Pros And Cons Of Video Games

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 game addiction has become a major problem in our society. Many children and teenagers play an excessive amount of hours of video games a day that they develop countless problems such as violent behavior, hostility and social isolation. These are but few of many examples of problems young teenagers face when they have gotten to the point of addiction. However, video game addiction is proven to be associated with academic achievements and social skills as well. (Chui et al., 2004). Gaming addicts experience huge fluctuations in behavior as stated by Chin & Wen-Bin (2007). These so called fluctuations in behaviors do not manifest on their own however. Many addicts have actually become hooked on gaming simply because

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.

from the brains functions, it can affect their future, and video games can cause social

Video games or online games are played everyday by a vast majority of teens in the United States. It is estimated that in 2008 approximately 70-90% of teens reportedly play these games. Many individuals believe that video games offer a learning experience like no other. However, video games distract from learning and actually negatively affect the minds of teen players, therefore, playing video or online games is indisputably harmful to adolescents’ intellectual and social development.

Once I started researching this topic, I found out that video games can affect people's moods making them more aggressive and irritable. People become obsessed with video games and often withdraw from normal life (work, school, and family). They can acquire social anxiety or depression from the lack of daily socialization. Some people become very unproductive and only care about their game. It’s like the video game takes over people's lives.

The obvious mental problem is aggressive behavior, but others include social phobias, anxiety, and even depression. Physical effects caused by video games include fatigue, migraines due to intense concentration or eye strain, carpal tunnel syndrome caused by the overuse of a controller or computer mouse, and poor personal hygiene. Now one thing, the bad effects are mostly caused by spending too much time on video games. So that means, if you or your child spends less time on video games, there are good effects. Video games increase coordination, improve problem-solving skills, sometimes enhances memory, and improves attention and concentration. It is a great source of learning, as it improves the brain's speed, enhances multitasking skills, and improves social skills. Patricia Greenfield, a psychology professor at UCLA, has studied the relationship between video games and intelligence and finds a positive correlation. Her research attributes an increase in worldwide "nonverbal IQ" (spatial skills, the use of icons for problem-solving and the ability to understand things from multiple viewpoints) to the spread of video games. I was thrilled to hear my prejudice confirmed--until Greenfield noted that this rise in IQ comes at the expense of potentially more important social skills. Which is to say that kids typically don't interact that well when they spend hours sitting in front of the computer or console. "It's

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.

In Jonathan Craton’s article “The Effect of Videogames on Student Achievement” he shows the positive and negative effects video games have on present day students. He goes into detail on the benefits and shortfalls that video games could have on education and social skills of college students. Craton also mentions the psychological effects noted from video games including games with increased amounts of violence. Despite the negative effects Craton mentions in his article, video games should be used to assist in the learning process in classrooms around the world.

A man tells us his IQ raised tremendously only after playing many video games. This man was indeed smarted and more self aware of his surrounding just because of the video games. He had many friends and even made money for playing those games. His whole career depended on this. Without it his life may just fall apart. With these facts we know that videogames can help individual life with little to no bad consequences. This also tells us that video games may help people calm themselves and use this technology as a source of violence online instead of violence in the real world.

Video games actually can teach people skills that you need to learn such as critical thinking, communication, and teamwork. Not everyone can learn these skills from sports. Sometimes, sports are just interesting to people, and it’s possible that sports are not a part of their lives. In their world, games could be something important, and that something important gives them the skills that they need. Some people may argue that it’s unhealthy to stare at a computer screen for hours on end or sports are healthier and they are more active by participating in sports. That is not the case. There are many games out there that stimulate the brain, making them active. People think that hardcore video gaming fanatics are dumb. That is not the case since “Roman Rivera grew up playing “Pokemon” to “Call of Duty,” and [ignored his curfew]. Now, he’s 21 years old playing “Dota 2.” Yet, he was an honor student and a member of the debate team and today he’s studying economics at the University of Chicago” (Keilman). People that play games are not dumb in any way unless they choose not to study, but that is their fault, not

Many people stand behind the fact that video games do help people and kids in the development of their brain, while other people do not. The argument based around the idea that video games help the development of people or not has been going on for a long time. Different stories come up on how people are getting seriously harmed while playing video games, but there are other stories coming up about the positives about playing video games. One side believes that playing video games hinders the development of a child’s brain. Also, they believe the more violent video games we see on the markets today cause children to be violent and lash out on family. On the other side of the argument though, scientists go deep in to their research on how video games help the development of the human brain and the positive effects it can have for people long-term. Also, on the same side of the argument video games can be used for educational purposes. This argument has valid points on both sides, while they have good reasoning behind them.

The effects of gaming on a person is a controversial issue. Many people believe that it is a bad influence, but there is also evidence that games can have positive effects on a person’s health. Many studies have been done into the topic of the effects of video games on a person. The findings show that video games have a positive effect on a person’s mental and social health and have many unrelated health benefits.

A controversy of video games is that they don’t benefit our society, over the years this controversy has become national news. Those who oppose video games say that they make you violent and that they don’t benefit you or our society. Video games have benefitted society because it has made breakthroughs in science, benefitted us in social skills, and has caused health benefits physically and mentally. Video games have done more good in society than what we are told by the media, it’s not as evil as some may think.

Everyone at some point has heard in one way or another that video games are a useless waste of time. Some research says that video games cause addiction, depression, obesity, laziness and desensitization to violence, however, I’m going to argue otherwise. I say that games do substantially more good than harm regarding social skills and mental fitness and here’s why. Although video games have received a good deal of flak and are often touted as the root of problem behaviors in children and adults, according to a review of research in American Psychology, playing video games, even violent shooters, may be boosting learning, health and social skills (Bowen, 2014).