Do Video Games have a negative effect on people?
Introduction
Since 1970s when video games emerged, they have become the most valued form of entertainment by both children and adults. In modern popular culture, video games have led to the establishment of gaming industries. In 1985 to 1990, the video game industry expanded from a volume of $100million to $4 billion respectively. The development increased dramatically in that in 2013, the video game industry in worldwide had a volume of $93billion. The interesting thing with video games is that adults and children prefer video games than junk food. Other issues is that despite the fact video games have negative effects on children behaviors, parents are unable to control the behaviors because they too play video games. Do you know that technology has changed the way in which people spend their leisure time? People spend more time in video games and less in outdoor recreation such physical exercise. The Entertainment Software Associated stated that 150million Americans have connected themselves with the technology of video games. The dramatic increase of users or players concludes that that 81% of young people play video game and 8.5% are addicted. However, a comprehensive review and various research methodologies such as intervention studies, experiments and more have shown that video game is associated with violence behaviors to both children and adults. Since people have made video game to be their leisure activity and having learned that most of the games have hyper-realist violence, exposure to violence in video games change actual behaviors to violent behaviors.
First, video games are addictive. This statement is strong to explain how people are negatively affected by video games and the tendency to develop aggressive behaviors. Like other addictive behaviors, people spend more time on video game and less time on other recreational activities. Failure to watch video games lead to withdrawal symptoms and so it is worth saying that videogames create ‘dependency’ where players believe that gaming is a psychological function (Gunter, 70). By being closer connected with video games, people are psychologically involved. Video game contents such as nuclear conflict, horror of war and more negatively impacts the people’s life. (Gunter, 70) argues that video games affect the education in that children neglect studying and spend much time on electronic games. The problem with addiction is that people always crates negative feelings on real setting and in this, children and adults do not involve themselves in constructive things.
Cunningham et al, 1247) assert that video games have negative effects on people and violence in video games is a policy concern in popular culture. The issue has made the Federal Trade Commission to petition the U.S congress to create laws for banning video games to children. violent behavior has a become the major concern as exposure to video game images has resulted to psychological aggression which then result to violent crimes such as shooting (Cunningham et al, 1247). This article presents a laboratory experiments on violent games on aggression, and it is found that video games are associated with a high rate of crime. The article asserts that since 19th century and 20th century, the issue of violent games has been debated and psychologists have put much concern on this issue. Since these periods, theoretical mechanisms have found that video games are associated with aggression, and in this case the psychological theory discusses aggression using the model of ‘general aggression model’ (GAM). The latter states that video games which expose violent images increase the aggressive behaviors (Cunningham et al, 1249). GAM argues that the internal state of human being is influenced by personological variables. Internal state which comprises thoughts and feelings responds to external setting aggressively. Video games with violent content create aggressive attitudes. GAM is connected with an addictive and the combination creates the reality that violent video games increases aggression. The psychological theory together with the social learning theory states that in video games, people have the tendency to interpret the social setting. This process of evaluating the social setting makes the gamer to arrive into conclusions. When people become exposed to violent content in video games, they increase aggression (Cunningham et al, 1259).
Gaming is unhealthy. Video games make children to change behaviors and to act in a way which is against the interest of the society. The author argues that violent content in video games develops aggressive thoughts. Note that people spend much time on video games and this creates social isolation. They become disconnected with social and extracurricular activities hence engage themselves in futile activities (Gimple, 19). In addition, video games in gaming industry have a big impact on young generation. Various studies on video game have been conducted and one study conducted in 1984 by Dominick found that video games are associated with aggression and delinquency. Gimple, (7) asserts that real-life tragedies have been apparent from the video games. For example, video games contain images such as shooting, blood and more. People enter in real world and act aggressively to be considered heroes.
Even though video games in modern technology are valued as the best form of entertainment, the entertainment industry has changed. With the technology, people now can watch video games from tablets, home computers and other devices. The time which people spend on video games is a concern as researchers have found that the more time spent in video games the more the aggressive behaviors. To find evidence of aggression in video games, cognitive neo-association theory asserts that when people are regularly exposed to aversive events, they develop aggressive behaviors (Dorman, 34). Aversive events are responsible for negative behaviors which then results to flight tendencies. Note that video games images are stored in the mind and the knowledge structures which activate the violence.
