Video Games : A Huge Part Of Our Society

Video game addiction is not yet recognized by the American Medical Association as a diagnosable disorder, but addiction has become a very real problem for many video game players. An addiction is when the person needs more and more of a substance or behavior to keep them going, and if the person does not get more, they can become irritable and miserable. Compulsive gaming meets these criteria, and there have been many studied instances where severe withdrawal symptoms in game addicts are seen when parents take away the child’s electronic gaming system. According to chapter three of the book, a study in Singapore of 3,000 middle schoolers found that the

International studies have shown that between seven and eleven per cent of gamers show some symptoms associated with addiction. Some teens are heavy users of online role-playing games (RPGs) such as World of Warcraft and multiplayer games such as Call of Duty in which they interact with other players in real time. These teens will often neglect schoolwork and other aspects of their daily lives when they become immersed in these games. The American Medical Association has identified “video game overuse” as ‘behaviour’.

From the past till now, video game never loses its popularity, from Gameboy to Wii, and from NDS to LOL, millions and billions of people are obsessed with this imaginary world. Some of the video games are created for educational purpose, however, most are created for the people who wants to escape from reality. “In a national Harris Poll survey of 1,178 American youths (ages 8-18), ISU Assistant Professor of Psychology Douglas Gentile found nearly one in 10 of the gamers (8.5 percent) to be pathological players.” ("Figure 2f from: Irimia R, Gottschling M (2016) ") Not only the statistic shows the high rate of addiction towards video games, terrible consequences of the addictions are more than enough to be served. For example, an extreme case of an Chinese kid called Xioyi suicide because he lose in one of his game on December 27, 2004; where he left a note that said he wanted “to join the heroes of the game he worshiped.” Video game has the potential to ruin a person’s life, as well as their family, or even the

Advances in technology have forever changed the way that children play, communicate, and view the world. Have you ever told your child that it was time to turn the video game off, or to put away the cell phone? Of course you have. Did they become upset, aggressive, or even depressed? These are warning signs indicating a potentially dangerous addiction. Addiction is characterized by the intense need for a substance and the experience of withdrawal symptoms when that substance is taken away (Rauh). Video games fill the player with strong feelings of pleasure and fulfillment. When considering the effects that video games have on your social, academic, and financial life; when do these fun technologies morph into a dangerous addiction?

Many people have differing views on the topic of video games. While some individuals view gaming as positive, others view it in a negative light. Electronic games should not control a person’s life. Instead, individuals should prioritize and focus on objectives that matter in life. Spending time with family, friends, and studying, have countless benefits that gaming cannot provide in a person’s

Although we may not notice it, but people can be addicted to video games and it will have serious downsides on your health. Like gambling addictions, both video game and gambling addictions both fall under the same categories of disorders. An Impulse control disorder is defined as psychiatric disorders that are identified by a sort of an impulse- failure to resist a temptation, an urge, or an itch. Both Video Game & Gambling addictions are both recognized as Impulse Control Disorders, both are caused by the need for thrills and highs and the social status correlated with being a successful gamer. Even both addictions both contribute to an elevated dopamine level, which in turn goes into the brain’s reward center; relating to various activities most find pleasure in such as eating or consuming drugs.

Video games have been a lasting influence on our youth and adults in today's society, games in the making throughout their time have came from a slow pace, pixely, more of a puzzle type of games. Nowadays games today are more real life making it feel like the game you're playing to be real life. They also are fast pace, not as much thinking involved, just run around shoot em up type of games that are in demand, stems the question are video games beneficial or hazardous? A Lot of people in today's society have the opinion that videogames are a waste of time, create antisocial behaviors, and have a negative influence on the person's physical and mental health, because they have a lot of violent content. In my opinion video games have a very positive impact on people today and they are beneficial by giving people a brain workout, it promotes social activity and teamwork, it also proven to improve your psychological well being.

