Double-Edged Sword: The Positive and Negative Impacts of Video Games on Children

Table of content

Introduction

Social skills

Physical Health

Personality

The positive effects of video games

Conclusion

 

Introduction

Apart from doing the homework, playing video games has become among the activities that children participate in each day, most of the children use more time playing video games as compared to the time they use doing their homework. With the advancement in technology, the games have become more complex and exciting and players can challenge each other. However, playing video games has some side effects on the children; the effect can be either positive as well as negative.

There are several experts and psychologists that have done research on the effects of video games on children, therefore, the primary purpose of this essay is to describe and explain the influence of video games on children. Video games are dangerous for children because they affect their lives in a negative way but, we can control children choices of games. Thus, this essay answers the question of what influence video games have on children and whether the effects are either negative or positive. The effects of video games on children are discussed below:

How Video Games Have Changed The World, 58% OFF

Social skills

Video gaming has social impacts on the players, some of the social skills impact of video games includes; effect on communication skills, in this case, video games affect how children communicate and interact with other individuals, they spend more time playing video games, thus creating less time to communicate with the family members. The other impact is on aggressing, as video games become more popular, experts have raised concern about how the video games impact aggression.

Aggressing is said to be committing the first action of hostility, it is evident that though video games have no adverse effects of heightening the level of aggressive behavior in children, the violent games have slight aggressive effects, especially in boy child. Moreover, the violent video games are associated with increased aggression in participants, and sometimes this might extend to criminal violence or behavior (Ihori, n.d). For example, when an individual is playing and wins, the player might get to blast the loser with a loud noise.

The other impact is reduced control skills, it is also evident that video games have impacts on reducing control skills of the players, as the video games become famous to many individuals, it has become so difficult to prevent them from playing the games entirely, individuals’ ability to override aggressive behavior also depends on the increased control (Dai and Fry, 2014). The final impact of video game on social skills is that it affects the behavior of the children, in the society, children are required to frequently behave in a manner that is socially desirable, however, video games, and particularly the violent video games have proven to suppress the social behavior. It is found that the children with positive behavior were promoted when children are exposed to social scenes frequently, while those with bad behavior were exposed to violent games.

After Sandy Hook, Should Violent Video Games Call a Cease-Fire? - WSJ

Physical Health

Generally, there is  a significant positive correlation between children playing video games  and their physical  as well as their mental health, some of the  physical health impacts of video gaming include; effect on the memory of the child, as children continue playing video games, some researches  indicate the video game playing has detrimental effects on the memory of the player, consequently this affects the academic performance of the players, whereby individual fails to remember what is taught academically.

This has been due to the fact that the children who participate in the games for more hours were have lower memory, because video games can impair information processing, and hence is detrimental to short term memory impact (Larson). The other impact is that it results to development problems; it is evident that video games have negative impacts to the development of children.

According to the research conducted by Thompson (2008), shows that children who spend more time on video games develops obesity as well as overweight, when children spend more time playing video games on the computer or on their game console, in most cases do not participate in physical activities to keep them fit and as a result they get a lazy mindset of playing outside, thus they end up developing health problems such as obesity and medical conditions related to overweight.

Gaming terms: guide for beginners - Skrivanek - agencja tłumaczeń

The other physical health impact of video game on children is reduced sleep, in this case playing video games lead to reduced sleep, the experts explain that the participants who played video games for more hours, especially at night experience a delay in falling asleep this is due to the fact that playing games usually cause a decrease on the duration spent in the rapid eye movement stage of sleep.

A study by the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine revealed that video game results to reduced sleep quality, this is because video games are electronic device, and they release a blue light which interferes with circadian rhythms by producing more melatonin, which alerts that body to be awake, thus it is important to limit the duration used in playing video games, since this will assist in improving the quality of sleep to the participates. Therefore, based on the explanations above, video games affect various dimensions of physical health, which leads to problems like poor memory, development problems and also sleeplessness.

