Since video games sudden rise to popularity in the 1970s, many games were made and developed in a variety of genres. From relaxing games such as Animal Crossing and Minecraft to the hard hitting violent induced games such as Doom Eternal and Grand Theft Auto (GTA). Especially games such as Mortal Combat who introduced the mechanics of fatalities which a player has an option to decimate their opponents in gruesome finishers such as skull bashing or even pulling their guts out of their stomach. First person shooters such as Call of Duty, Halo and Counter Strike introduced the genre of competitive shooters wherein many players were indulging in the experience of shooting their foes using laser guns or 3D models of real guns. Now because these types of games parents were outraged and claimed that video games were the main cause of rebellion and aggression in their children. Former U.S. President Donald Trump even goes as far as suggesting that video games were to blame for the mass shootings that happened in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio which have caused an estimated 31 deaths during the weekends. As Trump stated, “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace”. And in some cases, some parents also linked video games as a main cause of depression in their children which led to the dislike or even banning of games in their households. But through reading studies, research and articles I was able to gather enough information to prove that video games not only have its own benefits and the way it affects young adolescents is not the way parents claim it as.
The parents claim that their children behave differently when playing video games. The parents say that their children play on their consoles and computers all day and it affects their emotional and mental behavior. They claim that their children seem to lash out more and talk back to their parents more often since acquiring their children’s games. The parents blame the countless hours of playtime that their kids lose themselves in day in and day out without stopping for brakes. And that their children are mimicking the behaviors of the violent games that they are playing. According to the APA Task Force on Violent Media, they concluded that violent video game use has an influence on aggression based on our analysis of relevant literature directly addressing the topic. This effect manifests itself as both an increase in adverse consequences such as aggression, thought processes, and influence and a decrease in positive results such as social interaction, compassion, and sensitivity to aggression. There is no single risk factor that causes an individual to behave aggressively or violently on a consistent basis. Aggressive or abusive activity is most often the result of a confluence of risk factors (Berkowitz, 1993; Eron, Huesmann, Lefkowitz, Walder, 1974; Ferguson et al., 2013). And the studies that they reviewed showed that video games are one of the risk factors involving violence. But some research shows that it’s the outcome of the game that can lead to aggression, not video games in general. And not only that but the degree of difficulty that a certain game has can change the result of each behavioral outcome. For example, let’s say that you’re playing Animal Crossing or Minecraft even, those types of games are easy to say the least. In Animal Crossing you plant crops, invest in making your home, create your island in the way you visualize it to be. A fun relaxing game such as this wouldn’t be the sole reason for a child’s aggressive behavior. But let’s say they play a game such as Counter Strike wherein the competitiveness of the game itself may result in the child being more focused and invested, wanting to win every round but he keeps losing. The problem isn’t the game itself but the desire of the child to win and improve upon his own mechanics and failing to do so that ultimately led to higher stress that turns to aggression. The study that was conducted by Przybylski A., Deci E., Ryan R. and Rigby S. titled ‘Competence-Impeding Electronic Games and Players’ Aggressive Feelings, Thoughts, and Behaviors’ used several studies with different types of methods to control the competence and a variety of ways for examining aggression. This test indicated that the play impeded or interrupted the competence of a player resulting in a higher level of aggressive feelings, thoughts and behavior. According to the findings, player perceived competence was directly correlated to gaming motivation, which was in turn negatively related to player aggression. On the whole, this pattern of effects was discovered to be independent of the existence or lack thereof violent game material. And in conclusion the violence in game itself does not cause violent behaviors.
