Role playing games (RPG) with simulated violence both online and offline are perilous for kids. The games can cause a kid to lose focus in their school work which will lead to a decrease in academic grades, which also leads to the person not getting a qualification, in worse case scenario this may even affect their career. Not only that but there maybe a slim chance that the kid will become a killer.
In an article related to symptoms of playing Games “Do Video Games Lower Academic Performance?” written by publishers at “Education.com” have stated that video games can decrease the grade, but it also doesn’t. The negative impact of gaming on kids is that it can cause a decrease in time spent on studying and an increase in time spent on playing games, as a result of a medical condition called an addiction. An addicted person may spend as short as one hour to as long as a day playing games. Games are designed to keep things interesting that will hold the gamers interests and attention. The time that should be spent on studying would have gone to waste. Too much gaming will also leave a person with no time to go for his/her other activities. There are some fast-pace games e.g.call of duty whereby it can cause a person to have a short attention span and have no patience and it will eventually lead to difficulties in reading a long dense book, engaging in group social actitives and playing a game of monopoly.
The impact of gaming will not just stop at childhood. When a child grows up and becomes an adult, gaming can also have an adverse impact on their life and career. In the related article “Two Years Later, Sleep Researchers Now Say Gaming Before Bed Is Bad” written by Owen Good, researchers have shown that gaming before bed is bad because it will shortened Rapid Eye Movements (REMs) state. The REMs State is a time for the brain to process what it has learnt that day, so it is ready to learn new things the following day. By decreasing the REMs state time, the brain has less time to process all this information, causing the brain to work two times as hard. For adult with game addiction, time will be spent on gaming rather than sleeping. As a result, these adults will be more prone to make mistakes and will be less productive.
Another adverse impact of gaming is that it can influence a person into thinking that bloodshed is the right thing to do when they played too much of violent game. In the article “High-Jinx: Shoot-Out” written by Guy Martin, the students were constantly thinking about killing their prey, which were the opposition with their water pistols. When the kids have continuous exposure to such games, their minds will be influenced to accept violence as their normal life. Similarly, there are some online games that prey on the same concept of violence. Research like “Do Games Like ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ Cause Real World Violence” Written by Erik Kain, has shown that over 40 people per capita that spend money on violent video games in the US, has led to over 300,000 people in the US committing gun related murder. This may eventually lead to them to go onto a gun rampage. Another piece of evidence to support my point is that on “Shooting In The Dark” written by Benedict Carey, states that after playing a lot of video games, two people went on a gun rampage to kill innocent people at Columbine High School and a cinema in Aurora, Colorado. These massacres were the cause of two video gamers, which was most likely influenced by the games.
Gaming may not be all bad as there are pros too. Some benefits are that it increases a person's awareness, hand-eye coordination, strategy, reflexes and helps relieving stress. The important point to note is that having self-control, practicing moderation and keeping a clear line between reality and virtual will lead to benefits of gaming. Once too many people cross the over the line of reality and the virtual world there will only be two types of people in this world the Predator and the Prey.
By Dylan
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