Consequences of Video Gaming: Positive and Negative Impacts

This report discusses the various forms of consequences based on video gaming, including the positive and negative impacts on physical and psychological health. It also provides solutions to recover from addiction to video gaming.

Consequences of Video Gaming
ACOM105: English Language Communication Skills
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Abstract
This report is based on the discussion about the various forms of consequences
based on video gaming. This form of gaming is a growing form of trend among the
children and teenagers. Hence they are more prone to get addicted to this form of
gaming experiences and would hence indulge themselves in such kind of activities.
This report thus focuses on the various forms of positive and negative impacts of
video gaming on the society and individuals and also discusses about the ways in
which they could recover from the addiction to the platform of video gaming.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction...........................................................................................................................3
2. Findings..................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Physical Health.................................................................................................................3
2.2 Psychological Health........................................................................................................4
2.3 Solutions...........................................................................................................................4
3. Discussion...............................................................................................................................5
4. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................6
5. Recommendations.................................................................................................................6
6. References..............................................................................................................................7

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1. Introduction
Video gaming could be defined as the process of playing and interacting
within a user defined interface for the purpose of generating visual feedback on a
video device that includes a computer monitor or a TV screen. The primary form of
input device is the controller such as a keyboard, game pad, joystick, paddle, mouse
or any other kinds of devices. In the recent times, it has been seen that there have
been there have been a major form of impact on the use of video games on the
society. This report focuses on those discussion about the wide consequences of
playing such kinds of games (King et al., 2013).
2. Findings
Some of the major form of problems that are faced by the excessive impact of
video gaming are described as:
2.1 Physical Health
Addiction to video gaming could lead to tremendous forms of impacts on
the health of an individual. Spending much of the time within the online gaming
platform would lead to major impacts such as illness that might be curable. One of
the most vital side effects of online gaming and other video games is obesity
(Brunborg, Mentzoni & Frøyland, 2014). The addiction to gaming would lead to the
individual for sitting in one particular place and thus concentrate on that game for
hours. This would lead to the body for missing out with some of the physical
activities. Hence the problem of getting overweighed would lead to development of

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several kinds of ailments such as diabetes, cholesterol, hypertension and many
others.
There might be another health related problem, which is insomnia.
Playing of video games for a longer stretch would lead to tremendous harm to sleep.
This would hence result in hypoactive immune system and drowsiness (King et al.,
2013).
2.2 Psychological Health
Long hours of addiction to the gaming activities would lead to impact on
the social behavior of an individual. Continuous addiction to the gaming environment
would lead to an immediate consequence on social isolation. This would lead to less
spending of time with friends and family (Ferguson & Olson, 2013). This would lead
to the ignorance of the surroundings as the individual would stay aloof from the
society on a prolonged basis. Teenagers and children might also face a confusion
between the fictional and the real world. This might hamper their social life and limits
the scope of meeting and exchange of several ideas between people. This might
lead to the fact that individual might not be able to differentiate the virtual world from
the real world. They would hence behave in the same manner as they would behave
and react during the gaming period. Hence in the longer process, these individual
might become aggressive, which might be a social cause of concern (Rehbein &
Baier, 2013).
2.3 Solutions

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Based on the discussion of the various kinds of problems, it could be
suggested that in order to reduce the effect of video gaming there should be some
forms of restrictions on the usage of these games. The users should dedicate their
time on other kinds of activities, which would help their mind to get dedicated in other
forms of activities. These individuals should consult doctors and thus take necessary
steps in resolving the psychological and physical issues related to their health.
Concern for health should be the main motive among the individuals and hence the
reduction in the time spent on gaming should be reduced. People should focus on
various other kinds of aspects such as various other forms of offline games. Wide
form of adoption of the addiction to video gaming would lead to problems reflected
within their studies. They would score low marks and hence their parents would need
to educate their child for reducing this form of addiction. This could be reduced with
involving of the teenagers with the various kinds of other activities, which would help
them in improving and maintain a healthy work habit.
3. Discussion
Although there are several kinds of problems related to the effect of online
video gaming on individuals, but they would still have some of the positive impacts
on the society and life of the individuals. With the effect of video gaming, individuals
would be able to increase the level of their confidence on certain aspects. They
would also be able to learn certain skills, which could be impactful in their daily lives.
Some of the video games might be helpful for the individuals as they would help the
individuals in increasing and enhancing many kinds of cognitive based skills such as
visual processing, perception, memory reasoning and many others. This would also