The Columbine shootings which happened in 1999 are an evident that video games affect people negatively. Before the occurrence of this tragedy, violence games such as Doom and Resident Evil were popular. After the Columbine, a study on the video industry was done to evaluate the practices (Dorman, 56). Author Ryan Van Cleave in his book, asserts that video games affected his life to an extent that he wanted to commit suicide. The reason for referring him is to show that video games are addictive due to the reason that people are connected to the ‘pathological’ level which then affects the social relationship (Dorman, 56). Video games also affect people negatively by developing ‘attention deficit Disorder’. This disorder affects those people who spend more time on video games. The disorder also affects children particularly the learners where it is found that they develop attention problems. This is an indication that children who spend more time in playing video games decrease the attention capacity (Dorman, 87). Children and adolescents perform poorly in school as these people lack enough time to study. For example, a study was done where young people aged 10-19 years were involved. The finding showed that children who play video games spend less time in reading and doing homework and more in playing games (Dorman, 167).
The theory of games asserts that video games are expected to produce fictional events and actions but the actions which are produced do not meet the moral qualities. In popular media, violent video games are popular because they are associated with scandalizing effect. Video games present a moral problem and lack moral maturity. Lack of moral qualities has created a modern society’s ills. Tavinor, (153) argues that video games are bad and affect people since they have a negative impact on character and values. When the latter aspects are changed, people have the tendency to increase behavioral aggression and delinquency. Tavinor argues that “repeated exposure to graphic scenes of violence is likely to be desensitizing” (Tavinor, 153). People who are regularly exposed to video games develop long-term effects. The author also argues that video games have a major theme of killing. Evidence of mass killing in campus has been seen. The mass killing is a consequence of gaming which teaches children immoral activities.
Kowert and Quandit, (74) introduces the ‘internet gaming disorder’ which is a problem contributed by video games addiction. Since 1970 when commercial video games were released, psychological literature introduced the video game addiction in 1980s. During this period, Soper and Miller reported the first video game addiction which was associated with compulsive behavioral involvement and mental symptoms (Kowert and Quandit, 75). The author also touches the cognitive performance and claims that human brain is a learning machine which shows improvements on motor task (Kowert and Quandit, 79). Video games are associated with risk since most images portray unfair treatment. In addition, they pose societal problems especially when people become aggressive. Different research perspectives such as Active Media perspective makes it clear that player or the media affects the social psychology and behaviors of the users. On the other hand, Active User perspective states that the player has certain active interpretation while on the stage (Kowert and Quandit, 80). The difference between the two is that the former discusses the risk of computer and latter focuses on different impact of video games on individual life. In researching the video games and the associated risk, active media is important as it focuses on social psychological perspective, and ‘the effect of tradition’ which are responsible for violence due to their measurable effects on the games (Kowert and Quandit, 85).
Different research methodologies such as experimental tests, surveys and others have shown evidence of negative effects of video games. The findings have confirmed that violence in video games increases aggressive behaviors where the player develops violation elements in goal-oriented behavior, attention abilities and more (BURGESS, 116). Desensitization is a major problem which is contributed by video games where the player develops emotion-physiological reactivity to behaviors which are morally wrong. Two hundred and fifty seven students from college level were examined for 20minutes. The group played violent video game and nonviolent videos. In the first case, violent video game was associated with low physiological arousal. This shows that the nature as well as the content of the game is responsible for developing perturbing results (BURGESS, 118). It is also found that video games have specific features targeted to specific group with a purpose of practicing self-control and nurturing positive response toward negative conditions. People have cognitive and physical effects from the use of video games and this means that there is a like hood that they will develop unique action, behaviors and more which are controlled by these effects (BURGESS, 120).
Anderson et al, (3) asserts that 89% of video games contents are violence and despite this high percentage, 99% boys and 94% girls and 70% children aged 8-9 years in U.S play video games. Having understood how people are exposed to violent video games, it is also possible to understand the big impact of the games on these people. In this case, it is important to know that there is a difference between violent television programs and violent video games (Anderson et al, 4). The former does not have a big impact on life but the latter have strong effects. This is because, video games presents an active process which means that young people like being involved in real and active things. In addition, people tend to concentrate much on violent character when playing video games. In this case, the player uses the visual perspective in the rest of his life. The bad thing will video games is that the player is interested with violent character and wishes that he or she may become victorious. On the same note, someone who is a winner or who shows violent behavior is allowed to continue with game. For example, the player in warfare becomes a winner and his violent acts may be praised by telling him or her “Nice Shot!” (Anderson et al, 115).Thus, comparing violent in television programs and violent in video games show a difference in that people involved in violence in video games develops aggressive behaviors. The author asserts that aggressive behaviors are contributed by aggressive thoughts. The latter is created after playing video game and interpreting the entire game in a hostile way. Since, video games has different scenes, the player may interpret the scenes in aggressive way and apply the thought in real life situation. Note that different people learn deferent life lessons from video game and research show that majority learns a negative lesson and later develops an aggressive personality (Anderson et al, 223).
