The Effects Of Video Games On Children

The video games of today take many forms, ranging from immersive fantasy worlds, to simple point and click programs with little, to no plot. Some games aim only to demonstrate an educational concept in a fun and interactive way, while others allow the player to step out of reality and enjoy a world of their own making. It is this wide variety of game types that makes it impossible to judge "video games" as a whole. For this purpose of this essay, I will acknowledge video games as belonging to one of two camps - violent, nonviolent, or educational.

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.

Have you ever wonder “Do Video Games Kill?” Well, Karen Sternheimer, the author of the essay who focuses on the youth and popular culture has explained it very well in the essay. Sternheimer addresses the wide spread idea of how video games are the cause for killers at a young age. She believes the influence of video games may have a little on the youth being out of control. Sternheimer puts most of the blame for the youth of being out of control on the media. She also writes some about politicians and the Juvenile Justice system. She also points out that the youth not only is influenced by video games, but also the home life. While it may be that juvenile crimes have declined and personal

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

Contrary to popular notions and opinions, video games, even those with violent content, may actually be beneficial to children and adolescents. At least that is the argument made by left-leaning journalist Paul Merrill, a contributor to Australian based kidspost.com.au, who has written about everything from household chores, pregnancy, problem children, and now, violent video games. Merrill uses the recent Sandy Hook school shooting and Port Arthur Massacre as examples of video games taking the blame for violent behavior; citing opposing evidence from the U.S. Surgeon General and the U.S. Secret Service along with personal experience as a parent, to paint a colorful and sometimes humorous picture of the vast advantages to be by gained from playing video games.

In the 21st century, society is noticing a drastic change in the new generation. Going outside has become a thing of the past for some and many parents struggle to get their children to stop playing video games. Submersed in the world of violent video games, society has started to scorn the idea of them. Though video games seem to have a lot of drawbacks, other parts of society encourage the development of video games. While many believe that video games are detrimental to society they actually hold many benefits for all age ranges.

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.

Concerns about the effect of media violence on children extends back at least to the beginning of the mass media, with the issue raised with reference to films, radio, television, comic books, and so on. As technology brings new types of media to the fore, the issue shifts to depictions of violence in these new media. Both popular sources and scholarly address this issue, asking in effect how violent video games change children’s behavior and make them more violent, assuming that it is believed that this is the case.

Jerkin believes that the problem with most contemporary video games is not the violence but that they are banal formulaic and predictable (202). But Sternheimer argues that’s video games have come to represent a variety of social anxieties: about youth violence, new computer technology and the apparent decline in the ability of adults to control what young people do and know. Sternheimer points out video games are becoming a major part of many young people’s lives, few of whom will ever become violent, let alone kill. There are many other factors that video games critics should take into consideration when blaming video games for being the cause of aggressive behaviors like

Video Games have come a long way since their debut having such a big impact on gamers that not only they can play these different types of games, “they are talked about, read about, fantasized about, cheated at, altered, and become models for everyday life and for the formation of subjectively and intersubjectivity” (Annetta 230). The majority of the population of people who play video games are mostly children and teens falling between the ages of 10-19 and even adults as well. It’s amazing how a wide range of age groups play video games and not just children. Unfortunately, today in American society, people think that video games are triggered for violence and aggressive behavior, and they don’t focus on the positive benefits video games have to offer. This may be because some games have weapons are present, especially in M-rated

In today’s society, the vast majority of adolescents spend their free time indoors. Many of those hours are enjoyed playing video games, a habit which teenagers will never hear the end of from their parents. “These games will ruin you”, they say, “It makes you angry and violent”, they say, but does it really? Media often portrays videogames as detrimental to mental health, and this topic is especially scrutinized today because of the sudden popularity of the recent public mass shootings and gun violence; however, past and more recent studies show that this is absolutely not true. In fact, the positives of gaming seem to massively outweigh the negatives.

“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

Alternating feet and slamming them down on each stair, I make my way up to my apartment. The throbbing in my head seems to be in cadence with my every step. It has been one of those days, the kind of day that I want to start over but cannot. So instead I continue up the stairs to the comfort of my own home. Fiddling with the keys in the door just prolongs the process of me relaxing on the couch. But finally I am inside. The softness of the couch hugs my body. I surrender myself to it. It helps my mood but not enough. The stress of the day is still sitting on my shoulders. The only way to relieve this stress is to try and forget and what better way to do that than to play a video game. For as long as I can remember, playing video games has been my outlet to relieve stress. There is something about playing ‘Call of Duty’ and creeping through the battlefields, shooting up enemies, that is relaxing. My fingers, moving a thousand miles a minute, press every button while trying to stay alive. Some may argue that this is not a healthy way to de-stress but as with every thing in life there are positive and negative aspects to it. Playing video games can have both positive and negative effects on children.

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.