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Another claim by parents and adults is that video games affect the mental and behavioral growth of adolescence. Many claim that the reason why their children are doing bad in school is because they invest too much of their time in playing video games and that they don’t even put in an effort anymore due to this. And an increase of aggression towards their classmates and teachers have been seen, especially those who play a lot of violent games which shows a lot of blood and gore. The study ‘The Effects of Violent Video Game Habits on Adolescent Hostility, Aggressive Behaviors, and School Performance’ stated that there were six hundred and seven students ranging from 8th grade to 9th grade who studied in 4 different schools who participated in this study. The result they gathered was that kids who indulge in playing these types of violent video games had the tendency to be more aggressive and hostile to their teachers, get into physical arguments that may or may not lead to bruises or the other person getting hurt and have far lower grades than their classmates. They have also found pathways of mediation that linked hostile relations between violent video game exposure and the result of playing such games. Even though they may be affecting the behavioral growth of the adolescence it is only a short-term effect. And most of this panic is just false information, and even though children play and play those effects won’t last their whole lifetime. Unlike what adult fear, those who play violent video games would be criminals or would fail in their classes because of this. This is especially provident in the news where they promote such false information to their viewers. And some analyst even goes to such lengths as to show faulty evidence that needs more research. From the article ‘Video Games, School Success, and Your Child’ which was written by Romeo Vltell Ph.D. the time displacement hypothesis proposes that the amount of time spent playing video games is directly proportional to the time spent on academic works such as homework or studying. A typically young individual who plays video games on a regular basis has less time spent in academic work. But studies who compare the academic performance of a student who has a hold of consoles or other devices versus those who don’t have no significant differences in their academic performance. Since video games commonly have difficult mechanics especially those who are competitively based this could hone the cognitive skills of the players, this means a regular play time of video games may improve the attention capacity, visual orientation and overall memory of the player. This is especially the case in young children who showed greater improvements than their adult counterparts, and through observation and data gathering they have found out that students who play video games regularly do better in their academic journey than those who don’t play at all.
But one and last final argument that most people link to video games was that it causes depression to children. Some parents claim that their children started behaving in a depressed manner since playing video games, they claim that the violent nature of the games cause their children to have sudden bursts of negative emotions and seems to make their children unhappy. They seem to think that because their kids are playing all day and not socializing that it’s because of video games. That their sadness stemmed from over exposure to such violent games. The study ‘Daily Violent Game Playing and Depression in Preadolescent Youth’ which was conducted by Tortolero and her team of researchers, investigated whether playing violent video games for years could result in an increase of depressive symptoms in preadolescent youth. They collected and analyzed data that they have gathered from 5,147 5th graders and their guardians. They assessed that those who played violent video games for 2 hours had a further increase in depressive symptoms than those playing family friendly video games for the same amount of time. Although the degree of connection was small it was consistent among different racial-ethnic groups and among male participants. And the result was that there was a connection between violent video games and depression. Yes, although there were symptoms as stated by the study it is also worth to mention that the connection was minimal or small even though it was consistent. The problem with this claim is that there isn’t enough research to back this up. And when there is a study about this subject, they mostly have little to no effect on the players behavior. Because this topic isn’t as thorough as it should so there isn’t that much ongoing research to back this claim up. And because the data is limited there isn’t any concrete or solid evidence for this to be crucial to this discussion. In this blog titled ‘Video Games and Depression: Is There a Connection?’ they gave the answer that no video games do not because depression is based on the information that no studies have found concrete evidence that there is a link between the two. But video games are commonly used by adolescence to cope with their own problems. They do this to lose themselves in a fictional world to forget about their problems. And as further stated by this blog, video games have good and bad effects too. Video games create a sense of community was one of the examples of the good effects it has on the players. Video games can be an enjoyable recreational activity. Video games train your analytical mind.
So, in conclusion, it is not video games as a whole that causes these negative effects or behaviors on adolescents, but there are other factors that come into play. Such as the results and difficulty in the game and other major factors like the environment they live in and their natural tolerance to these types of games. And since most of the claims that video games have significant negative effects on players and children alike have little studies proving those claims and most studies debunking them. And people shouldn’t jump into conclusions based on faulty statements by other people or rumors that video games cause harm to young children or adolescents. It can be safe to conclude that it’s not the games itself that causes the problem but mostly other variables. Parents should supervise or look over the type of games that their children are playing. Especially if it’s appropriate for their age, each game has an indicated suggestion for what age players should play those games. These indicators can be shown in the description below if it is on steam and in the cover if you bought it via CD. And you as a parent or guardian can look up these games to see if they are age appropriate. And the time spent on playing should be monitored as well because there is a huge difference between whether they are playing the game or just plain old addicted.
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