With video games, as with anything else, there are pros and there are cons. Video games have been used in a variety of ways in this day and age. However, those that mean that video games are right?
For example, today, specially designed video games can be used to correct ADD/ADHD. In this process, the video game does not allow the player to succeed in the game unless they are paying attention. There are also some arguments that say that playing regular video games actually increases attention span, and that video games are helpful in teaching children, especially preschool age. However, some of these positive effects that video games employ, does not outweigh the serious negative effects.
For example, in a study, it was found that children who played one hour or more of video games daily were more likely to have ADD/ADHD than children who played less than one hour daily. Also, video games have been found to have addictive properties. In a study done, it was found that people who incisively played video games and then stopped "cold turkey" experienced withdrawal symptoms. The addictive power of video games is akin to that of alcoholic beverages and gambling. Also, most frightening of all, video games can cause excessive violent behavior. For example, extremely violent video games, like Doom, are actually used by the Military to train soldiers. However, the effects that violent video games and non-violent video games has on the brain is equal, and both cause ADD/ADHD. In the study that found a pattern with video games playing and ADD/ADHD, it also found an increase in inattentive behavior in its subjects, and a drop in school grades of one letter grade for those who played one or more hours of video games daily.
So, video games have some positive effects, but the negative is so much more than the positive could ever offer.
2 comments:
I think that the negative effects of video games definitely outweigh the positive effects. Our topics are similar in that they deal with violent behavior that stems from popular technology. The most popular video games/tv shows have an absurd amount of violence, especially for children. I also read that children often become violent from being frustrated when they play video games.
This is interesting to me because I myself play video games. I also have to agree with Kyle and yourself about the violence resulting from video games. Possibly to make research easier, you can generalize your topic to make it either the detriments or benefits of video games. It's clear that ADHD seems to be a major contributing factor on both sides of the argument that you brought up, but I think that ADHD's effects should probably serve more or less as a subtopic for something more broad to make it easier on yourself. I personally don't believe in this because some of the most calm and intelligent friends I have play video games in excess, and don't possess ADHD. I suppose though that your argument is more of a general trend of people, which I can see being true in that case. In relation to my topic, I suppose a correlation could be drawn between the effect of violence video games have on a person with the effects of capital punishment possessing a similar effect on people.
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