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be useful as individuals might also gain better impacts based on hand and eye
coordination (Lohse et al., 2013).
Although there are many kinds of positive effects of indulging in video gaming
but still the negative impacts of this process often outshines over the positive effects.
Addiction to the video gaming would lead to preoccupation to only one kind of
activity. This would lead to tremendous kinds of health and psychological effects.
Children are worse affected by this process as they constantly keep thinking of their
next moves within the game and hence this would place a major form of impact on
their quality of education. Long hours of spending time on video games would lead
them to be exhausted. They might get tired by performing any kind of smaller
activities. This would lead to low time for studying during examination, which might
be impact their quality of education. Addiction to video gaming would lead to
focusing on those games on a huge basis and this would also lead to less form of
interaction with other people and hence they would spend less time with their family
members (Kowert et al., 2015).
4. Conclusion
Hence, from the above discussion, it could be concluded that although video
gaming has some form of advantages over teenagers and children but they would
eventually lead to negative forms of impacts on the life of the individual. Excessive
form of addiction to video gaming would lead to much more negative impacts such
as impact on the physical health and physiological health perspectives. Individuals
might pay less attention to their surroundings, which might be even more harmful
during many kinds of situations. Hence the individuals should take some necessary
steps so as to lower the potential risks of video gaming and thus ensure an healthy
environment.

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5. Recommendations
The above discussion is based on the various kinds of consequences that are
being led with the excessive impact of video gaming. In order to reduce the various
kinds of side effects of video gaming there should be some form of measures that
would be able to mitigate the raised concerns of the issue. People who have high
addiction to gaming should take advices from doctors and other people who would
make them understand the potential risks from gaming. These individuals should
also take care of their physical health by reducing the wide addiction to video gaming
(Drummond & Sauer, 2014). They should also engage themselves in other form of
useful activities, which would help them in reducing the need to move into the world
of video gaming.

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6. References
Brunborg, G. S., Mentzoni, R. A., & Frøyland, L. R. (2014). Is video gaming, or video
game addiction, associated with depression, academic achievement, heavy
episodic drinking, or conduct problems?. Journal of behavioral
addictions, 3(1), 27-32.
Drummond, A., & Sauer, J. D. (2014). Video-games do not negatively impact
adolescent academic performance in science, mathematics or reading. PloS
one, 9(4), e87943.
Ferguson, C. J., & Olson, C. K. (2013). Friends, fun, frustration and fantasy: Child
motivations for video game play. Motivation and Emotion, 37(1), 154-164.
King, D. L., Gradisar, M., Drummond, A., Lovato, N., Wessel, J., Micic, G., ... &
Delfabbro, P. (2013). The impact of prolonged violent video‐gaming on
adolescent sleep: an experimental study. Journal of sleep research, 22(2),
137-143.
King, D. L., Haagsma, M. C., Delfabbro, P. H., Gradisar, M., & Griffiths, M. D. (2013).
Toward a consensus definition of pathological video-gaming: A systematic
review of psychometric assessment tools. Clinical psychology review, 33(3),
331-342.
Kowert, R., Vogelgesang, J., Festl, R., & Quandt, T. (2015). Psychosocial causes
and consequences of online video game play. Computers in Human
Behavior, 45, 51-58.
Lohse, K., Shirzad, N., Verster, A., Hodges, N., & Van der Loos, H. M. (2013). Video
games and rehabilitation: using design principles to enhance engagement in
physical therapy. Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy, 37(4), 166-175.
Rehbein, F., & Baier, D. (2013). Family-, media-, and school-related risk factors of
video game addiction. Journal of Media Psychology.