...Hiatt English 1010 13 October 2014 The Brain on Video Games Are video games just for entertainment purposes? Although many believe that video games are for passing the time and entertainment. Many people I’ve ask said they “corrupt the brain, ruins the attention span and worsen the social skills” In the media we see headlines saying how video games are damaging our brains, but are they really damaging anything? A negative always has to have a positive. I am going to show you that gaming has benefits for your brain. Not only is it entertaining, it also has benefits for the brain During my middle school years, I played a lot of Grand Theft Auto (GTA). While playing GTA I learn there was more to it than committing crimes and making my avatar number one. While playing you need to memorize several game patterns such as the weapon specification and also many maps. The players are also put to unraveling a complicated puzzle that requires you to process enormous amounts of data. There are resources inside the game, those resources are key to survival; players have to constantly manage these in the most effective manner. Rather than rotting my brain I was doing the opposite. With playing GTA I have improved my memory, my problem solving and my resource management. I’ve also improved my hand-eye coordination, fine motor and spatial skills. GTA isn’t the only game that I found out was helpful, but it was the most surprising to me since it was a game that most people blamed for their own...
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...Video games have become one of the biggest industries in the world. They are designed to be played by people of all ages but often are targeted towards children. Every new game can generate headlines both positive and negative leaving parents questioning how exactly their children will be affected. Information supports that playing video games excessively can have adverse reactions for children by impacting their studies, changing their moods, and altering their social interaction abilities. Studies have shown that there are high rates of psychiatric illnesses in people with internet and gaming addictions. Major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and anxiety spectrum disorders have been observed. Video games can impact children’s academic progress by cutting into the time dedicated to studying. It can also change the way the interact with other children with the potential to make them more hostile if they have played games which train them to act in hostile manners (Merzenich, 2011). Studies have shown that video games are essentially training the brain to act in certain ways. If we practice being aggressive then we will act aggressively instinctually. The training can improve cognitive functions, but the benefits of this type of training are usually specific to the game and have very little carry over in day to day practical use. Gaming addiction can also interfere with their daily life just like any other addiction (Han, Renshaw, 2011). The ability...
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...Video games sometimes receives a bad rap when it comes to the effects it takes on the brain. Most people view the effects of video games on the brain as a bad thing, some people view the effects of video games as a good thing. In fact, it has been proven that video games have both effects on the brain. Phsycologist all over the world have created hypothesis and ran tests to see just what effect playing video games has on the brain. In this paper, I will discuss different researcher’s thoughts on whether video games on the brain are helpful, hurtful, or addictive. The effects of video games on the brain can be beneficial to the human body. First, let’s discuss the beneficial effects video games have on behavior. Some video games can enhance certain abilities such as vision, attention, and speed of processing (Bavelier & Green, 2011). Most of these attributes are displayed in video games that display a lot of agility. It makes sense, action games require players to be quick, obtain constant attention, and to be able to stay focuses on one thing for a long period of time. Furthermore, from a more psychological aspect, video...
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...We have all played video games at least a few times in our life and moms have always said, “Those video games will rot your brain out,” but will they actually “rot” the brain? Studies are showing that moms could be wrong when she says “video games will rot your brain out,” and they could actually be beneficial to the brain. But what about violent video games? Surely they cannot be good for you, right? Even violent video games can help develop some areas of the brain (Jaeger), though they may not be the most optimal type of game to be playing if you want to increase your brain as much as you can, but they still help. Video games have both positive and negative effects on the human body. Video games have many benefits on the brain, including better problem solving, more logic, increased hand-eye coordination, improved fine motor skills and more (“The Positive and Negative”). This is just a small chunk of what video games can help the human brain to expand. The human brain is a very complex organ, in fact, it is the most complex organ in the body. The brain has the ability to change, so every time it learns new information then it grows (Jenkins), so when humans play video games the brain can grow in many areas like visual-spatial capacity, visual activity, task sustaining, decision making,...
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...Good, Better, Video Games Dakota Boyd ITT Technical Institute Over the past twenty years or so there has been much controversy regarding whether video games are good or bad for children and adults. I believe that video games have many physical and mental factors about them that are beneficial. This can range from helping with cataracts to even helping with depression. Video games are a tool that has not yet been utilized to its full potential and not just for entertainment. A Professor named Daphe Bavelier who works at the University of Rochester studies brain and cognitive sciences. She conducts studies on young people who play action video games. Bavelier says, “It turns out that action video games are far from mindless.” Her studies show that video gamers who played action video games showed improved skills in vision, attention, and certain aspects in regards to cognition (Trudeau 2010). German researchers conducted an experiment to help better understand how video games affect the brain. They asked 23 adults around the age of 25 to play “Super Mario 64” for 30 minutes a day over a period of two months. They then had a separate control group which did not play video games at all. Then they examined the brains of the two groups using an MRI machine, which resulted in them finding that the group who played the video game had a rise in gray matter in the right hippocampus, right prefrontal cortex and cerebellum. These areas of the brain are responsible for spatial navigation...
