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Gaming Becoming A Essential Part Of Life Media Essay

发布时间:2017-04-05
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Since the early 80's the computer games became an essential part of the entertainment industry, which captured a lot of people, mostly children and teenagers. According to Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic media "The video game has become one of the most popular and pervasive forms of entertainment". (Lee, D. & Larose, R. "A socio - cognitive model of video game usage" Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 51 (4) December 2007). This theme is topical and I am going to discuss, explore and examine it in a proper way. The main goal of my work is to prove a thesis that we should not be addicted to the video games and that they have a negative influence on the teenagers' minds.

In the media sources, there are a large number of reports warning against the dangerous impact of the computer in general and computer games in particular on the psyche of teenagers. This is a well-known fact that the long sitting at the computer is considered to be a kind of addiction, which is expressed in such psychological symptoms as the inability to engage in other entertainment, an imaginary sense of superiority over others, the so-called syndrome "Arbiter", which gets the player with the help of controlling "life" of the computer characters. Some computer games provoke aggressive behavior by engaging a teen in a war or violence. There are data that teenagers who play a virtual game have much stronger physiological excitation, as well as more aggressive thoughts in comparison with the control group.

The video games bring down the circle of acquaintance as well as the circle of interests. In addition, they provoke the desire to create their own world or to escape from reality. According to the scientists communicating with the computer "face to face" often leads to the social isolation and difficulties in interpersonal contacts. Most games are created on the competition between the user with a computer or another player. There are practically no games that require the cooperative interaction. The above-mentioned opinion is expressed not only by the media resources, but also finds a strong support in the scientific community. This is an incorrect opinion that subculture is one of the reasons why people become addicted to the video games. An example is from Japan, they are called Otaku.

Sharon Kinsella states that "Amateur manga artists, referred to as manga otaku, were rapidly made into symbols of Japanese youth in general and took center stage in the domestic social debate about the state of Japanese society that continued through the early 1990s."(Kinsella Sharon "Studies Japanese Subculture in the 1990s: Otaku and the Amateur Manga Movement" Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 24, No. 2 Summer, 1998).

Almost every child between the ages of 10 to 16 years at least once tried to play the computer game. Boys are engaged in the computer games much more intense than girls. There are a lot of different violent games which have the negative influence on children's minds and lead to the sexual attraction, aggressive behavior or even racism. The term "computer games" involve a wide class of programs and technical devices to which they are installed.

Classification of computer games should take into account the complexity of the game and its content, those cognitive and motor skills that are required in the play activity. "Leisure Suit Larry" is among these cruel games. British Journal of Education Technology admits that "In 1987, Leisure Suit Larry was considered to be soft pornography in the game industry. Nothing more than a few chunky pixels, Larry was required to use a condom and have sex with a prostitute to proceed to the next level." (Kearney, P. & Pivec, M. "Sex, lies and video games" British Journal of Educational Technology Vol. 38 No. 3 2007).

Distribution of various computer games is closely related to their preference for teenagers. As Lugo admits "If the game is too easy, individuals will not purchase it; the short time it would take to complete the game would not justify its purchase price." (Lugo William "Violent Video Games Recruit American Youth". Vol. 15, No. 1 spring 2006).

The influence of the computer games on teens

It is important to mention about the emotional sphere and social contacts. Children between the ages of 10 to 13 were tested in order to check the fact that the intensive training with a computer leads to the isolation of the individual and breaking contacts with others. It turned out that they are much more likely to play computer games, often play alone. Teenagers who are not interested in computer games are more likely to visit clubs, different events and performances.

Another negative influence of the computer games is a danger of physical and mental disorders. Different analyses show that the teenagers who are involved in the video games have serious violations of a mental activity or symptoms of a "computer" addiction. A very good example of it is a video from YouTube, the name of this video is "mom deleted his world of Warcraft account". On this video we can see a teenager, who is very aggressive and violent because his mother deleted his "virtual world". This is a well-known fact that this behavior can lead to different serious problems even such as a suicide. According to the journal of American college health "Suicide is the third leading cause of death among Americans aged 10 to 24 years. Suicides account for 12.9% of all deaths among young people aged 15 to 24 years.

An estimated 1 in 12 college students has made a suicide plan, and approximately 1,000 students die by suicide on college campuses each year." (Lindsay A. Taliaferro, Barbara A. Rienzo, R. Morgan Pigg, M. David Miller, Virginia J. Dodd "Associations Between Physical Activity and Reduced Rates of Hopelessness, Depression, and Suicidal Behavior Among College Students" Journal of American college health, Vol. 57, No. 4 January/February 2009.)

