Game Addiction: The Pros And Cons Of Playing Video Games

Working out your thumbs? Working on your hand-eye coordination? As a kid, those were a couple of many dumb things I would say when my mom told me that playing video games was a waste of time. I would say something like that because I would be so fixed on the game that I was playing, that I couldn’t find anything more intelligent to say. All I wanted to do was play games all day and I couldn’t really focus on anything else. According to the Encyclopedia of Communication and Information, video games are addictive, which is a central argument against playing video games. According to the book, game addiction is an irresistible urge to be connected, in some way, to a video game. There are negatives and positives to playing video games, but addiction

Addiction, in some cases, can cause violence, social issues, mix-ups between what is real and what isn’t, certain health issues, and even sometimes teach kids bad language and negative morals. Some positives include quicker hand-eye coordination, and also faster decision making and faster thinking rates, memory enhancement, and many other things.

Many people say that video games have a bad influence on people, especially parents to their children; and it is very easy to see why. If you look for reasons why video games are harmful, you will find them. On the other hand, there are many pros to playing video games that I found while searching the positives of video gaming. Almost every website I saw declaring that video games could be very beneficial, stated that playing video games helps with quicker decision making, and a different level of creativity. “Both boys and girls who play video games tend to be more creative” … “A study of nearly 500 12-year-olds found that the more kids played video games, the more creative they were in tasks such as drawing pictures and writing stories” (Henion Nov. 2011). “New research discovers video games that energize players and facilitate a positive mood could also enhance creativity” (Nauert May 2008). According to

Being chained down to anything is harmful and it always has its many issues. The biggest issue with game addiction is the violence it may cause. “Video games that feature violent actions and scenarios may lead addicted players to be desensitized to the violence” (Christopher Jan. 2013). Desensitize means to make someone less sensitive to any portrayed violence, brutality, or aggression. “On December 27, 2004, Xioyi left a suicide note saying he wanted “to join the heroes of the game he worshiped” (Lam Nov. 2010). The kid finished playing a 36-hour round of World of Warcraft and jumped off a high building. “Seventeen-year-old Daniel Petric murdered his mother and injured his father after they refused to let him play Halo 3” (Lam Nov. 2010). The kid told his dad to close his eyes because he had a surprise for him and shot him in between the eyes, just because he couldn’t get the game. Many deaths have occurred because of game addiction. One story I read about a man killed his daughter because she accidentally unplugged his gaming console. He had no violence in the past; he was a nice caring man that was just incredibly addicted to video games. The man slapped his daughter than pushed her into a chair and cracked her skull. These are horrible stories and there were many stories that were way worse than these. Game addiction is a very serious problem and it is very important to know