Growing Over Time Research Paper

Reading this essay has caused me to do more research on this specific topic and the things I have found are disturbing. Video games change your mind set, your way of thinking and can affect you for the rest of your life, so when it comes to the violent video games we are turning into a more violent society. It has been studied that playing video games can affect your dreams, and your dreams affect how you feel and treat people, it’s a never ending circle. Through playing video games we are spending less and less time with one another and I think it’s a crying shame. We as a society are naturally social people and the fact that with our recent technology we have become more and more independent.

Video games have become a major occupation of majority of the youth these days. They spend hours on end concentrating on video games, some of which are apparently very violent, yet this is actually the whole idea. Coming from the horse's mouth is an argument in support of video games coined from a video programmer's point of view, stating that violent video games allow people to do what they can not do in reality- virtual reality. ( http://www.theroc.org/roc-mag/textarch/roc-15/roc15-08.htm ) For instance, someone said to be having a bad day could use a violent video game to release stress by shooting down a couple hundred bad men than actually taking an AK-47 and spilling down a few brains down the

Moreover, many kids deal with violence and can’t control it. As a result of having issues with violence some people play video games to let their violence and anger out. People need to understand that “ [b]ut overall, violent crime is down in the US-indeed, as violent games have become more popular, violent crime has fallen." (Erik Kain 1) The more popular the game is studies show violent

“Violent video games increase aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and aggressive behaviors and decrease empathic feelings and prosocial behaviors” (Gregory Ferenstein). Gaming devices not only desensitize us, but it heightens our chances of going out and committing acts of violence. Such as, James Holmes because of the games that he played (Call of Duty, Advanced Warfare and etc.) he believed that for every person he killed; he would receive a point for doing so. “There are definitely games kids shouldn't be playing, she said, for example those where hunting down and killing people is the goal)” (Anne Harding, CNN). After playing these games, many kids feel as if the real world is like a game and killing people to earn points is rewarded. Video games have changed our America to believing that death and violence should be rewarded, but with a twist and that includes handcuffs and a prison

The most popular games, like Grand Theft Auto IV offer what’s called “free play”. The ability to go where you want and do what you want in the gaming environment. The bigger the virtual world, the more exciting this can be. There are no signs, however, that tell you to punch or shoot someone” (Ulanoff). While Highland talked about how playing video games enough will “make you believe” you can actually do what you are doing inside the game, it goes hand in hand with something that Jones said in his article, Violent Media is Good for Kids. “Suddenly, I had a fantasy self to carry my stifled rage and buried desire for power. I had a fantasy self who was a self: unafraid of his desires and the world’s disapproval, unhesitating and effective in action” (Jones 195). This realization of games being our way of releasing our worries and anger onto the world being the primary reason that video games have become very appealing over the years and their evolution as an escape. Despite any regulations set out by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB, video games have been becoming more of a part of people’s lives than ever before, just as Michael Highland stated about his own life.

Other effects may also include physical and mental aggression. Some signs of these effects taking place are increased violent thoughts, violent verbal outbursts, irritability, as well as bi-polar type mood swings that usually seem over aggressive for the topic that is at hand. A study showed "Spending large amounts of time playing these games can create problems and may lead to: Poor social skills..." (Children and Video Games: Playing with Violence). Video games maybe attributing to an already rapidly growing problem in America. Social interaction skills, sites such as Facebook and Twitter are depriving our upcoming generations of social skills needed to be able to prosper in the world they will be sent into when they are on their own. In this modern society we live in today, if we cannot socialize and interact with people efficiently our job choices are reduced drastically from say, wanting to be a doctor down to creating website domains, or taking take-out orders over the phone at a fast food restaurant.

