Introduction In this technological era, there are different sources for entertainment for everyone. In 1970s, video games were first introduced and they have now placed themselves as source of fun and entertainment for children of all ages. Video game is widely popular among children, which is reason of its growing market at global level (Maltman, 2010). In concern of this, many research studies have been conducted to analyze the impact of video games on children. This research paper evaluates different positive and negative impacts of video games on children. It also suggests some recommendations to avoid negative impacts of video games on children.
Positive Impact of Video Games on Children It has been noticed after research on impact of video games on children that there are different positive aspects of videogames that help the children in different contexts. Most of videogames are innovative and fun oriented that develops creativity among the children. It updates the kids about computer technology and the online world. Through playing video games, children can get rid of any stress because use of these games distracts the mind of the children in other direction that provides them fun and joy value (Wilson, Singer & Dowd, 2005). In addition, when children play on videogames and get mastery on particular games, it boosts their confidence level. Video games are also designed to assist the children to increase their acceptance and confidence level because after winning the game, they feel positive about themselves. It is because it develops a sense of achievement in kid that encourage him to do something better in future. Apart from this, some video games include puzzles, mathematical calculation, discovery concerns that help to train the brain and improve the memory of children (Vorderer & Bryant, 2012). With this, it also helps to develop good coordination between their hand and eye during playing games through improving visual-spatial ability. A child can play the game effective eye and hand coordination because he has to keep the eye on screen and move the fingers on the keys to play the game spontaneously. In addition, these video games also play an important role in building the career of children. It is because through these games, children start to learn different effective skills that can be useful in their career to get progress and growth. Time management is one of the important skills that develop through video games. For instance, children learn how to manage time to coordinate all the activities and tasks of games. This habit also improves time management in their personal life and they value for time (Maltman, 2010). Apart from this, it also develops some effective skills such as strategic thinking, creativity, mathematical, exploratory, etc. amongst children. Some video games are designed to aid educational value for the children that help them to learn different things (Willoughby & Wood, 2008). Furthermore our case study help experts said that, with the help of video games, children become aware about different technology and able to utilize that technology in effective manner. It also motivates them to finish the work completely in efficient manner because when they play these games, they try to move to next level of game and try to win or earn more scores. It facilitates them to take the work seriously and fight for last movement to win the situation. It also helps to develop a perception that encourages them to go ahead in their life to obtain something. It is very easy for children to learn something with playing games (Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Smith & Tosca, 2008). Through these games, they can learn problem solving tactics even in educational institutes. Nowadays, most of educational institutions also encourage the children to play these types of games that help to develop effective skills.
It develops an attitude, which them children become able to handle complex and typical situations. It also develops a sense of attainment because children try to practice more and more in order to achieve some positive results. Video games teach them high level thinking skills that can be beneficial for future purpose. As per case study assignment help experts, In scientific way, it can be stated that it develops neurotransmitters in brain that improve intellectual capacity of children. In addition, these games train the brain of children to think in creative way in order to solve different logical problems in short period of time. It also assists to develop the skills related to resource management because a player has to manage available resource and make best use of them. It can be helpful to inculcate the flexible and multitasking nature among kids (Brown & Brown, 2008). It is because children have to coordinate different activities together while playing video game. They also learn to fight in stressful situations and take quick actions due to playing battle games. Some games also improve the memory because players have to store and discard some information in their working memory. When a kid plays some kinds of video game like Team Fortress 2 with other members, it helps to develop his team work skills.
In addition, some games are played internationally in different nationalities and cultures that may support kid to make friendships with different people. It also improves the ability and skills of children about diversity and different culture. On the other hand, some researchers also suggested that video games help to promote interactions socially and make friendships because children always like to play with others and learn different strategies to play those games effectively (Holder, 2012). Some video games are designed for children to complete different missions that are based on difficult situations in real life. Some games include adventurous things that make children daring and learn them to take challenges in their life with ease. Some medical experts have analyzed that playing video games can help the special children to develop a sense of expertise that may assist them to hide their weaknesses (Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Smith & Tosca, 2008). In addition our assignment help experts says that, it also keeps them away from television and its bad effects. Nowadays, television media is relying on some unwanted and child prohibited programs that can be harmful for the children and can give bad impact on their mind. With the help of video games, children can be kept away from this media. It is because by providing video games to them, it can be assured that they will be busy with playing video games including educational contents (Vorderer & Bryant, 2012). With this, it is also used as play therapy for inhibited children, who are withdrawn from society due to physical and mental disorders.
Negative Impact of Video Games on Children Despite of positive aspects of something, some negative shades of that one also exist. Video games also have a negative impact on life of children. The negative impacts of video games are it affects the personality of children and they assume themselves in characters of video games and cartoon. On the other hand, some games are aggressive and violent in nature that develops hostile thoughts amongst children, which reflects in their behavior. It is because of a lot of virtual shooting and killing in games that increase the feeling of anger among children (Wilson, Singer & Dowd, 2005). By doing this, they also get rewards in terms of winning points that encourage them to repeat same behavior in real life and distracts their mind and personality in society. Due to violence nature of some video games, children don’t take problems with ease and try to solve those problems in violent way, which is a serious concern for parents for future development of children (Gentile, 2003). Children start to spend more time on playing video games that also affects their studies and other social activities. It has been observed in research studies that there is a link between poor educational performance and playing video games. It is because children spend more time on these games and ignore their studies.
