Dangers of Video Games

Gaming is something that most kids take part in today.  In fact kids of all ages as well as adults still play video games.  Improvements are being made to all things that can be improved, which is one reason video games have done so well.  Many people though are worried as to what point a video game becomes dangerous.  Many games on the market today contain violence, vulgarness, nudity, etc.  It seems the worse content the game contains the more popular the game becomes. 

Statistics:

• "About 10% of children aged 2 to 18 play console and computer video games more than 1 hr per day."

• "Among 8- to 13-year-old boys, the average is more than 7.5 hr per week."

• "in 1998, 13.3% of men entering college played at least 6 hr per week as high school seniors. By 1999, that figure had increased to 14.8%. Furthermore, 2% of the men reported playing video games more than 20 hr per week in 1998. In 1999, that figure increased to 2.5%."

The first video games came out in the '70's and were nonviolent games, however the '90's brought change to the video game world as the first games that contained killing others were introduced to the market. Of course games that show violence until you die just to regenerate you like nothing had happened influence the way kids think over time.  Kids learn from experience and today's games are as realistic as they ever were therefor it makes it hard for them to know the difference from whats right and what wrong.  Granted these games may not have as great of a negative impact as what some may think as they typically do not create serial killers, however these games become addicting.  Many people who get hooked on playing such games can tend to forget about everything else in their life, especially things that will lead them to their future such as schools or jobs.  Due to this these games can very easily have a large negative impact on many individuals lives.  My advice is to play the game smart with as little violence as possible and know the "fine line" between augmented reality and actual reality.    

Source:

Anderson, Craig A., and Brad J. Bushman. EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES ON AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, AGGRESSIVE COGNITION, AGGRESSIVE AFFECT, PHYSIOLOGICAL AROUSAL, AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature (n.d.): n. pag. Sept. 2001. Web. 5 Mar. 2016. <http://webspace.pugetsound.edu/facultypages/cjones/chidev/Paper/Articles/Anderson-Aggression.pdf>.