“Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock n' roll.”
This is how Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and many successful franchises, answered to early claims that video games were detrimental to the youth.
Video games are said to be harmful for the mental and physical health of adults and children, but games can also be beneficial, depending on how they reflect what they learned while playing unto their lives.
Usually, the root of debates among many regarding this subject is on the violence shown in the games, classifying the games as time-wasters, and causing harmful effects to the person as a whole.
Events such as the shootings that occurred last year are linked to video games.
This is a common misconception, because people mistakenly link real-world violence to virtual violence, even though virtual violence is merely a form of entertainment.
Even so rather than create more violence, they reflect real-world violence.
Said shootings had been caused by individuals who were thought to be on their right minds who suddenly became violent killers from one day to another due to video games.
Even though they possessed violent games, this was not the sole cause of it, as many factors may have led this to occur.
Some of them include: untreated mental issues, physical and psychological abuse, addictions, economic status, peer influence, or asocial behavior due to certain personality traits.
The abuses can be for example, bullying or an unstable environment at home, while the addictions can be to alcohol or drugs.
Video games are blamed as the source of these violent events.
Politicians point fingers at video games for a quick scapegoat, in order to appease and gain support of a community...
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Violence in games is a reflection of real-world violence, meaning it was already existing.
Even though parents or educators criticize kids and adults for wasting their time in something that will not help them in life, games provide means for many good things to occur.
Being detrimental for the health of someone is not solely caused by video games; it may have to do with an already unbalanced lifestyle, or an addictive behavior.
Games can be beneficial or harmful, it all depends on how they apply what they learn through games into their life.
Simon Sinek said, "The only time I waste is time I spend doing something that, in my gut, I know I shouldn't. If I choose to spend time playing video games or sleeping in, then it's time well spent, because I chose to do it. I did it for a reason - to relax, to decompress or to feel good, and that was what I wanted to do."
...While there are violent games out there, children could, with the help of their parents, play cleaner games such as The Legend of Zelda or any game in the Mario series, and in the end, be benefited from it. Whether their stress is relieved, their brains stronger, or their connections with their families made unbreakable, video games can truly be a good thing for kids.
The average person who plays video games regularly is thirty-three years old (Issitt). This topic is important because video games have been given an unfair stereotype. Video games have the stereotype of taking over the lives of teenagers and making them violent. However, the benefits of video games outweigh the negatives.
But the question is why? While some people believe that video games are just good clean fun, others believe that these games greatly affect our generation in a negative way, increasing aggression and sometimes pushing consumers to the edge causing events like the forever notorious shootings in Virginia Tec.
Skills and their educational benefits are positive factors of video games, while the detrimental factors include violence and potential addiction. Overall, video games are acceptable to use in moderation, but when one does not have the ability to use it in moderation, it is harmful.
There are many people who say that videogames and TV will rot your brain and cause brain damage. Plenty of research and articles are against children playing video games, but there are some that are in favor of video games, and that number is growing every day. Video games can have some medicinal uses from helping patients in physical therapy to improving ones vison. Many people do not see these uses and for every one for video games there are five who are against it, however as that number is slowly growing.
Tom Bissell, whom is the author of the article Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter starts off his article uniquely by creating a theoretical situation in which he is telling his future children that he missed the 2008 presidential inauguration, because he was playing video games. He talks about Fall Out 3, Oblivion and other games he calls, open world games, which are games with no designated path with the possibilities being almost limitless. Bissell explains how attractive the graphics are along with how interested in the story you can become. He admits how much time he has spent playing and how irritated the games make him at times. Bissell doesn’t clarify anywhere that he believes video games are good or bad for anyone, he just shares his experience with video games for others to think about or relate to.
Videogames are amazing they promote creativity, team-work and social interaction. Video games actually work to increase how good your eyesight is. One study done by scientist’s Daphne Bavelier and her team found that playing five to fifteen hours of action games (e.g., Call of Duty) a week increased how good the participants vision was in two ways "The first way is that they 're actually able to resolve small detail in the context of clutter… The other way that they are better is actually being able to resolve different levels of grey”. Sure games have violence in them but honestly what doesn’t, films and TV are chock full of it, heck even Tom and Jerry promote violence and animal abuse plus there is a reason that those big shiny red “18” stickers are put on games so that it is clearly shown that children aren 't supposed to be given access to these specific types of game. As for the “waste of time” nothing is really a waste of time if you gain something from it such as
Studies have shown that there is a wide variety of physical and behavioral effects that video games can have on their players.
Vastag, Brian. “Does Video Game Violence Sow Aggression? Studies Probe Effects of Virtual Violence on Children”, JAMA, Chicago: April 2201. Vol. 291, Iss. 15; pg. 1822. Retrieved: 16 August 2004
...the ideas that are taught in schools. Games also need to intermix instruction with demonstration. This is a big difference from the basic way of learning in school, which is memorize and regurgitate. Demonstrating shows the student what it looks like and they retain the content longer.
Video game play can have both positive and negative effects on children and adolescents, and adults should seek to minimize the negative effects while maximizing the positive effects by staying informed about games and establishing rules about the amount and type of video game play.
Video games are powerful tools that can help children develop certain life skills. According to News.Discovery.com video games have been shown through research, that they can have improve the brains memory and learning abilities. They can also increase reasoning and help problem solving along with hand- eye coordination. Video games have been proven to be good for kids.
First video games are not harmful to the public quite the contrary actually. Many video games encourage social behavior and team work whether that is the two player cooperative shooter game that two brothers play together working as a team inspiring positive feelings overriding the negative ones as stated in the study coauthored by David Ewoldsen. Or a family on game night all playing a game together and having a great time and bonding together because of the experience. And many games today don’t stop there at just play together and have fun. Many games promote teamwork skills through puzzles which can be solved together, or enemies that the players must work together to defeat. These positive social effects are not limited to one’s family but extend into online play, where one can converse and enjoy his time with others, creating entire
Video games and violence may seem surreal to have a connection but few adolescents cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality, and as a result, real life crimes have been committed. From robbing a car to killing children, many perpetrators have been influenced by video
Many people believe that video games change people and mislead them to do bad things, such as drugs and alcohol, but it is the opposite. Gaming prevents people from such acts and actually helps to keep them away from the substances. Lots of people, mainly parents, believe that video games harm people so they try to keep their children away from them. In reality, video games make your life better. Video games can provide many benefits to your lifestyle as “numerous academic studies indicate that playing video games has many psychological and even physical benefits” (Guarini). Gaming helps stimulate the brain and advances your problem solving abilities. There are disadvantages to gaming, which is true, but the amount of benefits outweigh them by far.