The disease centers are just now adding a gaming disorder to the list of many diseases. Many health organizations are making it an official disorder. Tighe shares, “the World Health Organization basically will do it when adds ‘gaming disorder’ to its list this year”. The World Health Organization thought that the gaming disorder could cause serious issues with the brain. So they had to warn people of the gaming disorder before many other teens could get the same disorder. The disorder is affecting them in a physical behavior. The author remarks that “International Classification of Diseases defines gaming disorder as a pattern of persistent recurrent gaming behavior”(Tighe). The International Classification of Diseases is clarifying that the gaming behavior is a continuing behavior which could mean that they would keep playing the video game because they don’t want to do homework, so they game instead, the recurring behavior keeps happening throughout teens. Although the gaming disorder is a thing, it doesn’t have to be a disorder. The disorder could be made up because many parents and others want them to stop, and they could’ve just made it up so many teens would stop gaming. Even Though the teens are playing violent video games, and getting aggressive, there is such thing of the gaming disorder. It is a mental issue that also could affect your brain. “[t]he addictive nature of video gaming has been a matter of conjecture, and WHO designation affirms its as a mental health issue”(Dashevsky). The video games are causing it to be a mental health issue. The video games are causing you to become agitated which makes the person who is playing go crazy and causes your brain to be

Video games; are they therapeutic or malicious to the brain? Studies focus on different genre of gaming and the effects different games have on different societies in the article, “Brains on Video Games” (Bavelier, alt, 2011). Six experts break it down by offering the reader benefits, negative effects, addiction, educational use and what challenges lay ahead (Bavelier, alt, 2011).

With the improvement of visual technology over the past ten years has made playing video games almost life like. Children and adults alike spend a vast majority of time playing these games. The more they play, the more addicted they become. According to a study done by addictionrecov.org: “nearly one in 10 youth

From Pac-Man to Call of Duty, video games have been a huge part of society. People will line up hours before a midnight launch of a video game just so they can play it the night it gets released. Video games aren’t just a hobby they are a passion. People get immersed in fantasy worlds playing Call of Duty or being a dragon slayer in dragon age or Elder Scrolls. Video games are about accomplishment and competiveness. Xbox and PlayStation have built an empire on video games and consoles because our society fell in love with them dating way back to the arcade Pac-Man and Donkey Kong days. “Video game sales ($25 billion in 2011) continue to be the No. 1 form of discretionary entertainment, outshining both movies and music” (USA,News 2015). Video games are obviously nothing without the consoles you play them on. PlayStation and Xbox are the biggest competitors in the video game market. The new consoles are virtually the same with a few small differences. The difference between buying an Xbox one or a PlayStation 4 is mostly your history of buying. Most PlayStation users have always had PlayStations and most Xbox users have always had Xbox’s. For a huge number of our society, playing video games is a lifestyle.

Violence in video games can affect ones mindset in so many different ways, where we don’t even realize it. For example playing “Grand Theft Auto” for a few hours will change your mindset. Even though it wouldn’t be in a tremendous way, but for a few minutes your mindset will think, “This game is so much fun, I want to steal cars, have police chase me, shoot at people, even steal helicopters”. According to Social scientists in the New York Times, Many studies have shown that this is becoming a major issue because of how realistic these games are starting to look. According to PBS Newshour, Another issue is, with all these major shootings, such as the Sandy Hook, The theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, The Newton Killer, Adam Lanza ; all show that they played many violent video games. But there can be other reasons as to why they made such a major impact to this world. It could have been depression, bullying as a child, feeling socially isolated, or even a certain state of mind, where they feel like they have to transform that game into real life.

As a growing medium, video games are often associated with various negative connotations that have obfuscated its positive contributions made to society. As a result, the general public is unaware of how video games have shaped modern-day, some even consider it a meaningless teenager pastime, but this is distant from reality. Video games are important to society at large because they do not serve for entertainment purposes only, they are a major force in the economy, scientific research, and military training.

The act of video games for children have been a controversy in today 's society for a very long time. One half of the argument believes video games is a positive act and the other half of the argument believes that video games is a negative act. Both parties have significant data backing up their own personal believes. There has been many studies done around the topic of children playing video games trying to conclude which side of the argument is correct which is very hard to do. Some of the studies prove that video games is a good thing for children, and some studies prove that video games is a bad thing for children. Although both sides have their own personal believes and studies, video games is a positive act for children because it benefits one 's cognitive skills, health, and social life.

The origin of the harmfulness of video games originates with pong; the first video game invented. “How is pong harmful? It’s a ball with two vertical bars.” It had nothing to do with the content of the game, but the addictive nature of it. The Surgeon General at the time, C. Everett Koop, was the one who made the comment about the games addictiveness. He believed that, because of the addictive nature could turn players violent. According to a study performed by the Washington D.C. based Pew Internet and American Life Project, more than half of the all American adults play video games, with one in five playing every day (Marcovitz 13).