Essay On Negative Effects Of Video Games

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Are video games really as bad as some think? Some people find video games to be the cause of violence and delays in learning. Other people think that gaming is actually beneficial to one 's mental health and it can even help those who suffer from depression. Videogames, fun and educational tools of the electronic ages, have been the source of scrutiny for many years. Students who have gone into their schools with intent to or successfully injuring or murdering others, have more often than not, been linked to videogames. Some games can raise the level of aggression during the game play, and can make the player impulsive. Do these effects last past the game playing? There is no conclusive data on that. The thing not many put into perspective …show more content…

Teens that are depressed are actually gaining assistance with the virtual world with a game that helps teens overcome their sadness by teaching them techniques to overcome their battles. Szalavitz, author of “Study: Playing a Video Games Helps Teens Beat Depression” in 2012 reports that, “The game is modeled as an interactive fantasy in which players create an avatar who restores balance in a virtual world by destroying “gloomy negative automatic thoughts” or GNATs. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, seeks to educate the depressed person that this kind of thinking is not accurate or true”. Along with depression, decision making is really worked out during fast paced games. Teens or other gamers have seconds to decide what to do in situations depicted by the game. One author states that, “Action gamers responded substantially faster than non-gamers to dot arrays at all difficulty levels, especially tough ones, while detecting dots’ motion direction as accurately as peers did” (Bower, 2010). These tests have proven that decisions are quicker to be made with minimal to no loss of precision. In games such as The Sims, individuals have the freedom to explore their identity. They can make their characters look and act any way they want, have any career they want, and be who they want. It is an escape that relaxes people and allows them to be

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