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...Video Games Effect on Behavior With games like Assassin’s Creed 3 and Halo 4 recently released, video game sales have been sky-rocketing. Children, teenagers, and adults alike have all been rushing to Game Stop to have the chance to slash victims with a hidden blade or shoot down enemies with AK-47s. This type of game rewards murders. In fact, the National Television Violence Study (1996) found that about 73 percent of violent video games reward violence as an acceptable way to handle conflict (Norcia). This is true for a variety of games ranging from Poke’mon to Mortal Kombat. Due to consumer’s demand, most of the video games sold are violent. Gamers learn to identify with the characters they are controlling. “This identification with characters in video games increases a player's ability to learn and retain aggressive thoughts and behaviors they see portrayed in violent games (Norcia).” Aggression is defined as an action It can be a verbal attack--insults, threats, sarcasm, or attributing nasty motives to them--or a physical punishment or restriction. Direct behavioral signs include being overly critical, fault finding, name-calling, accusing someone of having immoral or despicable traits or motives, nagging, whining, sarcasm, prejudice, and/or flashes of temper (Shin). Research on the subject has suggested that violent video games cause aggressive thoughts and actions. Assassin’s Creed 3, mentioned in the paragraph above, is an example of a classic violent video game...
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...Video Game Influence A recent study, conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Charité University Medicine St. Hedwig-Krankenhaus, shows that video games don’t lead to long-term behavioral problems. Not only do video games not lead to these problems, but they actually improve things such as reflexes, creativity, and even give a healthier brain. A molecular psychiatrist found that “video gaming causes increases in the brain regions responsible for spatial orientation, memory formation, and strategic planning, as well as fine motor skills.” Video games are often assumed to take a toll on the person that plays them physically, emotionally, and/or psychologically. These assumptions often come from concerns that a person has, rather than the evidence that can prove otherwise. This has been a problem since video games first came around. The good side to video games, such as hand eye coordination being trained, will be talked about. The bad side, such as the violence in video games, or the addiction they cause, will also be addressed. These problems are often serious problems and can be difficult to deal with. It is worth noting that some video games can actually be good for a person to be playing—in moderation of course. The Positive Effects of Video Games One thing that video games can help train is a person’s spatial navigation. Spatial navigation is the ability to be able to know what is around you, even though you might not be looking that direction. Though...
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...9:00 10/25/2014 Negative Effects of Video Gaming On Young Adults Video games have been around for over forty years helping to keep people entertained, and in the last decade have been a substantial evolution in technology. As these games have grown so have their benefits but their downfalls have developed as well. With their almost lifelike representation of the world, intricate settings and storylines, and wide spread social gaming scenes, the video game world has created a new venue for people to interact and compete. Games are a wonderful addition to the technological era, but they have negative effects on the brain, develop addictive personality traits and promote antisocial behavior. A study shows that our brains respond very well to changes in the environment. Consequently, when a player plays in any game, our brains make it real. Moreover, video games can help players to pay attention to details, to think and react quickly and to improve their academic performance. When playing an action game, our brains need more attention to successfully complete tasks or events in the game; this actually builds visual skills and spatial distribution. Video games have adopted modern and efficient techniques that require both the body and the brain; this action makes us more dynamic, and it can improve our static balance in games such as “Dance Dance Revolution” and “In the Groove” “In today’s era, games have become so advance that the visual game play is almost realistic, and with...
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...Violent Games: Single Benefit-Double Harm By Dan Nguyen Rhetoric Research Prof. Melody Heide 15 April 2013 One day, I visited a far relative; and when I came into the house, I was startled by the shouts of her kids, “Kill him,” “Die,” “Screw you!” Those kids were playing video games, and they were screaming bad words to each other’s face. I looked up to the screen and saw an extremely gory image of a violent game. I could tell the excitement on the kids’ faces, and when I greeted them, they did not even reply to me. That incident made me think about all the articles of how violent games affect children. Whereas school violence becomes more and more serious, violent games without close control from the government and families is one of the main reasons. Just because of a small contradiction, students can go straight to a fight, acting like some gangsters, and in the worst case, deathly accidents happen. Do violent games lead to violent behaviors? Do they have bad effects on children and society? Many people nowadays would reject those questions and provide various reasons to prove that violent games are good in general. If we take a look on both sides of the problem, video games are great products of entertainment technology that can bring some good effects, but in most of the cases, the bad effects infringe the good effects, especially for violent games, and that’s why we should limit children playing those by banning violent games for all minors in all states. ...
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...Hayes 1 Kimberly Hayes GLS 502-800 Ashley Hudson April 23, 2013 Video Games: An Innovative Approach to Education Ten years ago, I’d have scoffed if I heard video games and education used in the same sentence, and I know a lot of other parents who would still have a similar reaction. In more recent years, however, I’ve been forced to change my opinion, and the person who influenced the change the most is, of all people, my children’s pediatrician, Dr. Jim Poole, the founder of Growing Child Pediatrics in Wake Forest, N.C. Having two children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) isn’t easy in the educational environment present in schools today, and through Dr. Poole’s work with my children, I have come to understand that the reason for the difficulty is that traditional curriculums that teachers have to work with aren’t flexible enough to allow them to tailor to children with learning differences. So what does this have to do with video games? A LOT. Video games have the potential to break down educational barriers that exist in the traditional classroom by providing alternative learning approaches that cater to kids with ADHD and other learning differences, and by building cognitive skills that can help all children succeed in the classroom. When I first discovered that my oldest child might have ADHD from his eighth grade teachers, they all told me that he needed medication before entering high school. I didn’t like the idea of medicating my child, so I began...
