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English 101

April 1, 2021

Video Games, Beneficial or Detrimental?

The emergence of video games has sparked numerous debates on the possible influence they have on the players, particularly the youth. Most parents frown upon the videogames as timewasters and believe that these games corrupt the brain. The media and various experts have blamed violent video games on why some young individuals become violent or get involved in extreme anti-social behaviors. Video games are addictive, but no one wants to be told they are addicted to these games. The addiction is associated with adverse effects, including the development of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and poor academic performance. On the other hand, video games have certain benefits, including enhancing kids’ creativity and improving decision-making speed. Video games are not all bad, even though playing video games has detrimental effects on individuals, provoking violent behavior and promoting social isolation among the players, the practice has attached benefits, including enhancing teamwork or cooperation, and improving individuals’ creativity. Comment by Seth Hepner: This section isn’t neutral. There’s more sentence for one side than the other.

Playing video games can improve an individual’s creativity. Playing video games has a significant relationship to improved creativity. The video games’ involvement helps individuals set up perfect challenges that young individuals can use to expend energy. Engagement in video games results in an enhancement in dopamine levels in the brain, which improves individuals’ creativity (Bourgonjon). A study carried out by Ott and Pozzi on digital games as enable creativity for children established that playing digital games and improved creativity. Thus, playing video games is a way of facilitating creative thinking since it can reduce the established barriers of behavioral norms and routines by providing the new rules and, in some instances, the new realities. Comment by Seth Hepner: This upcoming paragraph should contrast the previous one about creativity.

Enhanced speed in decision-making is another primary benefit of playing video games. The individuals who play video or computer games are characterized by faster decision-making without sacrificing accuracy. Research carried out by Daphne Bavelier at the University of Rochester, New York, and her colleague suggests that “People who play a lot of action video games are known to perform better in a variety of sensory and perceptual tasks” (“Psychology: Gaming the Brain” 254). The authors claim that “this is because such games improve a key aspect of decision-making: the ability to infer quickly the probability that a given answer is correct based on limited evidence” (Psychology: Gaming the Brain” 254). The decision-making level is continually enhanced among the individuals playing the video games since the games involve strategy. Establishing a strategy in these games enables players to develop a heightened sensitivity to their surroundings, which effectively makes decision-making, navigating, and multi-tasking. Also, since logic is needed for enhanced decision-making, video games can improve a person’s decision-making. It involves logical thoughts and establishing a rationale to execute a given action. The strategy and the reasoning involved in playing video games help improve the decision-making skills of individuals. Comment by Seth Hepner: These body paragraphs should be going back & forth to create a neutral tone. Your first 3 body paragraphs all support video games.

Children’s self-esteem and self-confidence are improved with video games as they master the games. Research done by Adachi and Willoughby in 2015 found that “video game playing increased self-esteem as well as the likelihood of future video game use” (Cangemi and Ingram 5). The video games have the option of adjusting the difficulty level.  In most instances, the kids begin at the lowest levels, the beginner level, and gradually grow and build their skills with constant practices that make them confident in handling the more challenging level. Besides, the costs associated with failure in these games are consistently lower, which implies that the kids will not fear making mistakes. They notice that it is the mistakes they make in these games that enable them to learn; this, instead, helps them grow their confidence, not only in the game but also in transferring the attitudes to real lives. The games make individuals take risks and explore more, improving their self-confidence and self-esteem.

Video games encourage corporation and collective achievement of goals. Most video games involve multiple players, which enables association among individuals. The players involved are always encouraged to work cooperatively to accomplish the game’s mission or objective (Hanghøj et al). The vital element of cooperation that the children or the players learn from these games is listening skills. The players must listen to others’ ideas, formulate the plans, and distribute roles depended on the skills. Some video games are played internationally, which can introduce the players to players of different nationalities and cultures. As kids, they grow to learn to respect other people’s way of life, fostering friendships among the players and hence, solid and respectful cooperation.

Despite the various benefits associated with video games, it is also related to specific detrimental effects. For instance, video games can evoke violent behaviors in individuals. “Previous studies have found that playing video games is positively associated with aggressive behaviors and negatively associated with prosocial behaviors” (“Impact of Violent Video Games on the Social Behaviors of Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Emotional Competence” 103). When individuals are too involved in violent games, there are increased aggressive thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. These games’ repetitive nature makes the individuals, especially the children, master the violent episodes in the games that worsen their interactive nature with other people. Worse still, certain games are where the children are rewarded for being more violent, increasing their chances of adopting violent behaviors. Thus, the involvement of children in violent video games is associated with enhanced aggressive behavior.  Comment by Seth Hepner: Splitting the essay between pros and cons like you’ve done here makes it difficult for your reader to compare and contrast specifics.

