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Video Games for Children Essay

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Ma 1

Antony Ma

Ranne Fresse

ENGL 1302

23 June 2018

Video Games for Children

What are the effects of video games on our children? This has been a major issue in

recent years due to the development of realism in video games. Parents find themselves looking

to games and finding out if games really are a positive or negative influence on behavior

development for the future of our children. Let us take a look at both sides of the conflict and

get a better understanding of each side.

One of the most used arguments for negative effects of video games is that video games

cause increased aggression and violent behavior in children. A good example of the mental

effects that video games cause a young person is described in the following, “Levels of the feel-

good chemical dopamine rise in his brain, sustaining his interest, keeping him focused on the

task at hand, and elevating his mood. The intense visual stimulation and activity flood his brain,

which adapts to the heightened level of stimulation by shutting off other parts it considers

nonessential. The visual-motor areas of his brain light up. Blood flows away from his gut,

kidneys, liver, and bladder and toward his limbs and heart…” (Dunckley) The writer discusses

the amplified stimulation in the child’s mind as they play a violent video game. Their emotions

and feelings are so ramped up, that they begin to become immersed in the game. So when this

stimulation is suddenly taken away from them, they have no healthy way to release this emotion

which causes a sudden outburst and explosion of emotional reactions. The child is now irate and

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irritable which leads to tantrums until they can satisfy a justified ending of what began this

emotion to swell up inside to begin with. It takes several hours before the child can calm down

and work out all that dopamine and adrenaline. These chemical and mental reactions have other

side effects also.

Video games are said to cause both underdevelopment and anti-social tendencies

amongst children. A research done by Professor Kawashima, of Tohoku University Japan,

showed that when playing the games it, “…did not stimulate the brain's frontal lobe, an area

which plays an important role in the repression of anti-social impulses and is associated with

memory, learning and emotion.” (Matthews) This means that most typical games do not generate

enough stimulation in those areas and they lack the mental ability to control emotions, such as

violence, and become more withdrawn from society. This is due to the lack of serotonin being

produced in the brain.

Not all research shows that video games have a negative effect on children. As a matter

of fact, one particular research done by a group of researchers showed through various tests.

Gamers, in these tests, showed faster adaption and reflexes to changing environments within the

tests. In this research, they took non-gamers and made some of them play driving or shooting

games and a control group played a strategy game. They then tested the participants and the

people who played action games had better reaction times to the test than those who did not.

(Markman) This study shows that video games do help develop visuomotor control, or hand-eye

coordination. This would be beneficial if a child decides to take up sports or any physical

activates.

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Ma 1 Antony Ma Ranne Fresse ENGL 1302 23 June 2018 Video Games for Children What are the effects of video games on our children? This has been a major issue in recent years due to the development of realism in video games. Parents find themselves looking to games and finding out if games really are a positive or negative influence on behavior development for the future of our children. Let us take a look at both sides of the conflict and get a better understanding of each side. One of the most used arguments for negative effects of video games is that video games cause increased aggression and violent behavior in children. A good example of the mental effects that video games cause a young person is described in the following, “Levels of the feelgood chemical dopamine rise in his brain, sustaining his interest, keeping him focused on the task at hand, and elevating his mood. The intense visual stimulation and activity flood his brain, which adapts to the heightened level of stimulation by shutting off other parts it considers nonessential. The visual-motor areas of his brain light up. Blood flows away from his gut, kidneys, liver, and bladder and toward his limbs and heart…” (Dunckley) The writer discusses the amplified stimulation in the child’s mind as they play a violent video game. Their emotions and feelings are so ramped up, that they begin to become immersed in the game. So when this stimulation is suddenly taken away from them, they have no healthy way to rele ...
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Tags: negative influence on behavior development positive influence on behavior development negative effects of video games violent behavior in children mental effects of video games