Steven Johnson's Everything Bad Is Good For You

A multi-million dollar lawsuit was filed in Alabama against the makers and marketers of Grand Theft Auto, claiming that months of playing the game led a teenager to go on a rampage and kill three men, two of them police officers, according to CBS news. It seems like today the media is determined to box everyone who plays video games into psychotic criminals. But the truth is, that despite the negative one-sided picture the media tries to paint in regards to video games, there are also proven benefits. Will Wright claims in his article “Dream Machines” that video games have positive effect on players. Wright uses powerful vocabulary, examples, and his knowledge of video games to persuade his audience that games have many positive effects on players.

The article “Do Video Games Kill” written by Karen Sternheimer responds to one of the most sought-after question; are video games the cause for “young killers”? (220) Sternheimer believes the influence of video games on today’s youth maybe spiraling out of control. She focuses most of the blame on the media, politicians and the Juvenile Justice System. Sternheimer suggests that there are other factors to blame for violent behavior: poverty, the neighborhood, unemployment, family violence, divorced parents and mental illness (218). While juvenile crimes have declined, and personal backgrounds effect actions, it cannot be proven that video game violence has no to little effect on America’s youth.

Violent video games have been blamed for everything from bullying to school shootings. Critics of these video games believe they cause people to commit violent acts in real life. These critics, mainly comprised of parents and other responsible adults, don’t agree with what the video games portray. Others say the video games cause less violence and are an outlet for anger and stress. Although violent video games have violent actions in them, teenagers should be able to play violent video games because there isn’t enough evidence to prove they make teens more aggressive, it could prevent violence, and violent video games are a fun and relaxing way to relieve stress and anger.

In “The Swallows”, Carr shows us how the internet has become more popular than the old alternative books and magazines. The internet has became our life from day to day, as we know it is slowly changing the way our brains think. In this book, his reasonings were to help understand the importance that the internet has had on our upcoming generations. HIs main focus was on what is going on to the humans brains. All of his research on what it has done to our brains is causing us to realize more of his understandings. In Carr's, latest mind research it shows that we all should become cautious and aware of all the things that the internet is causing us to do. He acknowledges that it is also good to use the latest technologies that have came out.

Violet video games have been blamed for several young people killing students at school. Young people are not able to think like adults so they are easy to follow the wrong way of doing things like they see in video games. Other countries do not have the same problems because their laws are strict or their customs for punishing wrong doing is much harder. Some of the violent video games young people like to play are : Grand theft auto, Call to duty, and Assassin. These games show a lot of blood and people getting killed. I believe that not letting children, Teenagers, and young adults play violent video games would improve the life of all in the United States.

“Contrary to the traditional belief that gaming is merely an addictive source of entertainment and diversion, recent research has proved that gaming has numerous benefits and key among them, is the development of cognitive skills in both children and adults” (Engenio). The shift in perception of gaming has changed from a negative view to that of a more positive outlook based on this research. Video games are sharpening vital life skills for the players. A majority of frequent gamers tend to develop similar characteristics such as a fierce competitive drive, highly advanced analytical thinking skills, and quick reaction times.

Video games are the fastest growing type of entertainment in the world as playing them has become a popular activity for people of all ages. However, video games that contain violence have immense effect on the players, especially children and young adults. Playing video games are usually blamed by the media, parents and several experts as the reason why there is an increase in young people having aggressive thoughts and engaging in violent crimes, which is true. Such games corrupt the brain and are considered to be an evil temptation that is more bad than good. Thus, violent video games majorly develop violent behavior in children.

For many teenagers in our world today, playing video games may be a huge part of their daily lives. In contrast, many individuals think playing violent video games will not be safe for kids. However, research has shown that video games have solved some of science’s biggest problems. Teens could someday cure diseases. Also, kids who play violent games are being “exposed” to what war may be really like. Although video games may be a bit more dramatic than real-life war, teens will discover strategies to fight, and hide. Video games are a highly beneficial activity for youths everywhere, and they should be kept.

Over the years there has been a big controversy over whether video games are relatively good or extremely bad for children. Video games are super beneficial to a kid’s learning process and have been proven to increase social skills, productivity, and stress. The fear that video games are harmful to a child, is proven through countless experiments that they are actually great for their growth and brain capacity.

Video games education is a method of teaching by using electronic games as the learning material. Teenagers from fifteen to eighteen, who have been called as “K-20 students” [1] or Net Generation since mid-1990s, playing video games as pastime leisure and expose to digital multimedia more often compare to the older generation. The issues of implementing video games education has been the subject of debate within education and sociology communities due to its appeal to contemporary students. Discussion among sociology scholars focus on the aggressive behaviour and hostility of youngsters who are involved in a video game in a great length of time and a specific type of games [2]. However, some academics argue that video game becomes an interactive learning platform of social education, especially with players verses players (PVP) games. In the view of education academics, video games may play an essential role in boosting the performance in particular subjects and the development of varying of skill [3]. While acknowledging that engaging in video games may cause a negative mental effect on the secondary school students, this essay argues that video games education should be implemented because the benefits of digital game based education would possibly become primary to the high school students because it could improve social behavior and increase academic behaviour and performance.

Throughout the history, gamers are generally thought of as a dumb, anti-social person, but recently researchers have discovered that video games could make you smarter than the average person. One person could say that video games distract from the academic goals and ultimately disrupt a person’s grades for school. On the other hand, one could believe that playing video games could actually improve social behavior, provide technical skills, increase one’s strategic skills, and improve critical thinking skills in everyday situations. Maybe catching Pokemon and shooting zombies could be more beneficial than just a recreational activity for free time.

Video games lower violent behavior, help relieve stress, and do not cause social problems. Teens play video games to take their stress out instead of causing real violence. Kids acting violently towards others, they will go home and they will take their action and frustration out on the type of games they are playing. Also, while teens play online, they build up social abilities, make new friends, and connect with other kids from around the world. Parents and/or guardians always say “stop looking at that screen and stop playing video games. It 's bad for you and your eyes and brain.” Most parents do not know that video games help teens with more than just burning brain cells.

Most of the bad effects of video games because of their violence they contain. Thus children who play more violent and dangerous video games are more likely to have increased of aggressive thoughts, behavior, feelings and decreased in prosocial helping. The effect of violence video games in children is worsened by the games’ interactive nature. For the repeated cases of violence in video games, the child is in control of the violence and experiences in his own eye by killing, kicking, stabbing and shooting in games. Too much playing of violent video game will make the kid socially isolated. Some video games teach the children the wrong values. Violent behavior, revenge and aggression are rewarded. These games confuse the children between the reality and fantasy. Some of the major negative effects of playing video games are discussed below:

According to research, as 97% of 12-17year old kids are playing video games. The domestic video game industries earn about 21 billion dollars per year. More than half of best-selling video games contain violence scene. Now the violent video game has been blamed for school shooting, increasing the bullying, and sexual assaults. That is true. You will be more aggressive and violent than before after you play the violent video game, but, you won’t notice that. Although it is not true for everyone, ultimately, my point is the violent video game can contribute to youth violence.

In our time, technology has become one of our essential things in life; specifically video games. Video games are electronic system used to run games. They involve human interaction specially teenagers. Many researches have been done on the effects of video games showing that there is positive and negative impacts.