The enhanced involvement in video games results in the players getting socially isolated. The participants may spend less time in various activities such as reading, sports, handling homework for the students, and reduced interactions with the friends and families, losing the ties. Most individuals, especially children, do not find it easy balancing their offline lives with online gaming (You et al). Instead, they find themselves addicted to online games at the expense of their social lives, leaving them adopting a life of isolation. For some gamers, being a loner is the new norm. However, the aspect is contrary to North Carolina State University, New York, and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, reporting that most of the gamers do not replace their offline lives with online games. Instead, it expands them. Such players do not consider being a loner as a norm but strive to bridge the online games and social life gap.

The children can learn wrong values from video games. According to new research by Zhang et al. (186), some games reward aggression, violent behavior, and vengeance. In these games, the women are always portrayed as weak and helpless. When the children learn such, they may see the women and the female gender as such in the society, bringing stereotypes and gender discriminations. The games confuse reality from fantasy as most children cannot effectively differentiate between the realities and the fantasy in the games (Hollingdale 9). However, the sensitivity of some children can be improved by violent games. The violent games may feel guilty about their virtual world behaviors, which may increase their sensitivity to the moral issues that they have ignored during the game and strive to correct them in real life (Lobel et al). Thus, even though video games can erode children’s minds and teach them the wrong values, some who benefit from such behaviors will improve their sensitivity to moral issues and not want to make the same mistakes in video games.

Perhaps the most common feared impact of the video games by the parents on the children deteriorates academic performance. Most parents believe that the children get addicted to video games, spend much of the time that they would have otherwise used for their studies. As children spend much time in video games, their academic performance becomes poorer. Also, the students addicted to video games rarely do their homework. They spend much time playing online games, leaving their homework unattended, worsening their performance in schools characterized by low grades studies. A study by Schmitt and Livingston (27) shows that video gaming results in poor academic performance. The report confirms that the students’ involvement in video games can result in poor academic performance. Thus, it’s true to conclude that video gaming results in poor school performance.

In conclusion, video games have both beneficial and detrimental impacts on gamers. The games are addictive, and when the children are involved in the games, most parents are worried about deteriorated academic performance with acquired wrong morals. Most of these videos portray women as weak, and in some cases, sexually provocative makes the children develop various attitudes towards women that can result in gender discrimination. However, despite the detrimental concerns, the beneficial impacts of video games on children must also not go unnoticed. Video games have been associated with fostering creativity and faster decision-making in children and gamers. Also, video games have ensured cooperation and teamwork, improving the collective achievement of goals. Comment by Seth Hepner: This last sentence should encourage your reader to make a decision about this debate, and that encouragement doesn’t exist.
The organization of your body paragraphs makes it difficult for your reader to compare/contrast specific subjects about the video game debate.

Works Cited Comment by Seth Hepner: This should be centered

“Impact of Violent Video Games on the Social Behaviors of Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Emotional Competence.” School Psychology International, vol. 36, no. 1, 2014, pp. 94–111. Crossref, doi: 10.1177/0143034314562921. Comment by Seth Hepner: Hanging indentions needed within all entries

“Psychology: Gaming the Brain.” Nature, vol. 467, no. 7313, 2010, pp. 254–55. Crossref, doi: 10.1038/467254f. Comment by Seth Hepner: These entries should be alphabetized

Cangemi, Joseph, and Jay Ingram. “VIDEO GAMES: MOTIVATION, EFFECTS, AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS ON SELF-ESTEEM Citation Metadata.” College Student Journal, vol. 53, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1–12. Ebsco, doi:10.1016/j.cyto.2015.08.058.

Hanghøj, Thorkild, Andreas Lieberoth, and Morten Misfeldt. “Can cooperative video games encourage social and motivational inclusion of at‐risk students?.” British Journal of Educational Technology 49.4 (2018): 775-799.

Lobel, Adam, et al. “Video gaming and children’s psychosocial wellbeing: A longitudinal study.” Journal of youth and adolescence 46.4 (2017): 884-897.

Ott, Michela, and Francesca Pozzi. “Digital Games as Creativity Enablers for Children.” Behaviour & Information Technology, vol. 31, no. 10, 2012, pp. 1011–19. Crossref, doi:10.1080/0144929x.2010.526148.

Schmitt, Zachary L., and Michael G. Livingston. “Video Game Addiction and College Performance Among Males: Results from a 1 Year Longitudinal Study.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, vol. 18, no. 1, 2015, pp. 25–29. Crossref, doi:10.1089/cyber.2014.0403.

You, Sukkyung, et al. “Impact of Violent Video Games on the Social Behaviors of Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Emotional Competence.” School Psychology International, vol. 36, no. 1, 2014, pp. 94–111. Crossref, doi: 10.1177/0143034314562921.

Zhang, Qian, et al. “Violent Video Game Effects on Aggressive Behavior among Children: The Role of Aggressive Motivation and Trait-Aggressiveness in China.” Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, vol. 30, no. 2, 2020, pp. 175–92. Crossref, doi:10.1080/10926771.2020.1866135.