SAMPLE:

Nowadays, children spend more time playing computer games and less time playing sports. Why is this
the case? Is this a positive or negative development?

Computer games are gradually taking the place of many traditional leisure activities, including sport,
among contemporary children worldwide. Apart from the contribution of the progress in digital and
computer technology, this universal phenomenon is mainly attributed to two factors.

First and foremost, computer games are generally considered more interesting than sport by the youths.
Being more physically demanding to the participants, many sport activities, such as jogging and
swimming, could be not only fair exhausting but also simply based on the repetition of the same tedious
movement, which may result in boredom rather than excitement to children. By contrast, sitting in front
of the computer screen, which displays vivid and eye-catching images associated with less physical but
more mental challenging tasks, is evidently more comfortable to the young players, who are, at the
same time, able to enjoy the tremendous psychological achievement brought by the accomplishment of
the intriguing missions unfolded by the surprising plots. In addition, parents’ lack of time also leads to
consideration of personal safety issues outdoors, Residing in the current urban neighborhood, which is
often teeming with fast-moving motor vehicles and many other dangerous uncertainties, parents who
are mostly engaged in their work or cannot spare extra after-work time from household chores may not
have too many options but rely on home entertainment as a less life –risky but more life-efficient
approach that benefits both themselves and the offspring.

Despite certain advantages mentioned above, I do believe that such a trend could be a social tragedy to
the next generation’s physical and mental development. For one thing, in spite of the lower likelihood of
accidents, including sport-related injuries, insufficient regular physical exercise has become one of the
most common triggers to the deteriorating physical conditions among the young urban dwellers today.
Appropriate aerobics is not only essential to accelerating young participants’ metabolism and hence,
reducing their chance of developing chronic diseases, such as obesity, but also stimulating the
production and release of hormone that regulates youngsters’ physical growth; long-time staring at the
monitor which is full of flashing images might impair children’s eye-sight and backbones, to name but
two. For another, this recreational preference may be undesirable for children’s social abilities. Although
it is argued that young players are still able to communicate with others verbally or literally in some
online games, the limitations of the virtual cyber world, in comparison to the tangible physical contact
with peers on a playground or court, are manifest, ranging from the obsession of the triumphs in digital
fantasy to be isolation from the face-to-face cooperation and competition in team sports, such as
football and basketball.

By and large, the instant and overwhelming pleasant feelings originating from computer games are
undeniable. Nevertheless, this trend could be unfavorable for the youths’