The rising popularity of video games has instigated a wide range of concerns from those who believe that playing games can corrupt the minds of children, teens, and even adults. Possible harmful and helpful effects of video games have been a subject of debate among parents, researchers, gamers, and video game producers. The arguments were mostly about the games’ potential good and bad influence concerning children and adolescents. Based on recent research findings by scientists and psychologists, 90% of American youth play video games in a daily basis. It is an extremely popular pastime among children and teens, though most parents see it as a time-waster and a negative influence.
Video games have become prolific and it is very rare that a teenager will not be in possession of a game console, be it a PS3 or Xbox. There are many different genres, popular ones among them being First Person Shooter, Simulation and Role Playing Games (RPGs). As with many forms of entertainment, there are both positives and negatives effects to consider that are caused by playing video games. Most of the bad effects of video games are blamed on the violence they contain. Violent video games have the most negative psychological effects including: decreased socialization, increased aggressive thoughts, behaviors, and feelings.
Violent Video Games Should be banned It is the fact that violent video games is now increasing in popularity and number, it is also the fact that there is an increasing number of violence and behavior problem for young people around the world aside from all the strict age regulations of violent video games over the past few years. Violent video games were and always are the black sheep of the increasing number of adolescent insanity. The effect is pretty obvious as http://depts.washingotn.edu state that violent crimes among the young have drastically increase since the early 1990s while violent video games have steadily increased during the same period of time. It has been 20 years and yet there is only minimum impact of new rules and regulations of violent video games. Should violent video games be banned to minimize bad impact toward teenagers and kids?
These skills are usually not taught in school, but they are prevalent in most video games. Some of these mental skills include: problem solving and logic, hand-eye coordination, quick thinking, making fast analysis and decisions, strategy and anticipation, perseverance and inductive reasoning and hypothesis testing. According to researchers at the University of Rochester, Led by Daphne Baveler, a cognitive scientist, games simulating stressful events such as those found in battle or action games are a good training tool for real world situations. Also to successfully complete a game, players must deal with immediate problems while keeping their long-term goal in sight. This term is called "telescoping."
“Why Games Are Good for You” by Steven Johnson is a persuasive article that’s purpose is to open the minds of people that doubt that playing video games reap cognitive benefits and change their point of view. Steven Johnson does a great job of forcing the reader to ask themselves, “Could I only be seeing one side of this phenomenon?”. “Video Games Help Children Learn” by Marc Prensky is an article whose purpose is to convince people that children playing video games is not completely bad and there are actually intellectual benefits that can come from them. Prensky’s main objective is to get people to understand that children can learn real life lessons from video games. The two articles both present reasons why video games might not be all bad for mankind.
Children who are older may be able to understand the difference between fantasy and reality a little better, therefore older children should be able to play games at a parents discretion. Some experts say,” kids are attracted to video games not so much by the violence, but because the games present puzzles or problems to solve (Sherry 1). The media and many other angry parents like to find a source to blame such as video games. Although video games are very entertaining and becoming more of a virtual reality the truth
Age and skill filters and a Math Skills Wheel assist in finding the right game to address kids' learning needs. The varied approach to gaming is motivating, and if kids are overdoing it on screen time, there are suggestions for hands-on, skill-based activities for home and school. A Research section includes summary reports and pilot test results, and the site is available in Spanish. How parents can help * Connect with kids' teachers to find out where they're struggling, then use the site’s filters to pick games that help them practice those skills. * Encourage kids to set goals for different games ("I'll get to level 5," "I'll answer all addition questions correctly") and track their achievements with stickers or other small awards.
Blaming Everything but Ourselves “Did you know that 90% of males and 40% of females play video games?” (Craig A. Anderson) Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, and Halo are some of the most popular video games that are out right now. These video games all have something in common and that is the violence that is in them. From racing cars from the police, shooting and killing people in other ways, they can be very gory. For the most part, teen agers are playing these games. In fact, not many adults over 35 are video game players.
Add to that the crushing force of a multitude of multi-national companies all trying to push their product on the most vulnerable members of our society, and a major ethical problem with long lasting consequences appears. A person’s mental images and language create his or her sense of selfhood. And this selfhood-especially during our formative years-is the most valuable, fragile quality we’ll ever embrace. Private, vulnerable, and sacred, a human being’s psyche is not a commodity to be sold. But it happens, every day, for millions of American kids (Fox, 1996).
Children’s Behavior: Rated M for Mature The videogame industry has changed the way children and teens find a source of entertainment. One estimate says kids are playing video games for 13 hours each week, on average, and that more than 75% of teens who play, report playing games rated M (for mature) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, which often contain intense violence, blood and gore. There have been cases where a violent change in behavior has been noticed in young children who play these “M” rated titles, but the argument can also be made that playing violent videogames does not directly affect a child’s personality or actions, and that parental influence and hereditary traits are responsible for the child’s personality. A study conducted by Dr. Vincent Matthews, a professor at Indiana University, showed the effects of violent videogames on the brains of teenagers. Two groups of teens were each instructed to play a certain videogame for a half hour.