things for experiences to come. People often do not understand that violent video games are not harmful to people because video games allow people to release their anger, video games decrease crime in youth, and because they allow people to be creative and test their

Video games and their impacts have been hotly debated for a number of years, particularly violent video games. Games such as Grand Theft Auto appear to promote everything from carjacking to randomly murdering an innocent bystander just because you can, sparking debate that seems to renew itself every time a new game is released in the series. The most general form of this argument simply asks if video games are good or bad for their players. On one side, there is the belief that video games, and particularly those that are violent, are bad, especially for children. On the other, it is believed that video games are relatively harmless in the long run, and potentially even beneficial. The importance

Since video games have been introduced, video games have been accused of contributing too many atrocities, and acts of violence. News outlets paint video games as being a source of which some acts of violence happen. Yes, violent video games have become more popular, meanwhile becoming controversial, but still there exist no links between aggression and video games. The University of Bologna says that “owning videogames does not in fact seem to have negative effects on aggressive human behavior” (Koffler par.7). Meanwhile, news outlets keep on missing the point on how beneficial video games are. Video games do not contribute to violence, can be educational, and they can improve us in different ways.

Some of the first video games ever made like Pac Man, Mario Bros.,Sonic the Hedgehog and Street Fighter never helped someone learn their ABC’s and 123’s which caused video games to develop a bad name like it’s “rotting kids’ brains” or distract them from more important studies but over time things change and become better and based off this website it says that “A number of recent studies have indicated that video games, even violent ones, can help kids develop essential emotional and intellectual skills that support academic achievement. These findings led many innovative teachers around the globe to recognize the benefits of gaming and include game-based learning in their curricula. However, it’s not just in-school gaming that reaps benefits. New research shows that all gaming can be positive.”

Over the past few centuries,video games have become a great leisure and hobby among kids of all ages and cultures. With the advancement of technology, video games have advanced highly in its realism and genres. This high type of advancement brought the video game industry to a multi-billion dollar industry. However, with realism, comes negative effects as well. Ever since the creation of violent or “mature” video games, there has been a constant debate on whether it will increase violence in the player. Although, not all video games are violent, and just increase skills in a player such as hand-eye coordination. Nevertheless, there is research going on for the link between violent video games and youth violence. The question is which event happens first in the sequence, do violent video games aggravate a person’s violent behavior, or does a person get rid of their anger through playing violent video games? Either way, violent video games are not beneficial to our society.

Content analyses show that 89% of video games have some violent content. Half of the video games on the market have extreme violent actions toward other characters. Games, today, are allowing players to not only connect with the game physically, but also emotionally and psychologically. In essence, the player becomes the character. According to Nielson Media Research, at least 45 million households in the United States have at least one video game console (Markey & Charlotte, 2010). The average age of video game players has increased to age 34, and 60% of Americans play interactive games on a regular basis. However, researchers believe that younger children are more susceptible to the negative effects of playing violent video games compared to older teenagers and adults. Furthermore, games that include violence have raised serious concerns among

Technology is an important aspect of change in our world. As time goes on, we are introduced to more and more technology every year, which includes media such as video games. The increase of technology has also increased and improved the world including ways of communicating and distribution of information. More often used outlets of media are those used for entertainment purposes, like television, internet and video games. The ones who are most likely to engage in these media outlets are millennials and the most recent generation Z, because they have been introduced to these outlets from a young age. In fact, a study found that children spend around 9 hours a week playing video games (Polman, de Castro, & van Aken, 2008). It is evident that video games are progressively becoming more violent in nature, and with children spending as much time as they do playing video games, there are questions that must be asked, is the violent nature of video games effecting today’s youth? And if so in what ways?