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...Education Game The issue with education is not education it’s self but the way the education is being taught. In today’s society most households have a television in a majority of the rooms, internet, computers, Smart cell phone, and video games, have these gadgets be implemented into the process of educating students instead of starting a war between technology and education. Sun-Tzu once said “The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities...It is best to win without fighting.” With this quote I see education as being the opponent to the technology that is taking the attention of children from education. Bring in the technology and use it to teach, Education should surrender the old ways of teaching and bring in a new way with technology being an ally. There are people out there that are against this idea of the students playing games in class because video games are harmful to the brain. I am going to tackle that one right here and now with saying that in my research I have found both positive and negative things about the affects video games have on the brain and the physical body. According to Patricia Wolfe in her book brain matters 2nd edition she states “well-designed educational Video Games can be natural teachers by focusing on critical skills, providing immediate feedback and adapting to the individual learners, and providing opportunities to practice to the point of mastery.” (Wolfe 103) in his book “The...
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...will talking to you about age restrictions in violent video games, and why they should be raised. After students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris opened fire in their Colorado high school in 1999 -- shooting 20 people and killing 13 -- Linda Sanders filed a lawsuit. Her husband was a teacher at Columbine and among the dead. The media revealed that Harris and Klebold played a lot of violent video games, including "Wolfenstein 3D," "Doom," and "Mortal Kombat." Linda Sanders named multiple video game publishers, including Sony and Nintendo, in the suit as well as Time Warner and Palm Pictures since the shooters had apparently watched "The Basketball Diaries," in which a character uses a shotgun to kill students at his high school. In today's ultra-violent media world, it appears there's plenty of blame to go around. But is it legitimate? As of 2001, roughly 79 percent of America's youth played video games, many of them for at least eight hours a week Beyond the obvious issues of concern, like "what happened to riding bikes around the neighborhood," there are bigger questions. Many people wonder how this type of exposure to violence as an adolescent effects social behavior. The rise in dramatically violent shootings by teenagers, many of whom apparently play violent video games, is helping the argument that video game violence translates into real-world situations. But other people aren't convinced and insist that video games are a scapegoat for a shocking social trend that has people...
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...Think Again “Video games are bad for you? Thats what they said about rock n' roll.” In the early 1970's video game consoles moved from the arcade rooms to the average home, and hasn't looked back since.The visual gaming world has been expanding immensely for the past four decades and has become the worlds most prominent source of entertainment. With this expansion there are now professional gaming teams that compete in tournaments around the world playing for prizes and titles. Not only do these games require good hand eye coordination but they focus more on the mind. Strategy games, first person shooters, and adventure games are some of the most popular genres that are played by teens and young adults. With this growth of gaming it is assumed that these games will hinder a children's ability to learn in school and can affect a persons mental health negatively. People don't view these games as having any positive effects, and are viewed as a negative form of entertainment. The reality of this subject is that video games can supply many benefits towards the human brain, give us new ways of reacting to problems, and can expand a child's potential in their education. Since teens and young adults spend a good amount of time interacting with these games through their everyday schedule it has been given a negative title by most parents. Parents fear for their child's education and doubt that video games actually have any benefits towards the brain. These games contain a lot of...
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...To begin, video game violence has been a problem for a long time now since the video game Death Race. “The objects was to run over these things called gremlins with a car and then which they would turn into tombstones.” (Source #1). Next, as many as 97% of kids 12-17 play violent video games. On “Oct.7 2005, California passed a law that requires violent video games to include an 18 years of age to play.” (Source #1). The problem is that so many people are playing violent video games that is is having an effect on society. There has been increase of shootings and increase of any violence like bullying because violent games are teaching kids it is okay to bully. Furthermore, the violence from video games all started when the game Death Run came out of the stores. “In 1993 the game’s Mortal Kombat and Night Trap held a Congress to hold hearings on the regulating sales on video games.” (Source #1). “In California Attorney General Dan Lungren testified that violent video games...
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...Should playing competitive video games be considered a sport? Should video gaming become a sport? Many people may ask well, what is a sport? People say it’s an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Which means that you need to be physically active. A sport can also be a competition between two opponents. Is video gaming a sport? Yes but we call them Esports, where there’s an arena full of people waiting to see the battle between extreme gamers. In this day and time technology is being used everywhere all over the world. We have kids and adults who love the gaming system, they love it so much that they have their very own competitions such as Major League Gaming Tournaments. At these tournaments you’re witnessing talent and effort, but you’ll also see that eSports have fans and11.2 million viewers. Not only that but, when you’re at home playing the game you have the chance to compete or play with others all over the world? Their two types of sports physical and mental. For example basketball which is the physical sport and Chess which is not a sport but has to do with your...
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