video games

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The Effects of Video Games on the Body In households with children, sixty seven percent of them own a video game system. The game industry’s worldwide video game annual sales reached over 25 billion at the end of 2004. So the concern for the health of video game players is increasing. Video games have many different effects on the health of people. Some experiments have found video games to have a dramatic effect, while other experiments have found them to have little or no effect at all. While some video games have even been found to help people take their minds off their problems and deal with their stress, other people have had the opposite reactions to the games. In a study done by Craig A. Anderson and Karen E. Dill, it was found that violent video games increased aggressive behavior and delinquency. They also found that violent video games were more against women than men. The women in games were degraded and exploited, while the men were the superiors and had the control over the women (Anderson 771). Another effect video games had on people was the shooting at Columbine. The gunmen, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, played video games called Doom, in which they killed people who had no defense (Anderson 772). Eighth graders who played video games and watched television the most did the worst at school (Beckham 1). “Playing a video game significantly increased heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen consumption in a group of people ages 16 to 25” (Segal, 4). Subjects who played aggressive video games were more excited than those who didn’t. After playing the video games, the subject would act out with more aggression towards others (Anderson 5). College students that played video games, compared to those who did not, showed signs of changes on class attendance and on their grades. Some of these changes included a drop in grade average and attendance (Kardaras 1). In a group of eight graders, frequent television viewers and video game players preformed the poorest at school. The flashing lights, quick scene changing, and special figure patterns in video games lead to epilepsy seizures. When three video games were played under three levels of stress, a progressively higher value of blood pressure and heart rate was found. People aged 16 to 25 played a video game and s... ... middle of paper ... ...ws people how to use violence to better themselves (Video Game Effects np). In a study by Paul Lynch on the long-term effects of video game playing, it was found that violent games raised blood pressure, which can cause lesions on the artery wall. This put the user at a greater risk of getting heart disease. The study found that girls were not as affected by the violent games as the boys, but were still negatively affected (Effect of Video Game np). Through all the studies done by many different researchers, there have been many different results. Some results have shown an increase in heart rate, while others have shown video games help people deal with stress. While most of the studies had negative effects, there were very few studies that had shown no effect at all, and depended on the type of person tested. The majority of the video games made are violent and have nothing in them to benefit the player. Almost every videogame is made strictly for entertainment and does just that by appealing to the majority. The games are made so that that you will buy them, therefore violence, sex, and drugs are put into many of the videogames children play today.

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