The Effects Of Screen Time On Childhood And Young Adult Development

A ponderous medium of media is video games in co-relation to violence. Video games encourage violent behavior in children as they are at a crucial stage of adaptation.

, PhD, MS, CAP, CAPP, Director of Operations - Sutton Place Behavioral Health. Powerpoint Presentation. Florida Statewide Prevention Conference 2007). Since the 1950s, thousands of studies have been done on the effects of violence in television and movies. The majority of these studies conclude that: children who watch significant amounts of television and movie violence are more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior, attitudes and values (Illinois Center for Violence Prevention. Media and The Changing World Report. May 2005. Page 12). Per the Congressional Public Health Summit, 2000, young children 1.) are more easily impressionable 2.) have a harder time distinguishing between fantasy and reality 3.) cannot easily discern motives for violence and 4.) learn by observing and imitating. Finally there are plenty of studies going on right now researching how violent video games can cause people to have more aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors; and decrease empathetic, helpful behaviors with peers. With the over stimulation of the brain, it requires children to go above and beyond the last experience in order to feel the same endorphins. With the need to out do the next guy and with the motto “if it bleeds, it leads”, then what do we expect for the next generation of youth to be faced with?

When it comes to the topic of violent media, some of us would readily agree it’s a controversial subject as to whether kids should or shouldn’t be exposed to it. This is because many children who view violent media react negatively rather than not being affected at all. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of what effects does it have on children. Whereas some are convinced that it is a healthy alternative for kids to express themselves, others maintain that it causes kids to become more aggressive and contributes to juvenile crimes.

Some scholars argue however that violence in television, films and video games has in fact the opposite effect. As individuals become ‘saturated’ with violence, it can lead to a catharsis where videogames, television and films become a safe outlet to for aggressive feelings and emotions; as a result, individuals become less violent. Naturally, this argument goes against the idea that children are highly influenced by modelled behaviour as they try to replicate what they see (Freedman 2001). The influence of video games is therefore highly complex to resolve. Poole (2000) therefore argues that videogames may simply be part of many factors that lead to violent behaviour. Videogames as films and television may influence real life violence by having a particular style that is imitated. Pool argues that it is possible that the teenage murderers in America may have imitated the way in which people are killed in the video game Doom, however it is not possible to say that without playing the game they would not have killed their classmates. Research conducted in America reiterates this statement,

Additionally, although violent video games might expose children to violent behavior, the amount of violence are not as great as the ones in movies and television. The news is filled with stories of war and murder, and nearly every movie contains some forms of violence. Plus, these two media are different from games in a very important way because they involve real people, not computer-generated characters. One of the social psychological science faculties in

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?

In their research of violent videogames and the effect on children, they have found that “the simplistic belief that exposure to media violence will lead directly to individual violence is clearly wrong.” (Kutner, Olsen, 2008) I am going to ask you to look deeper than this. I assert that although violent video games are thought to encourage real world violence, they actually help to prevent it.

This paper explores the research findings on how screen time can effect children and their personalities and cognitive development. I have found four credible articles on these subjects from online sources and scholarly publications. These articles discuss the results of different studies about children’s exposure to television and online content and how they have negative effects on the developing child’s brain in terms of cognitive development and personality traits.

Students are acting more cruel to one another, than in the past. Shooting in the Dark claims, “Some studies in schools have found that over time digital warriors get into increasing numbers of scrapes with peers — fights in the schoolyard, for example. In a report published last summer, psychologists at Brock University in Ontario found that longer periods of violent video game playing among high school students predicted a slightly higher number of such incidents over time.” There’s more fights in schools with students who play violent games. Do Games like Grand Theft Auto V’ Cause Real-World Violence? claims, “I believe strongly that the media we consume can and does impact our lives in other more subtle ways. “You are what you eat” is an adage that applies equally well to the images and experiences we code into our brains. It may not make us killers, but I find it hard to believe we are simply immune to the things we do on a daily basis.” If “impressionable” children are fed these thoughts from a young age, they could grow up with a more violent

Karen Wright's article "Does violent TV breed violence? Do video games breed more of it?" addresses a pressing contemporary issue the effects that violent video games and TV have on young individuals and on society as a whole. Although the article seems to be directed at the masses, it is very likely that the writer intends to raise awareness in parents reading this article. Wright used information coming from a series of scholars, both with the purpose of supporting the fact that violent games and TV have a negative influence on individuals and in order to refute these claims. In spite of the fact that one can feel confused upon reading particular segments from the article, it is overall likely to influence readers in believing that video game and TV violence are actually very harmful for people.

