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Amadu Kargbo

English 101

Justine DeCamillis

4 October, 2017

Video Games: Waste of Time or Useful Tool?

Video games have been one of the biggest pastimes for children to indulge in. They tend

to spend a lot of time indulging in these activities. This brings up concerns for parents and many

other individuals. These individuals see how games can keep childrens attention. If the kids are

so focused on playing these games then they may lose focus in class and end up performing

poorly in school. Another major concern was the acts of violence that were displayed in the

games. With the increase in popularity of violent games, questions arise involving the impact

they have. The debate of whether these games have a negative or positive effect of the kids

continues without a definitive answer.

Video games have been a huge part of my childhood. I spent most of my time playing

games instead of spending time with my friends or studying for my classes. My parents always

worried that violent games were harmful to my mind and a big distraction that would cause me

to do very poorly in school. Because of this I wasnt allowed to play games during the weekdays.

I felt that they misunderstood my games and assumed that it has a negative influence on me. I

still found a way to play games often do partake in them when Im supposed to be reading a

book or studying for a test.

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Choosing to focus on games instead of my schoolwork did not change my mindset. The

games did not hurt me in my academics. In fact, it helped me out a lot. Playing the games

allowed me to be able to focus during class and it gave me the motivation to get all my work

done. I was also able to gain friends through playing these games. It gave me something to relate

to with other kids and can become a more open person. Games have had a positive effect on me

and have helped me out when I have been struggling.

I saw video games as a positive influence yet my parents wanted nothing more than for

me to stop playing. I wanted to understand why my parents felt that this would harm my mind so

I research this topic and found articles that made the argument of games being harmful to kids

social skills and learning abilities. I did not understand the criticism the articles were expressing.

What is the reason for this and where did the idea of games causing children to commit violent

acts come from. Times have changed and games have advanced and become convenient for kids

to have. They have also become much more violent and with kids lashing out at their parents and

committing violent acts in school the blame can only be put onto video games. I want to find out

if video games are to blame for this problem. I plan to find the effects games had on children by

looking at this issue from a different point of view.

One of the common perspectives I found was a negative perspective of games. Jia-Kun

Zheng and Qian Zhang take this approach. They discuss the problem of aggression and how it

relates to a childs gameplay. They found that researchers have determined that violent video

games cause violent behavior in children. With that in mind, they did a series of case studies to

determine if there is a connection. They came up with several hypotheses, one of these were

children who play violent, compared to nonviolent, computer games will show stronger

aggression (pg. 1749). They recruited 220 kids age 9-12 and gave them the game Virtual cop 2 to
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play. The results showed that the girls did not enjoy playing the game. The boys found the game

to be great. They were excited when they were shooting gangsters and got angry when they were

killed. This case showed the negative impact the game has on the boys. Exposure to games like

this affects them in a negative way. They found killing the gangsters fun and were praising the

actions. This is the issue experts show the public and parents look to. The joy the boys had while

virtually killing people is something that could become problematic. If they are exposed to

violence and enjoy it then they may try and apply some of the actions into real life. This point of

view is what is shown to the public and it is what influences the parents view on allowing their

kids to play these types of games.

Video games are seen negatively in the public. They are poison to kids but is that really

the case. There are always two sides to a story and authors Adachi and Willoughby take the

opposite approach. They see games in a positive view and try to incorporate a relationship

between a teens sports video game play and involvement in real-life sports. They conduct a

study with the goal of discovering the association between sports gameplay and a childs interest

and involvement in sports. They found that specifically, sports games results in an increase in

involvement in sports. Their case study took a unique look at video games. They saw it as a

positive and showed that games can be a positive influence on children. Adachi and Willoughby

believe that games can be an effective tool to promote real-life sports participation and physical

activity. Though their investigation they show the public how games can be encouraging and

give kids the motivation to get involved in sports.

Both studies present take two different perspectives on how video games can be viewed

but they give us a lot of different ways to look at this issue. Children have been affected in

various ways and games a just a big part of it. Games have affected me in a lot of different ways.
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They have helped me through a lot of things and have helped improve my social skills. The issue

of violent games affecting a child negatively vs games being helpful and positive on children

continues to be an issue without a solution to. As someone who has been affected by games, I

want to find out how they impact us today. There are many ways to look at this problem and I

plan on finding them out moving forward.

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Work cited

Adachi, Paul and Teena Willoughby. "Does Playing Sports Video Games Predict Increased

Involvement in Real-Life Sports over Several Years among Older Adolescents and

Emerging Adults?." Journal of Youth & Adolescence, vol. 45, no. 2, Feb. 2016, pp. 391-

401. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s10964-015-0312-2.

Bajovic, Mirjana. "Violent Video Gaming and Moral Reasoning in Adolescents: Is There an

Association?." Educational Media International, vol. 50, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 177-191.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/09523987.2013.836367.

JIA-KUN, ZHENG and ZHANG QIAN. "Priming Effect of Computer Game Violence on

Childrens Aggression Levels." Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal,

vol. 44, no. 10, Dec. 2016, pp. 1747-1759. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.2224/sbp.2016.44.10.1747.

King, Daniel L., et al. "The Impact of Prolonged Violent Video-Gaming on Adolescent Sleep:

An Experimental Study." Journal of Sleep Research, vol. 22, no. 2, Apr. 2013, pp. 137-

143. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2869.2012.01060.x.

Kovess-Masfety, Viviane, et al. "Is Time Spent Playing Video Games Associated with Mental

Health, Cognitive and Social Skills in Young Children?." Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric

Epidemiology, vol. 51, no. 3, Mar. 2016, pp. 349-357. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s00127-

016-1179-6.