Negative Effects Of Video Games

Video games have a negative stigma similar to drug abuse, playing too much video games is bad for one 's health, and doing drugs is bad for one 's health. Both video games and drug abuse come with negative health issues, but video games have benefits, both mental and physical. In modern studies, video games have been known to help the players mentally and physically. However, The amount of video game playing and how much one benefits from playing video games reflect the Chinese philosophy of Taoism, or Daoism, which can change video game 's negative stigma. The Chinese philosophy, Toaism is “when human nature is aligned with the rest of nature, order and harmony are the result” (Hardy 1). Similar to Toaism, playing video games should be balanced

Players can present psychological symptoms such as “inability to stop the activity”, “neglect of family and friends”, and “problems with school or job”. (Griffiths and Meredith 248). Players also present physical symptoms such as “carpal tunnel syndrome”, “back aches”, and “sleep disturbances, change in sleep pattern” (Griffiths and Meredith 248). Addiction to video games can lead to mental health issues such as anger anxiety and loss of concentration. As stated in Young 's article, “They can 't concentrate on anything else except when they can go back online to play. Their minds become so fixated on the game that they can experience a psychological withdrawal from the game (Young 362)”. Mark Skoric, the author of “Children and video games: addiction, engagement, and scholastic achievement.”, supports Griffiths by stating that addiction to video games is linked to the decrease in academic performance which is related to the psychological symptom of having problems with school. As stated in Skoric 's article, “Numerous research studies have shown a significant negative relationship between academic performance and the severity of addictive tendencies among video gamers” (Skoric 1). The appropriate response to video game addiction should be that video games should be played moderately instead of excessively or not at all. As stated in Griffiths ' article “Videogame addiction

Video games should be made to increase player 's scholastic learning rather than just promote blood, violence and pleasure because they have been known to increase the player 's aggression. “The highly aggressive game led to increased hostility and anxiety, relative to the no-game control. The mildly aggressive game only increased the hostility of the game players” (Anderson and Ford 398). Video games have a greater impact on player 's mental capacity which in turn could lead to an increase in scholastic learning. As stated in Skoric 's article, “It is possible that children who spend more time playing video games on weekdays have a better command of the English language. However, some video games require significantly greater levels of linguistic competency to master than others” (Skoric 4). If video game players were addicted to video games that were intended for scholastic learning, then video game players could go beyond the educational system 's curriculum and become scholars themselves. However, even if scholastic video games were played at a moderate level then video games would still help increase the mental health of it 's players. As stated in Skoric 's article, “While addiction can pose significant problems to children’s lives by affecting their academic performance, children who are simply highly engaged with video games are unlikely to develop negative consequences” (Skoric 4).