Findings supporting these claims also show that with an increase in violence comes other negative health risks such as an increased likelihood of substance abuse, sexual activity, and obesity(Denniston, Swahn, Feldman, and Romero). Media use, and subsequent exposure to violent content is extremely prevalent among 8 to 18 year old children who spend, on average, 7.4 hours a day using media or computers and 80% of teens have some type of gaming console(Denniston, Swahn, Feldman, and Romero) These claims and the amount of media children are exposed to were concerning enough that the American Academy of Pediatrics started making advisory statements about violent video games and media being health risks for children in 2001. (Hall, Day, and Hall) Since then the link between violent games and violent behavior in youths has been researched across many “population groups”(Denniston, Swahn, Feldman, and Romero). The second theory revolves around any positive effects that might be gained from playing these games (Hall, Day, and Hall). Stating that these may offer “safe” outlets for negative emotions and thusly allowing players to be more emotionally balanced. (Hall, Day, and Hall)

Aimee Tompkins (2003) claims that children are being affected by everything what they see around them in the youth, and people, who see violence in the youth, always tend to be more hostile and less responsive to images of violence. That 's why parents try to border children from any possible negative influences. But they often do not even realize that by buying to child a game console, they put them into the risk. Since most video games contain violent character. According to statistics given by the ‘Children now’ organization (2001), 89% of the top-selling video games have violent character and serious violence is contained in half of them.

Craig Anderson, a distinguished professor, director and specialist in the study of violence through the media, argues that exposure to violence through video games is effecting the youth of America. To Anderson’s dismay, there is little research and scientific studies directly focused on this topic, due to the fact that an influx of video games throughout the nation has only occurred recently. However, Anderson continuous to believe, based off other meta-analyses studies, that the issue of violence being portrayed as entertaining rather than disturbing is more severe than many realize. According to the article “FAQs on Violent Video Games and Other Media Violence”, Anderson states that violence is being presented in a humorous way. He believes this is problematic because of it creates positivity towards the violence, leads to memorization of aggressive actions, decreases cognitive accessibility to handle situations in a non-violent way and desensitizes the viewer emotionally. In addition, he addresses the difference between TV, movies and other media outlets compared with video games, describing how video games are much more interactive and isolating. Anderson finds these issues to be concerning and can only hope that the general public will one day accept his philosophy and the research that backs up his position.

Video games aren’t the only source of exposing violence and aggression to young children and teenagers. Television is also a very common source. Over the past 30 years the rate of violence has increased. Back in 1950, only 10% of the household had televisions. However, now more than 90% of household have televisions. In fact, a lot of young adults have televisions in their own room. This give young adults the access to view whatever they desire without having the parental guide. Characters such as heroes appear on television or movies and they save lives. However, these heroes have characteristics such as being strong and violent. Even young children are using terms like “I have to catch the bad guys” when role playing with toy figures. Studies show that children in the United States watch approximately 28 hours of television a week. This is more than the time they spend in school. This leads them to view more than “200,000 acts of violence, including more than 16,000 murders before the age 18” (Beresin).

In the book Critique of Violence ,author Walter describes Violence as "The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, male development, or deprivation .The violence that is portrayed in the media has been debated for decades ,and it has rose a question about how does it influence the youth?. From movies to video games society has been accustom to seeing violence in their everyday entertainment. Since children are easy to be influence by their environment, it is safe to say that violence in the media can and will contribute to violent behavior.