The Impact of Computer Games on Teenagers
Currently, there have been many computer games that are addictive to the children. This is a cultural issue which has been affecting many children, yet the parents do not know about the issue (Boyle, Elizabeth A., et al. 179). In this research, it intends to discuss the impact of computer games on teenagers. This research will enlighten people on how the issue is affecting the children especially the teenagers who are not watched and what they do during their free time (DeCamp, Whitney and Ferguson 389). It will explain how the parent could guide the children and prevent them playing the violent games, since their behaviors are influenced they observe from playing the games.
Computer games have had a bad reputation when it comes to the teenage generation. They have been created over the past ten years and this has caused some speculation if they are suitable for the children to play. Some states have gotten involved on the issues through banning the distribution of the offensive games to the teenagers (Boyle, Elizabeth, et al. 182). Despite this attempt, the shooting games have increased in number. Some expert has highlighted this has increased the violent behaviors of the teenagers who are playing them (Drummond, Aaron and Sauer 54). The increase of the computer games which are more engaging, realistic and increase in violence would lead to more violent behavior in the teenagers in the coming years, unless the problem is handled soonest (DeCamp, Whitney and Ferguson 395). In this research essay, it will address the impact of the computer games on the teenagers.
The impact of the computer games is varied as the variety of the games. One effect that has recently been associated with them and most popular with all of them is their addiction. Perhaps this is dreadful thing considering the fact that the teenagers would not do any productive activity every time they are at home (Boyle, Elizabeth, et al. 187). This means that they cannot study while at home or when they are doing their project. Consequently, their performance in school could possibly deteriorate. Additionally, they might sacrifice development of their talent, for example, attending music class simply for the purpose of playing the aggressive games.
The computer games have a bad effect on the brain of the teenagers when they become addicted to playing them especially the violent ones. Based on Dr. Vincent Mathews and his colleagues at the Indian University, they did a study on the media aggression (Boyle, Elizabeth, et al. 189). They looked at what took place in the brain of 28 teens that were randomly allocated to play violent first individual shooter games or the non-hostile game every day of the week (Hale, Lauren, and Guan 50). In the early stages of this study the experts employed the functional MRI in scanning the active brain of the participant of the project, while completing tasks which involved emotional or the non-emotional content. They discovered that those individuals that played the violent computer games they showed less activity especially in the area involving emotions, inhibition or attention of their impulses (Hale, Lauren, and Guan 52). Thus, from the research, they discovered that the computer games are not beneficial to the children since they change their minds (Zhu, Jianjun, et al 23). They make them lack the emotion or the attention span. The games tend to morph them into the robots rather than the human beings this shows without any doubt that the teenagers should not have access to the violent computer games. The changes in the brain activities that were observed in the participant were similar to the teens that have destructive sociopathic disorders (Hale, Lauren, and Guan 50). The last thing which the world needs is psychotic teenagers who are roaming the street, and this is disgusting how the world could change and prevent this behavior.
Addiction to Computer Games
Computer games have been found to cause aggressive behavior of the teenagers. People who play the violent games a lot of time would probably have an enhanced hostile idea, habits, emotions along with decreased prosocial helping- that is based on the scientific research (Rooij, Antonius et al 74). The violence facet of the game in the teenagers is worsened by its engaging nature. Furthermore, most of the brutal games the gamers are recognized for being more violent and the act of hostility in the games are conducted more regularly (Rooij, Antonius et al 74). The teens are under the control of the violence displayed in the game, they are inclined to experience the violence in their own eyes. These kinds of active participation, reward as well as repetition are an effective tool to learning behavior and in this case of computer game is not in a positive way (Zhu, Jianjun, et al 45). The regulators in various institutions could prevent this issue by making laws that teenagers should not have an access to the violent computer games.
Teenagers should not have an access to the hostile computer games given that they provide them with wrong messages. Based on Dr. Phil he emphasizes that violent games tend not to teach children ethical outcomes (Hale, Lauren, and Guan 51). He declared that “if you shoot somebody in one of these games, you do not go to jail, you may not get any punishment in a certain way- rather you get the extra credit!” This is rather appalling; the teenagers should never obtain these types of messages from the computer games (Hale, Lauren, and Guan 54). 8% of the most popular computer games usually feature some form of aggressive or violent as the major theme, and in 20% of these games, the aggression is usually subjected to the children (Kowert, Rachel, et al. 387). This is really distressing when the teenagers see something similar to this, they are prone to believe that is exactly what the characters are doing in the game is not bad, after all, they are just teenagers!. It is extremely irritating and an awful behavior when a teenager gets a whole lot excited since they managed to murder someone, or perhaps if they have fun beating a random person walking in the street, practically or not this is disturbing (Fleming, Theresa, et al. 95).
Contrary to this many people think that violent computer games must not be permitted to the teenagers; other people presume and do not agree with this statement though they are not many. There are certainly a few who feel that violent computer games are great to the brain since they educate the teen’s strategy particularly in time of panic (Granic, Isabela, Lobel, and Rutger 66). Moreover, there are others who think when teenagers play these kinds of games they help them with problem-solving techniques and enhance their creativity which is a bonus when they are in school. Nevertheless, if these claims came to an outcome that they are true, then it could be concluded that violent computer games could be beneficial (Greitemeyer, Tobias, and Mügge 579). But, the teenagers should not be learning techniques from computer games what the purpose of going to the school. Thus, violent computer games are not beneficial and the teenagers should not be given access to them.
Conclusion
Overall, violent computer games are not advantageous. These types of games are harmful to teenagers’ brain; they change brain activities which lead to aggressive behavior. The games have been found to give teenagers wrong message. The role of the parent or the guardian is to guide the children and prevent them from these kinds of games. They need to regulate what the children are doing although at times it could be difficult to know what they are doing every time. Moreover, the parent needs to know the rating of all the computer games that are available at home so that the teenagers do not play games that are above their level.
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Drummond, Aaron, and James D. Sauer. “Video-games do not negatively impact adolescent academic performance in science, mathematics or reading.”PloS one 9.4 (2014): e87943.
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Kowert, Rachel, et al. “Social gaming, lonely life? The impact of digital game play on adolescents’ social circles.”Computers in Human Behavior 36 (2014): 385-390.
Van Rooij, Antonius J., et al. “The (co-) occurrence of problematic video gaming, substance use, and psychosocial problems in adolescents.”Journal of behavioral addictions 3.3 (2014): 157-165.
Zhu, Jianjun, et al. “Early adolescent Internet game addiction in context: How parents, school, and peers impact youth.”Computers in Human Behavior 50 (2015): 159-168.
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