The release of early games, such as Pac-Man, Donkey-Kong, and Space Invaders, initiated the innovative and precedent era of video game popularity; however, modern games follow a distinctly uniform pattern in violent graphics and paucity of discretion. Whereas early media did little to affect the teenage psyche, the impact of modern media and its barbaric implications are considerably heightened by the large teen proclivity towards television, video games, and film. Surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation6 have shown that in today’s highly digitalized society, children ages eight to eighteen spend approximately six and a half to seven and a half hours a day using media devices. Correlatively, research from the Pew Internet Project reveal that 97% of American teenagers play video games. Such media saturation, while undoubtedly harmful to health and social interactions, has only become psychologically harmful in recent years with the emergence of violence in interactive and narrative media. Unable to actively participate in violent crimes in the real world, teenagers take solace in doing so in the imaginary one, effectively learning to disassociate themselves from the characters they brutalize and murder. This talent, unfortunately, has become useful to those whose minds have been

(White, 2009, p. 2) Video games also cause children to develop social problems. Their empathy decreases and they are less willing to help others. Children become antisocial spending less and less time interacting with family members, friends, and playing. They are controlled by what is occurring on the screen in front of them, locking themselves up in their rooms, or away from others just to play endless hours of video games. Video games have progressed over recent years becoming far more violent, sophisticated, and addictive. Studies have shown that the effects of video games and aggressive behavior follow almost the same pattern as that of studies with violent media such as cartoons.

Side effects of video games number just about as many types of video games that people play. In Lisa Weber’s article “Positive Effects of Video Games on Children,” she states several benefits that children obtain when they play video games. Some of these advantages include the areas of social development, education, and an emotional outlet. As a result, Lisa clearly displays her stance on the positive side of the opinions of video games. However, electronic gaming contains a voluminous amount of pernicious effects. When young adults and children partake in video games, they come across numerous experiences that could have a negative influence on their lives.

Video Games have come a long way since their first introduction into the main stream. With video games becoming more sophisticated and using advanced technology, it seems as if video games are closing in on the gap between games and reality. However, as video games become ever so life-like it brings up the question of if the violence associated with video games is having a negative consequence. There have been many accusations over the years over the harm video games are causing children and teenagers. Experiments have been conducted trying to associate a link between video games and aggressive behavior. Even the media has been known to point fingers at video games for the cause of children

Good Morning, everyone, i'm going to start off with a poll of who all plays video games in this class. A lot of you/ maybe not too many in this class play video games and/but, as of 2015, 42% of Americans played video games at least 3 hours a week, which is roughly 135 million of the total population. This proves that video games play a large role in our society. Today I’m going to be speaking about the psychological effects that video games have on youth, but in order to do that, I need to inform you of the evolution of violent video games, the effects of violent video games, and the positive effects of video games.

Over the years, the popularity of computer and video games has grown. Specifically violent video games make up more than 50 % of the top selling games. These games include violent themes that involve guns, crime, blood, and gore. There is an ongoing belief that these types of games are to blame for the many acts of violence in society and have encouraged America’s youth to act out in aggression. Several organizations, such as the PTC (Parents Television Council) have moved to discourage the development of violent games while also pushing for stronger regulations when purchasing such games. There is also debate among parents and concerns on how games can negatively influence their children. So is there a direct link between video games and violence? The truth is video games do not encourage violence in society based on several factors which include scientific studies, statistics on crime, and prevention measures adopted by game publishers.

“Recent contents analyses of video games show that many as 89% of games contain some violent contents” (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, Walsh 3). More than half of video games being sold around the world contain some form of violence. All of the violence involved in the video games being played by children is a pattern leading to aggression. Aggression can be caused by many things; however, violent video games are the main cause of aggression in young adults. “If a child began playing violent video games at a young age, then he might think that violence in real life is the same as the game violence and that it doesn’t have a real impact on others” (Gilad, Alto 1). Thinking that violence in the virtual world is the same as in the real world is the first step to showing aggression. Aggression in children caused by video games is the biggest effect parents and researchers worry about. Violent video games teach children that shooting and killing people are

Controversy about video games continue to escalate between parents and gamers, regarding the psychological effect of simulated, realistic, and 3D violence on the minds of young children and growing teenagers. Yet, research shows that video games contribute very little to today’s everyday violence, despite complaints and concerns that games influence a child’s normal behavior. Technology is a way of life in today’s world, computers are used by toddlers, adolescents, and adults alike. No matter what career path a person chooses, the computer plays an essential role in the job. The more our technology progresses and as our industry grows stronger, computers and electronic entertainment will grow to be found everywhere around the world. This includes videogames.