Video Games and Health
ITT Technical Institute

It’s easy to see the appeal of the video game. They allow us to do things that most people would never have the chance to experience, or something that’s flat out impossible. From the roar of a massive v-12 engine in a Ferrari, screaming down a straight at 230 miles per hour, to the rat-tat-tat of a heavy machine gun, complete with the imagined scent of cordite and powdery, obliterated dry wall, or even directing stalwart troops across a decimated sci-fi battlefield, there’s nothing quite like the visceral experience of a well-made video game. I’ve plummeted feet-first through Earth’s fiery atmosphere in a vessel no bigger than a phone booth with blue and purple iridescent plasma-bolts exploding inches from my head. I’ve experienced the elation of besting a massive, scaly, fire-breathing dragon in single combat that had just burned down an unfortunate village. The experiences that these games give us are just not available anywhere else, to such an interactive extent. However, therein may lay a problem. It is an undeniable fact that videos games can have an addictive quality to them, due to the escapism they provide. Wherever one looks, there seems to be someone engrossed in the latest action-adventure game, whether it be on a handheld device such as a smart phone, or on an enormous flat screen television that uses more electricity than Rhode Island. We have more leisure time in today’s society than in any other time in human history. For thousands of years before, we were only concerned where our next meal was coming from, or trying to propagate the species. We can now access untold amounts of information that would make our forefathers gasp with astonishment. Of course, there are down sides to this awe-inspiring information access. It’s no stretch of the imagination to think that, while some would prefer