Are Games Good Or Bad?

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

Do Digital Devices Cause Bad Grades?

Digital devices has taken a big role in our daily lives from taking a photo to browsing the web. Some of us use our digital devices too much. Since we have digital devices, people spend a lot of their time indoors. Digital devices have influenced us in many ways sometimes it has controlled us. Digital devices could be stopping us from doing homework as other distractions on our laptops could distract us such as games and social media. It seems that many people start to go off task like going to social media when they do homework. Ms Michetti a teacher at UWCSEA said “They are definitely influencing people's lives. I think they amplify what is already there -- if poor habits were already there, they make them worse. If good habits were already there, they make them even better. However, they can also provide opportunities for people to improve their lives if they approach them with the right kind of self-management habits. I don't necessarily think the devices influence people's lives as much as I think they prompt people to influence their own lives.”

It all started when the most used social media was released. These were Facebook and Twitter too begin with. Facebook was released on February 4th 2004 and Twitter was released on 21st March 2006. After all this was created, many people were hooked up to these social media and it made a big impact to us. Then one day smart phones were introduced to these social media. These apps were made mobile so people could see what others were up too even when they weren’t at home. The phone is a really useful tool but now that social media has kicked in, more and more people have been addicted to their phones. 19% of all adult internet users use twitter in January 2014, and 71% of online adults use facebook in September 2013, all this data was conducted by pew research center. Although a teacher that I interviewed disagreed and said that the use of technology for a long period of time doesn’t cause bad grades. Ms Michetti said “I don't actually think it's the devices themselves that lead to poor studies. But if there are poor study habits to begin with, then access to the device can make it worse. So it's very important, IMO, to learn good study habits independent of digital devices. We need to learn to work with them because let's face it, they're not going away. And they can make our lives easier if we know how to manage them. Digital devices can actually improve study habits, but you first have to get the habit in practice before adding / using the device. It's really about using your mind and thinking skills and not expecting a device to do that for you, because it can't.”

In a class of 20 that was surveyed the results of these students were that 7 out of 20 people used 2-3 hrs of digital devices per day and over 3 hours of digital devices per day. Researchers from the Miriam Hospital’s Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine have conducted research and have proven that over use of social media could result to poor grades in school. As many you can see from the survey conducted in the class of 20, more students use 2-3 hrs and over 3 hrs of digital devices daily. These people could have a potential of getting poor marks if they don’t use the time spent on digital devices effectively.

There are many fun activities that you can do that don’t require digital devices such as socializing with friends, or playing sports / doing outdoor activities and many more. Doing these activities and finding ways to study without using digital devices not only could make you healthier and smarter but it could also increase your grades in school. You can even socialise without using digital devices like you could go to the park and meet your friends.

Do you think that digital devices could cause your low grades? If most of your time is spent on social media or video games when you need to study. Then yes maybe you could cause your bad grades. If you use this time to study, it could increase your grades as you get the most out of this time. It is ok to play video games and go on social media but it has to be at the right times like on a weekend or a friday.

If digital devices weren’t introduced imagine what the world would be like today, we wouldn’t be able to code games as we need digital devices to do so. The modern discoveries wouldn’t even be known and it would take forever to make produce a product like bread. There would be no machinery to help factory workers jobs easier. Digital devices shouldn’t be used in the wrong way, be responsible with how you use digital devices. Many people can’t control how long and what they do on digital devices. Ms Michetti said “Lots of people. Most of them are teenagers. But I know a few adults too, who struggle to set boundaries for themselves.” As you can see even adults struggle to set boundaries as Ms Michetti said.

Digital devices helps us in many ways, use it responsibly and it could be a useful tool but use it in a bad way, and would turn from your friend into your enemy.

Written by Dylan

Can people still show good sportsmanship?

Sometimes friendly sports matches are taken a bit too seriously. At the end of the game, the winning team would brag about their victory and the losing team would feel bad even though it was a friendly game. There would be shouting and screaming coming from the winning team. From the losing team there are sad faces and people yelling at other players for not helping or missing such an easy goal. All of the teams should just show some good sportsmanship because it was only a friendly game. This is what happened during the last few minutes of the friendly football game.

The two teams playing on the pitch are the Martinshaw primary school and the Leicester primary school. The game is coming to the end, the score is currently tied at 0 - 0. One team just needs to score a goal in order to win. One of the players from Leicester primary school runs up past the halfway line, a player from Martinshaw comes in and slides to get the ball. At the last second the ball was gone, he had just passed the ball to another player on the team. Martinshaw acts fast and goes into a defensive formation but the Leicester team is one step ahead and lobs the ball over the defenders and shoots. Martinshaw is relying on the goalkeeper to stop the ball from going into the goal. The goalkeeper jumps, his hands are out, his heart is thumping the ball just flings over his fingers and its a goal. The crowd is cheering, the Leicester team is going wild the score is now 1 - 0 to Leicester Primary School. Martinshaw is gutted that they couldn’t keep it a tie, but they stilled carry on playing.

Martinshaw starts with the ball, and they are off with a good start. Passing the ball through the Leicester team players. They just need to score one goal so that they can get a tie of 1 - 1. Midfielder is running up, and passes to the striker, one mississippi: the striker takes the ball. Two mississippi: lobs the ball over the defender, three mississippi: he shoots. The ball is flying through the air, the goalkeeper gets his hands up and blocks the ball. He shoots the ball towards the other goal. *TWEET, the whistle has been blown. The Martinshaw team has lost the game 1 - 0. This reporter went to talk to a Martinshaw player and asked how he felt about the loss “I am disappointed that we lost the game, I thought we had it but in the end the score was 1 - 0.” Quote Thomas Billson, student at martinshaw. The Leicester team was cheering and boasting of how good they were.

There is one team boasting and another feeling bad, why can’t the Leicester team have good sportsmanship. The thing that the Leicester team is doing is making the other team feel bad. It doesn’t matter whether the Martinshaw team lost because they will have another try when they play in a competitive tournament they can use different strategies that they learnt from this game. Leicester team can practice strategies that they learn’t from this game and they might be able to win their next match. We should all just congratulate the other team no matter whether they win or lose. You know that the other team has tried their best so just congratulate them for trying their best, you shouldn’t keep bragging about your win.

Written by Dylan 

High Schooler Special Day

Today Tuesday 2nd September was a very special day for a high schooler. When this reporter walked nearer to the canteen this reporter heard loud talking and cheers. As soon as this reporter got a view, there was laughter, cheer and a lot of smiles on peoples faces. One high schooler was embarrassed, his face didn’t show what others were feeling his face was like he was performing in front of a huge audience. Suddenly the birthday song started and the embarrassed high schooler expressions changed in an instance like he just received the best thing in his life. Seeing all this, the reporter was tempted to join in and wish him a happy birthday. So he said “Happy Birthday dude” and his friend said “See even this guy wished you a happy birthday and he doesn’t even know you.” After saying this, his face lit up with joy.

Written by Dylan