In today’s society people seem to have mixed emotions about videogames. It would be hard for you not to have an opinion about videogames in today’s world because everywhere you go you will see people playing games on their computers, cellphones, or gaming devices. Now with all of the popularity of videogames there are people out there who are against teenagers, young children, or anyone in general playing them. Videogames being so popular among our youth has gained the attention of parents and other older peers. These people who are against videogames argue that videogames are having a negative impact on these gamer’s lives.
But there are also people who argue that videogames are beneficial and can be a good. With the popularity of videogames going up over the past 20-30 years there have been people trying to convince the public that they are bad for our teenagers or young children. These people are trying to link videogames to bad grades, violence, lack of intelligence, or even things like social problems. These people claim that playing violent videogames like Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, or any other game that revolves around violence is causing kids to act out violently.
While playing videogames like this could be linked with some cases of violent act outs it is not the case for the majority. Studies show that kids who act out violently were likely to do so whether they played violent videogames or not. Assuming that most children will play a game like Grand Theft Auto and witness violent acts being played out on the game and then go do these violent things is just unrealistic. Now with that said I do believe that if a child or teenager with a history of acting violent played this videogame it could possibly give this individual inspiration to act out one of these things.
But even in those certain cases that does not count for the majority of the gamers. I also disagree with the argument that playing young children or teenagers playing videogames leads to bad grads or to lack of intelligence. Videogames do not make these players less intelligent but kids who play videogames and do not do any school work because they are playing videogames is what causes these kids to have bad games. Even then that’s the only good argument you can have on videogames causing bad grades because that would be the only logical reason as to why a kid would get bad grades because of not doing their work and being on the videogame.
If these kids were having trouble in the class room it would not make as much sense to blame it on videogames because they do not have them with them in the classroom. This means that these kids having this problem in particular would be having this problem regardless whether they played videogames or not. If you look past all of the negative accusations that people make against videogames you will see that they can actually benefit young children, teenagers, and any other age group that may play them.
Videogames are more than just sitting in front of a screen and zoning out. When you play videogames you are constantly taking in and analyzing information so that you can make your next movie in the game. It has been noted that people who play call of duty are able to take in visual information faster than people who have not. Research has shown that this fast paced shooting game has trained people to take in visual information faster because they are constantly watching the screen change and are analyzing it and predicting the next move.
These fast paced games have also improved gamers hand-eye coordination because the player not only has to take in the fast visuals but has to react quickly by pressing the buttons and controls to keep up with the game . What most people don’t realize is that a lot of games are not just fun but they are complicated and require the player to be focused and concentrated to reach the goal. Most games are very challenging and requires the player to be a good problem solver. So instead of zoning out this players are actually learning or being active with their mind.
Videogames are not just violent ones like Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto there are others like sports, puzzle, virtual reality, strategy, dancing, singing, and many more types of games. I do believe however that if someone is playing videogames to much that it can be bad. But I think that if parents or older peers monitor their child and give them a certain amount of time a day to be on it that it can benefit them. Some children may need to play videogames after a long day of school or anything else that may have put stress on them which videogames can help relieve some of that stress by taking their mind off of their problems temporarily.