I know we have plenty of opposition to the topic already, but I’m bored so here is my view
Increased aggressiveness in the players - Anything that gets your heart pumping fast increases your aggressiveness. Video games don’t increase aggressiveness anymore than running around the room several times.
80 percent of the video games young people prefered contained violence - This just means young people enjoy violent games. It doesn’t mean they prefer it in reality.
-“These are not just games anymore. These are learning machines. We’re teaching kids/incredible manner/to pull the trigger…What they’re not learning are the real-life consequences.” - I disagree. Watching a guy shooting a gun in a video game is hardly learning how to fire one. No game is so detailed that it can teach children how to successfully carjack someone, snipe someone, blow something up, etc.
Electronic games can make you more than a spectator of violence, they are designed to make you feel like a participant --Military psychologist David Grossman/claims that violence in computer games trains childrem in the same way that military training teaches soldiers to overcome their inborn resistance to killing/military discovered that it was possible to break down this reluctance in a large percentage of people in the infantry simply by replacing the normal bull’s-eye targets with man-shaped targets during shooting practice. - Getting a hold of a gun and deciding to kill someone is a much larger step in murdering someone than pulling the trigger. If a person has a gun and is determined to kill someone, this “inborn resistance” won’t be strong enough to stop them, whether they have it or not.
For the impressionable, games may blur the distinction between reality and fantasy - True to a small extent. I never heard of a sane child who had completely no idea what was reality and fantasy because of video games. I don’t think video games blur this distinction enough to cause any damage.
Like an addiction, game playing can lead to neglect of important obligations and relationships - Yeah, this has happened to me a couple of times
Only on small things though. No one is so addicted that they would give up a huge obligation for a video game they could play the next day. Video games are fun, but not that addictive.
Games consume time that children should spend on other important activities/studying, interacting with others, and playing creatively - Kind of the same as above. Again, I’ve never heard of a child whose life was ruined because they didn’t do the above activities because of video games. Parents can easily set rules to prevent this.
Prolonged staring at the screen can cause eyestrain-Exactly how long? I’d guess several hours. Most people don’t play video games that much consecutively. Some do. It also says staring, there is a difference between staring at a screen and watching it. Watching it for several hours will do little or no damage.
lack of exercise, a possible result of game playing, can lead to obesity - Video games only contribute a small percentage to obesity. If someone quit playing video games, but continued to watch tv, eat fast food, sleep long hours, etc., they will lose hardly any weight.
games can rob you of money and time - How can it be considered robbery if you are enjoying yourself? If they mean you go out and buy and play a game and end up not liking it, any activity from watching a movie to taking a certain class at school can “rob” you of money and time.
according to research appearing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology/computer-game violence may be even more dangerous than violence shown on television/players identifies himself with the characters carrying out the violence/can make us feel like participants. - Kind of a repeat of what they’ve been saying. All of these statements are a bit general. How much more dangerous than television violence? Does a player identifying himself with a character make him a significantly more dangerous person? How is feeling like a participant dangerous?
Soooooo, in conclusion, I am bored and I felt like ranting. I’m not upset about this article or anything. Continue on
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