Impact of Video Games on Health

The assignment discusses the negative and positive effects of video gaming on human health. It highlights the potential for addiction, physical disorders such as headaches, and mental disorders like stress relief. However, it also mentions the benefits of improved decision-making and strategy skills, as well as the increased sharing of knowledge among gamers.

Running head: ADDICTION TO COMPUTER GAMES
Addiction to Computer Games
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note

1ADDICTION TO COMPUTER GAMES
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Pros and Cons of the Addiction to the computer games............................................................2
Recommendations......................................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
Reference....................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The technology has brought about vast changes in the world of computers and
transformed the world into a digital era. The advances in the digital technology has enhanced
the human life to a greater extent and made it easier. This has also brought into huge
existence the greater addiction to the computer games. Addiction to the computer games
refers to the condition in which the player is engaged in an excessive and unhealthy amount
of playing games on the computer. The paper describes the positive as well as negative
effects of the computer games on the teenagers. It describes the computer games as a source
of learning as well as a source of hazard to health. Furthermore, the paper also brings to light
the types of addictive games. It also provides a brief overview the reasons behind such
addiction to the computer games. It also provides the real life examples to state the issue.
Finally, the paper provides certain recommendations on the usage of computer games and
techniques to tackle with such addictions.
Pros and Cons of the Addiction to the computer games
The Computer games incorporate various advantages as well as disadvantage to the
humans. Some of them are discussed below:
The computer games enhance the decision making capability of the player to a great
extent. The games such as IQ and puzzle solving enable the player to take quick decisions
during the game. They build direct connection with the brain and some researches also states
that the addiction to these games enables them to enhance their skills and take suitable
decisions considering the current scenario (Weinstein, Livny & Weizman, 2017). The
computer games reduce the reaction time and thus, enhance the speed of taking decisions that
too with accuracy. The strategy game helps the individuals to develop the techniques of

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planning a strategy such that the activity leads to success in the first attempt. It also enhances
the social connectivity of the people (Faust & Faust, 2015). This acts as a confidence
boosting scenario for those people who find it difficult to socialize with others. It helps
people not to remain isolated and thus, increases the interaction among the people, thus it
proves to be a source of friendship thereby, gaining and sharing of knowledge.
Furthermore, the computer games addiction proves to be helpful for the disabled
persons who do not have the ability to play games outside such as those of football, cricket,
hockey and many more (Anderson & Hilton, 2015). The best graphics and sound play helps
the disabled people to play such games. Moreover, the 3d and 4d gaming technologies have
also led to the increased development of the brain capacity. It increases the capacity of the
brain as well as provides the human beings the ability to think more. It also enhances the
physical skills by learning through online and computer games. These games help the people
to learn new techniques by keeping good interaction of the body and the mind thus, leading to
learning new skills and performing it outdoors (Samaha & Hawi, 2016). Moreover, the video
games helps in relieving the stress and helps the individuals relax. This further enhances the
productivity of the people.
The addiction of computer games has various advantages however, it also poses
various disadvantages. The extreme addiction of the computer games causes various physical
disorders such as damaged eye sight and headaches. The addiction of the computer games
leads to the continuous exposure to the computer screen that incorporates rays that are
hazardous to the human eye (Andreassen et al., 2016). It also causes inability to sleep
condition among the teenagers. Moreover, it also leads to the people getting lazy and
neglecting activities such as exercises, proper food and sleep. In addition to these, the
computer games require complete attention of the player, thus making him/ her isolated from
the environment around him. Furthermore, the computer activities reduce the outdoor