Personality

It is evident that very few psychological traits of the children participating in video games remain stable (Hugnes, 2014), in addition, children may develop strange personality, some of the personality effects include; development of mimic personalities, in this case, the tendency of children playing video games to mimic what they play is usually very high, most of the children tend to mimic some activities like fighting, flying a plane, and even driving cars. In addition, the video game participant displays some of this thing and presents them to the real world, and due to these reasons, video games can be said to be among the contributors to the development of mimic personality and make it difficult for an individual to differentiate between reality and fantasy.

The other effect on personality is that individuals playing violent games fail to leave violent tools and the emotional effects of the game behind, thus it appears that individual playing violent video games will always be considered to be violent people, this is according to the research by the American Psychological Association. The other personality effect is lack of self control, this trait is associated with aggression, and this has been a major personality change in those children that participate in violent video games, which discourages them from exercising self control.

The positive effects of video games

In the society, video games are associated with negative effects such as waste timing, especially by parents, however, some experts and psychologists have found out that video games can actually have some positive effects on the children. Some children play video games which cause many negative impact, however, some of the video games can have several benefits on children, including cognitive, physical, and many more hidden skills and experiences. There is evidence of the many benefits that are associated with video games, some of the benefits include; time management, though video games have negative aspect on time, the fact is that kids are spending too much time playing the games, and by spending more time on the computer, they tend to miss out on their social life, however, some video games have some benefits.

Most of the games require individuals to complete a certain task with a short time, this can stimulate individual to use fewer minutes while doing other thing such as quick decision making in real life situations. This can only be achieved when the children are monitored. The other impact is the development of the spirit of competition, video games lead to this benefit due to the fact that video games are based on the concept of competition, individuals who played action-based video games compete effectively to win, and this aspect can be passed to other activities such as academic performance. Therefore, video games may actually teach kids high-level thinking skill that that can be applied both in academic and social experiences.

Conclusion

Video games have direct impact on children; some of the impact can be in terms of children’s behavioral, emotional, physiological, and psychological development of the children. Thus, all the stakeholders such as the parents and the government should be more protective and come up with policies that will contribute to the regulation of playing video games. In addition, the industry that is associated with manufacturing the video games should design games that are very beneficial or add value to the development of the children. By doing this, will help in reducing the negative impact that are associated with video gaming and promote the benefits. As discussed. Besides, it should be noted that we are now living in a high tech, sophisticated world, thus video games cannot be avoided, however playing video games is safer than having the children use  drugs, alcohol and street racing in the real life situations.

 

 

References

APA , (2015). Review Confirms Link Between Playing Violent Video Games and Aggression<            http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/08/violent-

Carnagey, N. L., Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2007). The effect of video game violence   on physiological desensitization to real-life violence. Journal of Experimental Social             Psychology, 43(3), 489-            496.<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103106000825>

Dai, D., & Fry, A. (2014). Effect of Video Games on Child             Development.<https://my.vanderbilt.edu/developmentalpsychologyblog/2014/04/effect-    of-video-games-

Hugnes, E., (2014). “Effect of video games on children development” Developmental       Psychology at Vanderbilt             https://my.vanderbilt.edu/developmentalpsychologyblog/2014/04/effect-of-video-games-  on-child-development/

Ihori, Sakamoto, Shibuya and Yukawa “Effect of Video Games on Children’s Aggressive            Behavior and Pro-Social Behavior: A Panel Study with Elementary School Students”             http://digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/07312.31554.pdf

Larson, S.,  William , K., Katie, P., and Aubyn, p.,. (n.d) Effects of Video Games on Immediate and Delayed             MemoryAlexander<https://www.puc.edu/_data/assets/pdf_file/0007/115387/Effects-of-   Video-Games-

Thompson, D., Baranowski, T., Buday, R., Baranowski, J., Thompson, V., Jago, R., & Griffith,    M. J. (2008). Serious video games for health: how behavioral science guided the design             of a game on diabetes and obesity. Simulation & gaming.<http://sag.sagepub.com/content/early/2008/12/24/1046878108328087.abstract>

Wolfe, J., Kar, K., Perry, A., Reynolds, C., Gradisar, M., & Short, M. A. (2014). Single night       video-game use leads to sleep loss and attention deficits in older adolescents. Journal of     adolescence, 37(7), 1003-            1009.<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140197114001274>