Video Games Should Be Banned
- Submitted by: tishya
- Views: 1629
- Category: Politics: Moral Issues
- Date Submitted: 06/21/2011 07:10 AM
- Pages: 4
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There is still the question of compulsion though. As Adrian rightly says, it’s not truly addiction in the medical sense of the word, but compulsive behaviour can still be harmful, and it’s the possible harm that any responsible parent will want to look at, rather than the correct use of terms.
The average gamer still only plays for ten to 11 hours per week - less than three days of average television viewing - but the extreme deviation from this mean finds a group that are in front of their consoles or PCs for almost 50 hours per week, more than seven hours per day. These are not only World of Warcraft combat enthusiasts but virtual farmers on Facebook and StarCraft II’s galactic colonists.
Attempts have been made to medicalise this group. A set of initials was proposed (EIGP, or Excessive Internet Video Game Play) and studies have been carried out, including this one that establishes a genetic link and a dependence on dopaine rewards in EIGP individuals, but it’s far from clear that they’re doing themselves any harm at all.
Yes, it does seem to be the case that other studies or their careers might suffer if they spend so much time playing video games rather than learning Spanish or meeting girls, but that is surely the case with any time-consuming activity. As with the scare over Facebook use causing poor academic results, it’s the time spent away from more constructive pursuits that’s the problem, not orcs and laser guns.
Many parents worry, no doubt, about the effect video games have on their children. We list the ten most common problems recently investigated by researchers from 2006-present.
1. An increase in emotional disorder symptoms
2. An increase in and behavioral disorder symptoms
3. Declines in verbal memory performance
4. Somatic complaints
5. Attention problems such as hyperactivity, ADD or ADHD
6. Detrimental school performance (as video game usage increases, GPA and SAT scores decrease)
7. Family interaction problems such as less...
The average gamer still only plays for ten to 11 hours per week - less than three days of average television viewing - but the extreme deviation from this mean finds a group that are in front of their consoles or PCs for almost 50 hours per week, more than seven hours per day. These are not only World of Warcraft combat enthusiasts but virtual farmers on Facebook and StarCraft II’s galactic colonists.
Attempts have been made to medicalise this group. A set of initials was proposed (EIGP, or Excessive Internet Video Game Play) and studies have been carried out, including this one that establishes a genetic link and a dependence on dopaine rewards in EIGP individuals, but it’s far from clear that they’re doing themselves any harm at all.
Yes, it does seem to be the case that other studies or their careers might suffer if they spend so much time playing video games rather than learning Spanish or meeting girls, but that is surely the case with any time-consuming activity. As with the scare over Facebook use causing poor academic results, it’s the time spent away from more constructive pursuits that’s the problem, not orcs and laser guns.
Many parents worry, no doubt, about the effect video games have on their children. We list the ten most common problems recently investigated by researchers from 2006-present.
1. An increase in emotional disorder symptoms
2. An increase in and behavioral disorder symptoms
3. Declines in verbal memory performance
4. Somatic complaints
5. Attention problems such as hyperactivity, ADD or ADHD
6. Detrimental school performance (as video game usage increases, GPA and SAT scores decrease)
7. Family interaction problems such as less...