The effects of both violent and non-violent video game playing can be determined by the amount of time playing the video game and by the content of the games being played. The content of the games being played could definitely have a factor in how a child performs in school, and how aggressive they are towards peers and teachers. Obviously if a child is playing hours upon hours of violent video games, this can lead to them acting out violence and having no consequences for it. If a child took the time that they played video games a week and used that time to be engaged in reading, homework or even a creative activity we’d have less issues with our children’s school performances. Parents should really be monitoring how long their child is playing video games, but this doesn’t always happen. A child who plays video games for long periods of time could also build up a social wall, become a loner. It is important for children to interact with other children in order to help develop their social skills, which without will make it very difficult to make it in this world. At the age children start playing video games, it is hard for them to distinguish what is reality and what is not. So in some cases the violent acts in video games could make the child believe the world is a scary place.

There are some who say those who play video games are antisocial and need to,”Go outside and make friends.” But not me. Video games gave me a social life.

As technology advances, the more parents are worrying about their children. The internet has become essential to everyday life, but does it have an effect? Video games have become a source of entertainment for young people all around the world. Videos have been blamed for any violence in young people. Recent games are now becoming bloodier and more realistic. I believe that video games do not negatively influenced young people to be more violent in real life. Instead they develop mentally, socially and emotionally.

Video Games cause social isolation, for example a 15 year old boy in Sweden pass out after playing World of Warcraft for 24 hours straight, he passed out because he started experiencing social withdrawal, the kid was lacking contact with other humans, and his body’s response to the problem was to pass out. On an extreme level, Ruya Cunningham, a college student spent twenty hours a week playing video games, she eventually “dropped out of school, stopped exercising, and even stopped bathing” (Marcovitz 70). Later on, Ruya Cunningham developed depression, but she kept playing video games because she was addicted to the game. When people are addicted to a game, there is a spiraling vortex sucking the gamer away from society and from sanity. As a consequence of playing violent video games, many teen gamers struggle with real world relationships, this is because they form close virtual relationships with people they meet online. A man in Wisconsin has formed a tremendously close relationship with a group of guys he plays online with, he discusses politics with them and they send each other Christmas gifts even though they do not know each other (Marcovitz 70-72). Video games can also affect the players mental and their physiological state.

Video games can isolate a child causing him to be socially awkward and find it hard to communicate with others and cause the child to spend less time doing other activities such as homework, reading, interacting with friends and family and sports.

Secondly, video games have been known to build social skills among many who play them. It is widely known that video games have changed drastically. Now people are able to play and communicate with each other from all different parts of the world. Most games nowadays are virtually online game-play only, which means, that the players are all playing together on one server and they do not have the choice to play the game by themselves. This makes it easier to see why video games increase social skills among the nation's youth. “Playing prosocial video games increased prosocial behaviors: children who frequently played

Ever since the video game was invented many years ago, violent, bloody games have existed also. Some include killing zombies, shooting people, and fighting that ends in either someone dying or being hurt. The outcome remains the same, and a select few continue to live out these games throughout their daily life. These games can sometimes cause people to become angry. Although, some video games may have a negative effect on some people’s lives, other reasons such as their home life can be a factor in these people’s behavior.

Since several video games contain some sort of violent content, it has been hypothesized that gamers nowadays tend to be more aggressive. Gentile also states that “playing violent games increases aggressive behaviors, increases aggressive cognitions, [and] increases aggressive emotions.” This is an intense list of negative consequences, but what makes violent games instill such hostility? Many video games today include multiplayer in addition to classical single player modes. With real life opponents, gamers are much more competitive and inclined to demonstrate dominance over friends and real life opponents. Whereas facing a computer can be competitive, there may be a stronger feeling of satisfaction after defeating a nonvirtual enemy which could translate into real life aggression towards real people. Though correlation does not mean causation, the fear that violent video games may increase problematic antagonism is clearly not misplaced.

Excessive video game playing has been a problem with today’s youth they have had more influences over the youth than ever before. That brings to my attention a question, how do video games affect the youth of our society? Excessive video game playing, especially violent video games, can lead to youth violence, a decrease in academic success and many other negative things. I realize that some parents believe that they can be good for children, I agree but I also disagree in some cases. Some parents allow their children to play video games to keep a social life and to learn how to use strategies. This is true in some cases but not in all cases. For instance, other children that play video games alone and are in their rooms constantly can