Luke Stonehocker

English 2010

Academic Essay Reflection

For my academic essay I wrote about video games, and their effect on us. I chose this
topic because video games have always been very interesting to me, and Ive wondered over the
years how they could be affecting my social behavior. This lead to my question of: How can
video games affect our social behavior?. I thought it would be really interesting to see if video
games make us more violent, introverted, open minded, organized, ect. There are so many ways
that they can affect our minds, whether that be positive or negative. I also wanted to know if how
you were brought up can influence how video games affect your mind.
My ideas throughout the paper didnt change very much, and all the research that I did
was pretty close to how I already felt about the subject. I knew that video games can be over
empowering if we forget balance, and moderation. I was curious of how desensitization can
affect us and how it can be measured. While writing this paper I learned in my summary of
Brockmyers article about how it can be measured through many ways such as behavioral
indicators and the role of empathy, psychophysiologic measures, and also heart and respiratory
rate. In the end, desensitization can lead to increased aggression and a decrease of empathy and
prosocial behavior due to exposure of violent media which includes video games. I think this is
really interesting because this is exactly what Ive been experiencing more and more throughout
the years. I learned a lot about writing while making this essay. I learned how to better
summarize my sources, and how to properly cite them. I learned to make sure I properly
understood these sources before using them in my essay.

The assignment touched a lot of objectives that relate to this course. Finding and using
sources properly, creating multiple drafts and revisions, and learning to research for our specific
topic. While writing this essay I learned a lot about how much violent media is a part of our
lives. The shows we watch, video games we play, music we listen to all affects us more than we
may think it does. As long as we remember to balance our exposure to these elements, we can
prevent them from having a large impact on our thoughts and actions. Without moderation these
things could have a very negative impact.