Apart from focusing on thought and behavior modification, video games area also associated with physiological arousal (Dorman, 12). This means that the body changes in terms of heart rate, skin conductance and more. These conditions affect the player’s response to different emotions. Video games create which means that the player interprets all situations with severe emotions. Video games heighten psychological arousal and make the player to act more aggressively (Dorman, 12). Video games also change the prosocial behavior-the player reduces the willingness to do well to others. Violent video games are associated with aggressive thoughts and the players disconnects from prosocial behaviors which can benefit people. He or she is more connected with actions which can do harm to others. Violent videos have an effect on the psychological process. First, the latter is affected through priming. According to neuroscientists’ research, players develop many behavioral scripts and add them to the human memory which has nodes and links. The links connects nodes and behavioral scripts (thoughts, feelings etc) in the memory (Dorman, 65). The nodes becomes activated when a person meet a stimulus. The concepts from violent video games and which were linked to the memory are activated in different situations where a person behaviors aggressively. The psychological process is also affected though mimicry. This means that human beings have ‘mirror neurons’ which is responsible for copying behaviors. Thus, people observe and copy the aggressive acts and present them in real world. The psychological process is also affected through changing the physiological arousal. The action-packed sequences cause the physiological arousal and this makes the player to become inclined to act and develop dominant response tendency (Dorman, 84).
In the past, television and films were popular but in modern popular culture people find video games more pleasurable. However, the major problem which literatures and research consider in researching the usage of video game is violence. Despite the fact that people do not value recreational activities but rather like playing video games, there are negatives effects on this. Both children and adults develop aggressive behaviors after playing violent video games (Griffiths, 339). Aggressive behaviors encompass negative feelings. This introduces the issue of poor performances and I can argue that when children develop aggressive behaviors, their performance is affected since they lose concentration and their minds reflect on video games and violence. In other words, video games have interactive demands where people are unable to do anything without watching or playing games. The behavior of spending more time on video games prevents people from engaging in fruitful activities (Griffiths, 339. Thus, students’ school performance is affected because of increasing more time on video games which leads to sedentary behavior. In examining the academic performance, aggressive behaviors remain the root cause of poor performance. This is because, when children becomes connected with violent video games, they aggressive thoughts, angry feeling and unpleasing behaviors (Griffiths, 378). The students are controlled by a hostile environment and so he or she is unable to interact with authority or peers.
Video games are important as people get entertainment but the major concern is its effect on children. Video games portray negative images of violence which impacts the life of children. In real life, these children involve themselves in aggressive acts and it becomes hard to change the behaviors because they are socially constructed and they have impacted the moral development. Bajovic, (176) argue that children’s moral reasoning is affected in that when they play video games, they search for more strategies to judge the violence watched. Note that people prefer video games which have human violence such as NHL series, Grand Turism and more. The reason as to why people‘s moral reasoning become affected is that violence behaviors in the video games are rewarded (Bajovic, 180). The moral reasoning becomes affected in that by becoming so much exposed to violence, people develop negative attitudes and their moral evaluation is controlled by violent behavior scripts.
The importance of reviewing the stages of moral development is to understand how video The theory of moral development asserts that young people passes through stage of moral development and during these stages, they believe that in order to be morally good, then one should act in a good or positive way. This is a moral judgment which helps young people to interact with others in social setting (Bajovic, 194). Moral development has different stages the first one is the stage power. During this stage children act positively but they do not use moral reasoning while acting but rather their act positively to avoid punishment. The second stage is the deals-means that children do to others what they would like to be done. Third is mutuality stage where children focus on moral judgment and act with respect to the interests of the community or in other words they comply with ethical principles. Fourth stage is systems-means that people show justice and caring (Bajovic, 254). In this case, people set clear objectives and to achieve the objectives and they need to create extrinsic reinforcement which influences the player to apply the objectives to the real world. When moral development is affected, people create a culture of violence. Parents are able to prevent their children from playing video games (Bajovic, 258). Generally, moral development in children who play video game is hindered; such people experience low level of sociomoral maturity.
Conclusion
Video games negatively affect people as they are associated with anti-social behaviors. Several studies have confirmed that people spend more on video games and less time in recreational activities. The problem with video games is that many of them are associated with violence and high exposure to violence videos develops aggressive behaviors. The problem with aggressive behaviors has increased dramatically since parents are not responsible for their children. 90% of children who are in 8-12 grades said that their parents do not consider ratings of video games when purchasing and at home they do not create time limit on playing video games. Parents also join children in playing games and motivate them to spend more time in video games rather than in studying or recreational activities. Aggressive behaviors affect the academic performance as children are unable to concentrate and are controlled by anger. In their moral development, lack of awareness on video games effects hinders their development. Video games are important as they create a pleasurable moment but both children and parent should limit the time on video games in order to avoid the negative consequences which affects their lives.
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