Are Video Games Bad or Good?

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Are Video Games Bad or Good? Whether video games are beneficial or harmful to our growing youth has been a long, exhausting debate. Video and online games have long been accused of negatively affecting children’s health not only physically, but mentally as well including laziness, violent tendencies, social isolation, and obesity. However, recent research is proving otherwise. Scientist and University research has found that video games can not only assist in problem solving and logic, but also reverse the long term effects of some mental disorders, as well as much more. It is often thought that video games affect the typical child negatively, most arguably in the social aspect. There are many studies done showing children who partake in gaming are said to become less social and exhibit more violent, aggressive thoughts and behaviors. One such study, conducted by Craig A. Anderson and Karen E. Dill indicated that aggressive behavior is directly correlated with violent video games: Two studies examined violent video game effects on aggression-related variables. Study 1 found that real-life violent video game play was positively related to aggressive behavior and delinquency. The relation was stronger for individuals who are characteristically aggressive and for men. Academic achievement was negatively related to overall amount of time spent playing video games. In Study 2, laboratory exposure to a graphically violent video game increased aggressive thoughts and behavior. In both studies, men had a more hostile view of the world than did women. The results from both studies are consistent with the General Affective Aggression Model, which predicts that exposure to violent video games will increase aggressive behavior in both t... ... middle of paper ... ...video games. This study has provided evidence that video games could potentially be used as therapy for patients with mental disorders including schizophrenia, post traumatic stress disorder, and Alzheimer’s disease. Dyslexia has also been pinpointed in a study done by Italian Researchers and the Univeristy of Padua to show signs of reversal after the patient engaged in certain games for a period of time. These studies showed it helped kids increase attention span, a skill crucial to reading. But, by far, the most impressive mental health benefit of video games are their ability to actually slow the aging process. In a study of 681 healthy 50 year old and older, playing video games of a specially designed game was able to stall the natural decline of different cognitive skills by up to 7 years. With all of the evidence presented to us, of the good and the bad,

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