Causal Analysis Essay

Brigette Sears
Engl 101

XBox 360 and other electronics and social media are raising our children. Todays children spend so much time playing video games, surfing the net and ‘playing’ on social media, they lack many of the normal developmental aspects that are needed for appropriate entry into society. On the contrary, children that are spending more time on video games are becoming anti-social in the best case, and in the worst case, violent. I believe that it is important to actively raise children with parental love and Gods moral compass. Children today spend a large amount of time on the internet, social media, and game playing. This is a distinct difference from what has happened a generation ago. “Young people now devote an average of seven hours and 38 minutes to daily media use, or about 53 hours a week -- more than a full-time job -- according to Kaiser Family Foundation”. (Rubin) In previous generations, without internet, children would go out and play with one another. Riding bikes, playing hide and seek or just being outside was the norm when the previous generation was young. Bonnie Miller Rubin states in her LA Times article that children are spending more time inside. They are playing video games and not going outside at all. It is a major problem with the kids of all ages. It is usually video games with younger children. She also says that the problem persists with older children as well. Older kids are using their time to update their social media on their cell phones. Finally, she states that minority children are even more disposed to using technology and not leaving the house for exercise or human interaction. Minority children are logging almost twice the time as their white counterparts. Regardless of what the age or race, children are spending much too much time inside and are not enjoying the great outdoors or other kids just like themselves. As children spend more time on phones and computers and video games they are becoming more isolated. They are wonderfully literate in technology and they can teach adults a thing or two when it comes to setting up the DVR. But, as children more time on the computer they spend less time with other people. Studies have shown that as children use more internet and social media there may be a link to them being depressed. The research showed that while studying over twelve thousand kids showed “at-risk” behaviors when they spent greater than average time on the internet. Those “at-risk” behaviors also constituted depression and overall sadness. (Grohol) The depression was a factor that may or may not have come first. The article went on to discuss whether the students were depressed and then used more internet, or whether the internet usage actually caused the depression. Regardless of the order, there is some type of causal relationship associated with over use of the internet, video games and social media and children. Despite the argument of which came first, the chicken or the egg, the fact is that overuse of technology has a very negative effect on children. Graeme Wearden concludes in his article that use of video games physically develops the only a part of he brain. The part that handles vision and movement. But, Wearden reports that video games do not develop the frontal lobe of the brain which control behavior, memory, emotion and learning. What can develop those aspects of the child’s brain; arithmetic! Arithmetic, reading and writing are the types of pursuits that actually develop a child and their creativity and all the tools necessary to become strong citizens. (para. Wearden) The most obvious and scariest aspect of video games, especially violent video games, is the desensitization of children to violence. Many of today’s video games are designed to look and feel as realistic as possible. I once watched my cousins play a John Madden video football game, and I truly didn’t know it was a video game. When I looked at it, the graphics were so real that I thought it was an actual football game. The same can be said about many of the ‘first person shooter’ games. Those games that are based upon an individual fighting, shooting or destroying their way through obstacles. The general purpose is to kill, harm or destroy as much or as many as possible. As children play these games more often, they become more comfortable with the violence that they take part in during the game. That is, they become desensitized to the violence and destruction. “Desensitization is one process that counselors and therapists use to help clients reduce their excessive (and often irrational) fears of things like heights, flying, spiders, snakes, blood and public speaking. After being ‘desensitized,” the person no longer reacts to the object or condition of fear and instead essentially can ignore it.” (Sabella) This desensitization is a natural reaction to overexposure to a certain stimuli. In this case it isn’t something that is beneficial to the person or society. The games themselves become are addictive which lead to the desensitization. The games have multiple features that work on all aspects of the children. The games are multi-sensory and give the players goals to pit themselves against other game players. “…video games use multiple forms of stimuli including high levels of touch (vibrating gamepads), sight (amazingly realistic and vivid video), and sounds (i.e., sound effects and popular songs) which eventually become associated with rewards.” (Sabella) The article goes on to say, “Similar to money, free drinks, and more chances to win at the casino, video games offer its players rewards such as finding hidden areas of the games, getting to advanced levels, earning points, getting on the top player list for others to see, and acquiring badges of achievement. (Sabella) So, adding that fact that the games are fun and addictive to play and the fact that the violence in the games desensitizes children to violent acts equals to a lack of consciousness of right and wrong. This can be borne out by the fact that there are so many shootings and violent behavior by young people. I believe the increased amount of violence is an absolute reflection of the desensitized nature of our children. What we have to do as parents it to take responsibility for the full development of our children. We understand that the lack of social and emotional development hurts our children. We also understand that video games and overuse asocial media are factors in that lack of development. As parents were have to take charge and do what we is necessary for our children to have strong social and emotional development. The responsibility we have is to unplug our children and send them outside to play and learn naturally with other children. In the process we will have to give them the morals to know right from wrong. The best way to do that is to set their moral compass with God through Christianity. Once children are well developed and have a strong sense of right and wrong, they will be ready to be contributing citizens in society.

References

Grohol, J. (2014). Depressed Teens Like to Use the Internet, Play Video Games. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 11, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/02/08/depressed-teens-like-to-use-the-internet-play-video-games/
Rubin, B.M.(2010, Janary 20). Young people spend 7 hours 38 minutes on TV, video and computers. Los Angeles Times . pp. A -17
Sabella, R. A. (2010, April 29). Negative Potential of Video Games. www.education.com. Retrieved February 1, 2014 from: http://www.education.com/reference/article/negative-potential-video-games/
Wearden, G., (2001), Researchers: video games hurt brain development. www.news.cnet.com. Retrieved February 16, 2014 from http://www.news.cnet.com/2100-1040-271849.html