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activities performed by the teenager that makes the players dull and weak. It further
incorporates ill effects on the human health. According to the researchers continuous
exposure of the teenagers to the computer games hampers the social skills of the children and
in certain cases also promotes violence. Moreover, the teenagers and the children addicted to
the computer games are highly susceptible to academic failures (Marzbani et al., 2016).
Though, the addiction to the computer games enables people to interact with others on social
media platforms but makes them more isolated in the real world scenario, they generally have
the tendency to isolate themselves from face to face interaction with other human beings that
adds to hamper the personality development of the individual. The computer games also pose
a security threat to the individuals. It may also lead to serious physical disorders such as
borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder. The increased addiction to the computer
games also lead to premature deaths and huge loss of youths as well as children (Griffiths et
al., 2016). Moreover, the researchers also state that there has been an increase in the death
rates due to long continuous hours of gaming leading to exhaustion and contributing to death
of the individuals. Examples of such games include the Blue Whale that served as the root
cause for the deaths of huge population. Thus, steps should be taken to govern and mitigate
the negative impact of such games such that the individuals utilize the advantages served by
the computer games.
Recommendations
The computer games help in the overall development of the individuals leading to
increase in socialization online and increased interaction with people around the globe.
However, in addition to the advantages it also posses various disadvantages, thus the
recommendations for preventing the disadvantages are mentioned below:

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The long duration of the games played should be avoided (King et al., 2018). The
long duration of playing the games causes various physical as well as mental ill effects. The
computer games should not become an addiction rather it should be utilized for the purpose
of relieving stressful conditions. Moreover, instead of investing long duration of hours on the
computer games people should resort to performing some physical activities, such as
engaging themselves in outdoor games (Smith, Gradisar & King, 2015). These outdoor
games would enable the people to interact and socialize with the other team members. It also
helps in boosting the physical health of the individuals. Moreover, the outdoor games reduce
the reaction time and increase the decision taking ability in a real time scenario which further
leads to the development of the decision making capability of the individuals. Moreover, the
privacy and security of the individuals playing computer games are also at risk. Thus, the
players should play games on the console as it is much safer to use as it maintains the privacy
of the individuals playing the games. It assumes greater privacy as well as security.
Moreover, the content of the console can also be controlled thus; the usage of the console for
playing games should be promoted. The computer games that are developed should posses a
constraint that it does not impart serious threat to human life. The computer games that
posses risk to human life should be banned and not introduced in the market. Moreover,
active parental monitoring can also help to prevent the occurrence of such cases (Choo et al.,
2015). Furthermore, the players should also have the capability to identify the negative
aspects of such games and refrain from getting further engaged into it.
Conclusion
Thus, with the above discussion it can be concluded that addiction to video games is
concerned with negative health consequences such as physical disorders as well as mental
disorders such as headaches. It may also adversely affect the eye sight of the players.

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However, the computer games enhance the decision making as well as the strategy making
skills of the individuals. It also helps the persons with disability to play games and acts as
stress reliever. Moreover, the increased interaction with different people online leads to
immense sharing of knowledge. However, there exists security and privacy issues, which can
be maintained by playing games on console. Moreover, the physical disadvantages can also
be avoided by setting limits on the duration of playing games.

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Reference
Anderson, G., & Hilton, S. (2015). Increase team cohesion by playing cooperative video
games. CrossTalk, 33.
Andreassen, C. S., Billieux, J., Griffiths, M. D., Kuss, D. J., Demetrovics, Z., Mazzoni, E., &
Pallesen, S. (2016). The relationship between addictive use of social media and video
games and symptoms of psychiatric disorders: A large-scale cross-sectional
study. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 30(2), 252.
Choo, H., Sim, T., Liau, A. K., Gentile, D. A., & Khoo, A. (2015). Parental influences on
pathological symptoms of video-gaming among children and adolescents: A
prospective study. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(5), 1429-1441.
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Griffiths, M. D., Van Rooij, A. J., Kardefelt-Winther, D., Starcevic, V., Király, O., Pallesen,
S., ... & King, D. L. (2016). Working towards an international consensus on criteria
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King, D. L., Delfabbro, P. H., Doh, Y. Y., Wu, A. M., Kuss, D. J., Pallesen, S., ... & Sakuma,
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Marzbani, H., Marateb, H. R., & Mansourian, M. (2016). Neurofeedback: a comprehensive
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Samaha, M., & Hawi, N. S. (2016). Relationships among smartphone addiction, stress,
academic performance, and satisfaction with life. Computers in Human Behavior, 57,
321-325.
Smith, L. J., Gradisar, M., & King, D. L. (2015). Parental influences on adolescent video
game play: a study of accessibility, rules, limit setting, monitoring, and
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