EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAMES ON CHILDREN Effects of Video Games on Children Name Institution Date of submission 1
EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAMES ON CHILDREN Video gaming is increasingly becoming a popular activity among people, particularly children. Many children spend large amounts of time playing video games (Guins, 2015). Many children spend more than two hours a day playing video games. In many developed countries, video gaming industry has continuously thrived beyond movies and DVDs combined. Investors continue to create very sophisticated video games, some of which make playing them an almost realistic experience. The innovation online video games allow children to play with other children or adults around the world. Most children do not know the online gamers, which may alter their behavior. While some video games have educational content, many of the most popular games emphasize on negative themes (Bavelier et al., 2011). They instill and promote certain negative behaviors in children. This essay evaluates the negative effects of gaming in children. Violent video games promote murder and criminal behavior. Children exposed to violent video games become immune to the horror of violence (FirstCry Parenting, 2021). Studies show that children often imitate what they experience in violent video games in real life. As children see and play intensively violent video games, they develop more aggressive behavior (Weber et al., 2020). Innovators continue to develop more realistic violent videos games, which makes children to imitate the exact characteristics depicted in the movie. Most children tend to strive to become the hero in the video game in real life. Repeated exposure to violent video games increases the violent nature of these children in real life (Graham, 2014). Children who become overly involved and obsessed with violent video games develop a criminal behavior, which progresses to old age. Video gaming affects the brain. It changes multiple regions of the brain. It affects the structure and activity of the brain. Video games do not only change the brain performance, but also changes its structure. First, video games affect attention. Many children who play video games display improved sustained attention as well as selective attention (Annetta et 2
EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAMES ON CHILDREN al., 2006). Video gamers display a more efficient attention in completing demand tasks as compared to non-gamers. However, this is only practical if done with moderation. Second, video games improve children’s ability to identify visual and spatial relationships among objects. They enlarge the right hippocampus, which is responsible for visual and spatial characteristics (Bavelier et al., 2011). However, addictive video gaming, which is common among children, alters the functional and structural positions of the neural reward system. The neural reward system helps children in feeling pleasure, learning, and motivation. Video game addicts experience certain cravings, which children cannot overcome even in old age. The risk of addiction affects the normal functioning of the brain as it fails to control the ability of children to resist to certain behaviors (Cesarone & ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education). Video games only stimulate the part of the brain that controls vision and movement. However, it may lead to underdevelopment of other parts of the brain that are responsible for emotion, behavior, and learning. Video game addiction constitutes the other harmful effect of gaming. Video gaming is continuously dominating the world. Addiction to these video games destabilizes the normal functioning of children (Graham, 2014). Many children who are addicted to video gaming develop mental disorders associated with video gaming. For instance, majority of children in the United States who play video games experience slow development and reasoning. Most of these children are unable to express themselves fluently. Most children who play video games can spend a whole day in the house. Most of these children develop social disorder. A socially isolated gamer can only interact with people or peer in massive virtual worlds, but cannot converse with a friend physically in the same manner (Weber et al., 2020). Most of children gamers avoid social places. They opt to spend time alone in their rooms. In most instances, they choose to do their duties singly. They often develop poor teamwork skills. 3
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