VIDEO GAMES CONTRIBUTE MORE NEGATIVE IMPACT THAN POSITIVE. DO YOU AGREE?

"Son have you finished your homework?" "Can you please stop staring at the computer? And help with my chores?"
    I am pretty sure that these quotes above sound familiar to some of us in our daily life. In this 21st century, recent survey states that one in every three homes own some kind of video game system like, PlayStation, Wii, Xbox, Gameboy and many more. Furthermore, one also can play video games through the internet. It is a well-known fact that these electronic appliance has become of the most convenient and popular past time activities to the y generation. Moreover, video games are also suitable for all age groups which we cannot deny that it is a wonderful invention where young generation can spend more quality time with their family but does it bring more harm than good to this generation? Can this everyone's favorite pastime activity cause nuisance to the society?

    First of all, the disadvantage of video games is it will make one completely addicted to them especially adventure games where one explore and fight to increase their level. Being addicted, one will tend to skip school or work in order to win in a fight in these virtual world or to increase his or her power and level. Moreover, video game addiction also can cause poor performance in young generations. This is because long hours playing video games can negatively affect your performance in school or at work if you are preoccupied with video games or failing to work at your optimum level because you are exhausted from a late night of video game playing. The mayo clinic also states that children who devote more than one or two hours a day to television or video games may have trouble falling asleep, have problems paying attention and have lower test scores than children who don't spend as much time in front of a television or video game console. Moreover, addiction to video games will also cause young children to isolate themselves from the society. Thus, playing video games can cause addiction which lead to poor performances in school.

    Besides that, video games also have the ability to desensitize young generation to violence because the games that are created nowadays are usually based on war-like games. Video games have a very powerful ability to influence young children and cause them to commit a crime in young age. For example, previously there is a popular game in Facebook where you can steal your friends' vegetable without having any impact on them, these cause young, innocent children to steal things thinking that it is alright and nothing will happen to them but in reality which is not true. On the other hand, teenagers that often play war-like games have low self-control ability, where they cannot control themselves and may explode in anger more readily or simply have less interest in helping or interacting with family members. These teenagers that loved to play war-like video games tend to be more violent and frequently involved in social problems like fighting, stealing and many others. Thus, more social problem will happen if actions are not taken before it is too late.

    Excessive involvement in playing video games will also contribute to serious health problems. Some said that by playing video games can help to improve spatial awareness, Attention span in children with attention problems, Visual attention skills and iconic skills. But it also contributes lots of disadvantages to our health. For example playing video games can cause Overuse injuries. Overuse injuries to the hand can be caused by repeatedly pressing buttons on a computer or video game controller. The type of injury depends on the kind of button-play performed; for example, a game that requires the player to press a button with their thumb risks injury to the thumb’s extensors tendon. Moreover, video game can cause Eyestrain. Eyes that are focused at the same distance point for lengthy periods of time become fatigued and sometimes can damage eyesight. Apart from that, Obesity is also one of the biggest health problem faced by teenagers especially the ones that are not into sport and activities. There is a link between television watching and obesity in children. Generally, the more hours spent in front of the television, the greater the risk of obesity. Since electronic game playing is sedentary too, researchers believe that the health effects are similar. In short, video games can cause one’s health to be affected.

In a nutshell, I strongly feel that video games bring more negative impact to the society compared to the positive ones because video games not only affect us from the physically but also mentally. But we cannot deny that video games could help us in developing healthy brain if we use it appropriately. Parents should keep an eye on their children so that they do not get too involve in video games.


Written by,
JOYUIN LEE( METHODIST BOYS’ SCHOOL )