Apart from this, craziness for playing videogame creates lack of attentiveness and focus amongst children that can cause mental disorder. It is essential for children to play both indoor and outdoor games (Wilson, Singer & Dowd, 2005). Excessive time spent on videogames affect life of children because they don’t take part in outdoor games that reduces their activeness and develops unhealthy lifestyle, which is a serious concern for their physical growth. As lack of physical works and outdoor activities increase causes of obesity, which is a main reason of several diseases in human body and also affects the mental development of children (Vorderer & Bryant, 2012). With this, it also creates poor eating habits that cause several psychological and physical problems in children. In addition to this, there may be possibility of back pain, hypertension, muscle disorder, eye weakness, video-induced seizures and postural, muscular and skeletal disorders, such as nerve compression, tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome, etc. in children. It can also cause raise in heart rate and blood pressure.
In addition, children also play these games for late night that causes sleeping disorders (Kirsh, 2006). Children are not able to communicate with other people in society and build strong social relationships due to spending more time on these games. Therefore, they don’t develop their communication skills. It also leads to lack of friendship relations in those kids, who spends so much time on playing video games. They cannot interact with others and don’t share their feeling that make them feel separate from the society. Additionally, they become more addict to play video games. Addicted children start to ignore daily activities and give more importance to play video games. Another negative impact of playing video game can be related the cost involved with this because video games are getting advanced due to changes in technology that replaces old models with new one (Anderson, Gentile & Buckley, 2007).
Apart from this, children can feel fear due to some fearful and violent games. Some studies on this issue also show that violent video games reduce helping nature and empathetic feelings for others. These studies also revealed that kids, who play a lot of video games, are so obsolete and prone to fight with parents in order to fulfill their demand. It also creates crime oriented thoughts among children because of having violence and aggressive thoughts. It gives them different ideas associated to pranks and crimes. In future, it can have a negative effect on their mind and lead to commit a crime that can cause serious injuries and even death. Through these games, child’s perception about gender roles can be changed because in video games like Grand Theft Auto, women are often presented as the weaker participant. This perception can be reflected in their behavior that can generate harmful effects in the society (Valkenburg, 2004). In current, it has been also noticed that some children are involved in different type of crimes like deadly violence, massacre, etc. due to their involvement in playing more video games. In context of educational values of video games, it can be stated that these games cannot help to promote learning same as traditional learning method. It is very difficult for the children to take seriously the educational video games as learning point of view. With this, it can be also argued that there is a lack of real life situation in these games that also reduces natural intelligence of children to solve those problems efficiently (Kirsh, 2006). They believe that things will behave in same manner like video games and their behavior will be accepted in real life situations too, which actually does not happen. It is obvious that there are several differences between virtual and real world (Kutner & Olson, 2008). Some video games also have sexual content, fowl language and abuse words that have a bad impact bon mind of the children. With this, they start to measure their performance on the basis of killing and shooting opponents in video games that also reflects in their real life. According to reports of many psychologists, it can be analyzed that video games have a dangerous effect on mind of children that can cause a bad impact on their life in future (Griffiths, 2002).
Recommendations to Avoid Bad Impact of Video Games on Children Impact of video games on children depends on the content involved in game and time spent for playing video games. It is very necessary for parents to be ensured about content of video games that are being played by their children. There should be no violence or other aggressive object in video games that have a negative impact on mind of children. Parents or educators should allow the children for playing such video games that have different learning and educational values (Kutner & Olson, 2008). With this, there should be a time limit for the children to play the video games. Time limitation is very crucial for the children; because of this parents can control different bad impacts of video games on their children and also promote physical activities and outdoor games in their daily life. It is because children will be able to spend time outside for playing outdoor games and make good relationships in society. It should be prohibited to play the games at late night that will be useful to improve their concentration and focus. It will help them to make their children to be more physical active and develop their social skills. Parents should encourage their children to play outdoor games and make them understand the importance of those games in spite of video games (Holder, 2012). In addition to this, they should monitor video games ratings that will help them to select appropriate games according to age of their children. It will help them to curb on bad influence of video games on their children. Therefore, to monitor and control the time spent on playing video games can be useful for avoiding their negative impacts on children.
Conclusion On the basis of above discussion by case study help experts, it can be stated that there are different positive and negative impact of video games on mentality, behavior and health of children. Video games play an important role in improving learning, creativity, exploratory, strategic thinking and problem solving skills of children. On the other hand, they also develop violent, hostile and aggressive behavior and isolate the children from the society that have a bad impact on physical and mental health of children. In order to omit the occurrence of negative effects of video games on children, parents should supervise the content of video games played and determine a particular limited time to play this fun related activity for children.
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