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EVALUATION AND ANALYSIS ON 'HARMFUL VIDEO GAMES'

Name: Shahrukh Iqbal

ID: 153011066

Program: BBA

Section: 02

Institution: University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)

Date: August 29, 2016.

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In the featured Essay entitled 'Harmful Video Games', the writer has managed to fulfill his
purpose in an effective way by giving a good description about how video games are bringing
harm to the young generation of our society by causing negative effect on their physical as well
as mental health, the risk factor for obesity and inappropriate behavior.

Even though the writer did not blame video games entirely for all the negative effects caused

among children and teenagers, but technically mentioned about all the side effects it causes when

they waste a longer period of time playing it which is one of the stronger sides of the essay. For

example, the writer described very nicely in the essay how playing video games for a long time

can take its toll on physical health as well as mental health. The writer's idea about how video

games can help gamers sharpen their reflexes or increase their concentration and muscle

coordination is the only weakness I found since it can give negative motivation to new gamers to

play video games. The essay offers us many valuable details in descriptive format which are

essential for us to know. The tone of the essay is easy for its readers to understand and in my

own opinion I think the writer has managed to give a good overview about how video games are

slowly causing our young generation to lack the capability to distinguish between reality and

fantasy. Moreover, the reports of deaths of few gamers around the world have shown how

serious this issue is becoming in recent times."The death of a 28-year-old southern Korean gamer

who had spent 50 hours playing a real-time strategy game" [BBC News (2015)] or "Taiwanese

teenager fatally collapsed after a 40-hour game session" [Crawley, D. (2012)] are some of the

examples to show the severity of the situation.

In addition, the writer also talked about how teenagers playing video games have the possibility

of "loss of sight" or "obesity" due to spending long hours sitting in front of their television with

which I completely agree. In long run, inappropriate behavior similar to 'narcomania' or

'alcoholism' may develop among many young gamers which are caused by violence in video
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games. They tend to get used to their aggressive nature with which they confront their elders as

well as teachers for which "Such psychological deviations also do not implicate video games as a

constructive and useful occupation for young people" [Crane, W. (2013)].

Spending too much time playing video games are causing teenagers as well as people from

different age to lack the real life experiences and social adaptation which are essential for any

human being to learn and grow up with. It is important for them to continue doing everything

while giving proper time to all the tasks to keep the balance in place.

Analyzing the essay from a neutral point of view, I agree with the writer and I think he has

managed to give us a good idea in simple language about how video games are causing problems

in the growth of young people as well as the development of many teenagers to live in a social

culture. It is an interesting topic to discuss about and I would recommend others to read it as well

since I liked the content of the essay as it has many descriptions along with examples of why

video games are harmful for us.

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CRITERIA:

 Good/ Bad: It is a good essay where the writer has shown many valid reasons why

video games are harmful for us.

 Type/ Element of Essay: It is a descriptive essay where it has a lot of details with

examples of how and why video games are harmful.

 Content of Essay: The essay focus mainly on the harmful sides of playing video

games like effect on physical or mental health which is one of its stronger sides. Also, the

part where the writer mentioned how playing games can sharpen one's reflexes along

with increase in concentration and muscle coordination is the weak link of the essay for

me since it might introduce negative motivation among new gamers.

 Analysis of the Essay (from neutral view): I agree with the writer and I think he has

managed to give us a good idea in simple language about how video games are causing

problems in the growth of young people as well as the development of many teenagers to

live in a social culture.

 Suggestion/ Advice: Since playing video games is an addiction and it can't be stopped

suddenly, I would suggest gamers to reduce their playing time gradually while focusing

on other important things in life.