Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Amadu Kargbo
English 101
Justine DeCamillis
4 October, 2017
Video games have been one of the biggest pastimes for children to indulge in. They tend
to spend a lot of time indulging in these activities. This brings up concerns for parents and many
other individuals. These individuals see how games can keep childrens attention. If the kids are
so focused on playing these games then they may lose focus in class and end up performing
poorly in school. Another major concern was the acts of violence that were displayed in the
games. With the increase in popularity of violent games, questions arise involving the impact
they have. The debate of whether these games have a negative or positive effect of the kids
Video games have been a huge part of my childhood. I spent most of my time playing
games instead of spending time with my friends or studying for my classes. My parents always
worried that violent games were harmful to my mind and a big distraction that would cause me
to do very poorly in school. Because of this I wasnt allowed to play games during the weekdays.
I felt that they misunderstood my games and assumed that it has a negative influence on me. I
still found a way to play games often do partake in them when Im supposed to be reading a
Choosing to focus on games instead of my schoolwork did not change my mindset. The
games did not hurt me in my academics. In fact, it helped me out a lot. Playing the games
allowed me to be able to focus during class and it gave me the motivation to get all my work
done. I was also able to gain friends through playing these games. It gave me something to relate
to with other kids and can become a more open person. Games have had a positive effect on me
I saw video games as a positive influence yet my parents wanted nothing more than for
me to stop playing. I wanted to understand why my parents felt that this would harm my mind so
I research this topic and found articles that made the argument of games being harmful to kids
social skills and learning abilities. I did not understand the criticism the articles were expressing.
What is the reason for this and where did the idea of games causing children to commit violent
acts come from. Times have changed and games have advanced and become convenient for kids
to have. They have also become much more violent and with kids lashing out at their parents and
committing violent acts in school the blame can only be put onto video games. I want to find out
if video games are to blame for this problem. I plan to find the effects games had on children by
One of the common perspectives I found was a negative perspective of games. Jia-Kun
Zheng and Qian Zhang take this approach. They discuss the problem of aggression and how it
relates to a childs gameplay. They found that researchers have determined that violent video
games cause violent behavior in children. With that in mind, they did a series of case studies to
determine if there is a connection. They came up with several hypotheses, one of these were
children who play violent, compared to nonviolent, computer games will show stronger
aggression (pg. 1749). They recruited 220 kids age 9-12 and gave them the game Virtual cop 2 to
Kargbo 3
play. The results showed that the girls did not enjoy playing the game. The boys found the game
to be great. They were excited when they were shooting gangsters and got angry when they were
killed. This case showed the negative impact the game has on the boys. Exposure to games like
this affects them in a negative way. They found killing the gangsters fun and were praising the
actions. This is the issue experts show the public and parents look to. The joy the boys had while
virtually killing people is something that could become problematic. If they are exposed to
violence and enjoy it then they may try and apply some of the actions into real life. This point of
view is what is shown to the public and it is what influences the parents view on allowing their
Video games are seen negatively in the public. They are poison to kids but is that really
the case. There are always two sides to a story and authors Adachi and Willoughby take the
opposite approach. They see games in a positive view and try to incorporate a relationship
between a teens sports video game play and involvement in real-life sports. They conduct a
study with the goal of discovering the association between sports gameplay and a childs interest
and involvement in sports. They found that specifically, sports games results in an increase in
involvement in sports. Their case study took a unique look at video games. They saw it as a
positive and showed that games can be a positive influence on children. Adachi and Willoughby
believe that games can be an effective tool to promote real-life sports participation and physical
activity. Though their investigation they show the public how games can be encouraging and
Both studies present take two different perspectives on how video games can be viewed
but they give us a lot of different ways to look at this issue. Children have been affected in
various ways and games a just a big part of it. Games have affected me in a lot of different ways.
Kargbo 2
They have helped me through a lot of things and have helped improve my social skills. The issue
of violent games affecting a child negatively vs games being helpful and positive on children
continues to be an issue without a solution to. As someone who has been affected by games, I
want to find out how they impact us today. There are many ways to look at this problem and I
Work cited
Adachi, Paul and Teena Willoughby. "Does Playing Sports Video Games Predict Increased
Involvement in Real-Life Sports over Several Years among Older Adolescents and
Emerging Adults?." Journal of Youth & Adolescence, vol. 45, no. 2, Feb. 2016, pp. 391-
Bajovic, Mirjana. "Violent Video Gaming and Moral Reasoning in Adolescents: Is There an
Association?." Educational Media International, vol. 50, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 177-191.
EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/09523987.2013.836367.
JIA-KUN, ZHENG and ZHANG QIAN. "Priming Effect of Computer Game Violence on
doi:10.2224/sbp.2016.44.10.1747.
King, Daniel L., et al. "The Impact of Prolonged Violent Video-Gaming on Adolescent Sleep:
An Experimental Study." Journal of Sleep Research, vol. 22, no. 2, Apr. 2013, pp. 137-
Kovess-Masfety, Viviane, et al. "Is Time Spent Playing Video Games Associated with Mental
Health, Cognitive and Social Skills in Young Children?." Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric
Epidemiology, vol. 51, no. 3, Mar. 2016, pp. 349-357. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s00127-
016-1179-6.