"Effects of Online Games"

Dear Diary,

Nowadays, as technology improves, People especially boys and men are fond of playing computer games.
This review has considered various studies which have investigated the effects of computer games on young children and which have found there to be both positive and negative consequences. Little research has been carried out into non-arcade electronic game playing as this was originally perceived as a harmless and enjoyable pastime. However, with the ever-increasing interest and participation of young children in this activity, much concern has been expressed about the effects of these games on children. Playing these on line games, affects the behavior of every people who play them.
Video and computer games are thought to lead a lot of youth violence. It is thought, ‘according to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. Researchers find that people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population’.Scroll shootings in America by young offenders have also be linked to playing violent games. However it must be taken into account that the majority of young children who play violent computer games do not commit crimes.According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure.Aggression is also another factor that is usually linked with playing violent computer games.There is a lot of research that tries to prove that violent video games ‘may be more harmful than violent television and movies because of the interactive nature of the games’.By ‘playing violent video games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D or Mortal Kombat can increase a person's aggressive thoughts, feelings and behaviour both in laboratory settings and in actual life, according to two studies appearing in the April issue of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Furthermore, violent video games may be more harmful than violent television and movies because they are interactive, very engrossing and require the player to identify with the aggressor, say the researchers.
Computer games are often used to train soldiers to kill, some people therefore feel that this may have the same impact on their children who play similar games. The ‘former military psychologist and moral reformer David Grossman argues that because the military uses games in training (including, he claims, training soldiers to shoot and kill), the generation of young people who play such games are similarly being brutalized and conditioned to be aggressive in their everyday social interactions’. It is thought that Grossman's model will only work if:
· ‘We remove training and education from a meaningful cultural context. · We assume learners have no conscious goals and that they show no resistance to what they are being taught. · We assume that they unwittingly apply what they learn in a fantasy environment to real world spaces’. '‘The military uses games as part of a specific curriculum, with clearly defined goals, in a context where students actively want to learn and have a need for the information being transmitted. There are consequences for not mastering those skills. That being said, a growing body of research does suggest that games can enhance learning’. James Gee describes game players as active problem solvers who do not see mistakes as errors, but as opportunities for improvement, Gee (2003).Through research it is thought that violent video games may be one risk factor that contributes to violence. It is when it is mixed with other more immediate, real-world influences that it is more likely to contribute to anti-social behavior.