Arden Gifford 1

Mr. Gardner

Oily succulents

6 february 2023

How video games can leave a positive or negative impact on a young person

Video games have been a giant problem when it comes to people arguing about whether it's

healthy or not, people have turned this giant argument into a huge controversial topic. However

there are a lot of upsides to playing video games but, where there are positives there will always

be negatives too, and people have always made arguments and have always tried to justify their

belief/choice, the main problem people have with video games is how it can affect their children,

people will think that “oh my child is playing video games and their brain isn't fully developed

their brains will rot.” People have heard that saying many times. But does playing video games at

a young age affect you negatively, or does it affect you positively?

There are some pros to playing video games the pros do seem to be pretty positive as it may

seem, here is a quote “Our society suffers from an epidemic of loneliness, and gaming can be a

vehicle to connect with others, including otherwise difficult-to-connect-with people in your life,

such as kids, grandkids, or (I’ve seen this be quite helpful) with autistic children, who can have

challenges with traditional modes of communication.” This is a very good positive to playing

video games, it allows people who struggle to socialize in real life to socialize very easily with

others online. That's just one of the positives. It uses the point where loneliness used to mess

with our emotions as a reader.

When I was in middle school, the only time where I wouldn't feel socially awkward was when I

was playing video games online with my friends and what not. So some people can relate to

these positives as it allows people to express themselves without getting a physical reaction from

them. Interacting online helps people with ignoring their insecurities. But that's not all video

games have going for them, they have neurological advantages too, “That shows that action

games could improve adults contrast sensitivity which is essential for driving at night.” Playing

video games can improve reaction time and their cognitive skills as well. Learning how to

increase reaction time can be very beneficial when you are out late at night driving. Some people

have made positive media about video games like infographics. In the infographic below you

will see some very positive information on why videogames are such a positive thing in peoples

lives. The infographic was created in april 22nd 2012, and was officially published on that

same date, the author/creator of this infographic showed the positives of gaming, and

mainly focused on the positives of gaming rather than the negatives of gaming.

“Gaming can give off a satisfying relief of achieving something, making progress, and

completing your goals. A life skill most people need to enjoy life.” another quote is

“constantly measuring progress.” It also shows a lot of enthusiasm to make friends

Online is easier than making friends in real life. “It's been said that people develop

stronger relationships online than in real life.” collaboration and problem solving.

The infographic is playing into the idea that playing video games is a very positive thing

and can be good at developing life skills such as problem solving and quick thinking.
The infographic uses pathos by saying that “parents will play video games simply just so

they can interact with their children.” maybe parents are trying to find a way to spend

time with their kids and enjoy their company, that's how they are using pathos to get

parents to play video games with their kids, just to simply interact with them. That's what

is being used to get into our emotions. This next section is a little mix of both ethos and

logos for this example it said that playing video games have a higher chance of

increasing recognition and memorization skills, the ethos half of it said that there were

lab tests done.

There was an article written by six “experts” Daphne Bavelier, C. Shawn Green, Doug Hyun

Han, Perry F. Renshaw, Michael M. Merzenich and Douglas A. Gentile. These six

experts have a claim where news articles and modern media do not do justice to the

subject whether people's brains get damaged or they improve playing video games. The

subject of this article is to “shed light on our current understanding of the positive and

negative ways in which playing video games can affect cognition and behavior, and

explain how this knowledge can be harnessed for educational and rehabilitation purposes.”
Those are the main positives of playing video games but like how I said before, “where there are

positives, there will always be negatives.” an article was written by someone from harvard. The

article focuses on both negatives and positives, but for now we are going to take a look at the

negatives. The article finishes off with the injuries of gaming, it also uses a lot of logos when

explaining the injuries of gaming, it shows evidence and uses logic to explain the consequences

of gaming are. “Repetitive stress injuries, or overuse injuries, are injuries that come from

activities that involve repeated use of muscles and tendons, to the point that pain and

inflammation develop. If these injuries are allowed to progress, numbness and weakness can

develop, and permanent injury can result. Overuse injuries of the hands and arms are rampant

among gamers." This article as a whole of what I can tell is using bandwagon (group thinking)

when it comes to where he got his research from. Overall the negatives are pretty big ones, the

negatives seem to overshadow the positives of gaming, it can be dangerous to play for too long

and guess what!? Our parents were right.

Based on the research that has been done it seems that there are a lot more negatives than

positives, to the point where they over shadow the positives. From what I have learned

researching this specific topic is that the negative effects are pretty severe, such as lack of muscle

growth, weakness, and numbness, lack of real social interaction, depression, and last and

certainly not least eye damage. As a person I absolutely love to play video games but not to the

extent that I am addicted to them. You know that really dry tired feeling you get in your eyes

after you stare at a screen for 6 hours? Yeah that's the straining feeling you get when you watch a

screen for a long period of time. So after all of this research I can definitely see why playing
video games is a negative thing. I believe that playing video games are a negative thing

especially when you are very young and still exploring the world, you really do tend to miss out

on what's all around you.

Conclusion

People have done so much research and are very passionate about both sides of the argument, all

of these papers and articles and infographics show either the positives and/or the negatives,

everyone is trying to prove their point, all sides of the argument are valid they all have great

major points, but some of them were biased towards one side of the argument.
 Sources

Harvard Health. “The Health Effects of Too Much Gaming.” Harvard Health, 22 Dec. 2020,

www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-health-effects-of-too-much-gaming-2020122221645.

Grayson. “Safe Gaming | Daily Infographic.” Daily Infographic | Learn Something New Every

Day, 11 May 2012, https://dailyinfographic.com/safe-gaming-infographic

BrainFacts.org. “How Playing Video Games Affect Your Brain.” YouTube, 15 Oct. 2021,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcDbL0lGw2U.

Bavelier, Daphne, et al. “Brains on Video Games.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol. 12, no.
12, Dec. 2011, pp. 763–68. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3135.