The problem of teenager's aggression and related offenses has a wide resonance in our society and, apparently, acts as the central theme of a psychological research. Some authors argue that computer games consist of the violent content and increase aggression in users.

The third one is interests. Studies show that teenagers, who are keen on the computer, get lower interest rates in the humanitarian field (music, art, and literature). Children begin to live in the virtual world and as a result they have a lack of communication with their peers. In addition, they are watching a video and TV and, paradoxically, more exercise. This is a widely-spoken opinion that the computer games interfere with the social development of young people.

The research scientists from Brigham Young University (The USA) showed that young people who were absorbed in the video games, much less paid their attention to friends and family. Examining the lifestyle of 800 teenagers it was found that the growth in popularity of the computer entertainment leads to reduction relations with peers and parents. Young people prefer to spend their time on the construction of social contacts, and on the computer games. Statistics admits that an addiction to the virtual entertainment is directly linked to the risky behavior with the teenagers, such as a drug addiction or abuse of alcohol. According to Brigham Young University, nearly 25% of boys regularly play computer games, and only 17% of girls play them not less than once a month. Teenagers who play video games, according to statistics, smoke marijuana more often than their peers, who are not keen on the virtual games. Moreover, young girls are carrying out a long time for such games, often have a low self-esteem.

Of course, in the "computer" group, you can find individuals with symptoms of addiction or other psychological ones. Apparently, this computer game serves as a means of overcoming the conflicts caused by the root causes that lie in the area of family relationships and / or relationships with peers. The only well-proven fact remains the increase of aggression with the primary school children who played the computer games with elements of violence.

The relations of the computer games with aggression can be interpreted into two ways: either the aggressive behavior of players due to the aggressive content of computer games, or, conversely, aggressive children and teenagers prefer playing the computer games with a violent content. A similar logic can be applied to data about the negative influence of computer games on school performance, according to which the gamblers forget about homework assignments and, consequently, reduce a progress in studies. However, the situation here may be the opposite: the difficulties in mastering the material cause "escape" the teenager in "the world of the computer games." It is obvious that the question of cause-effect relationships can be answered only by experimental investigations.

How to reduce the negative influence of computer games on teenagers?

When children grow up, of course, they will understand how stupid they were when they spent their time and health on such nonsense as computer games or blunt correspondence on various forums, social networks, ICQ and so on, but it's too late, so it is now we, adults should limit our children. Try to find an alternative to the computer, which is like your offspring (take a trip together to nature, to urge football in the yard). In fact, it's not hard. You only need a little more attention and desire. However, the situation may be the opposite: the difficulties in mastering the material cause "escape" the student in the world of the computer games. It is obvious that the question about cause-effect relationships can be answered only by the experimental investigations. In order to protect your children against the computer games follow these rules. Firstly, you need to minimize its negative impact. Here are some tips how to do it.

The first step is to more communicate with your child. Statistics show that only children who have the lack of communication begin to "live in the virtual world".

The second step is to try to win child's confidence so as he is not afraid and always tell you which games he plays and which are his favorite ones. Then you can gently tell him about the negative impact of such games, for example, to intrigue him some other interesting game, not necessarily the computer ones that will be less dangerous for him. It is important to mention that there are a lot of interesting, non-computer games. For example, you can tell your child that "In my childhood I loved to build castles with the help of a huge special constructor. It had a lot of different parts (walls, towers, stairs, gates, houses, creatures, etc.) with which one could build anything you like - how much is enough imagination."

Moreover, you need to pay more attention to your child. Sometimes, it is useful to play video games with him. You can offer your child to play, for example, board games. Nowadays, there are a lot of interesting and developing board games: economic board games, where you can buy real estate, machinery, stock, receive a pleasant surprise.

The child begins to understand the real value of money, economic fundamentals, terminology, for example, that such an asset, liability, debit, credit, etc. The only thing that you have to do is to play well and take part in games with your child.

The next step is to become the best friend for your child. From time to time (the more, the better) you should be interested in his/her affairs, state of health, interests, what is happening in today's day and etc. If a child tells you nothing, you will accomplish nothing positive. Criticism, anger, punishment do not help to change your child's point of view, but only can cause harm. The best way out of this situation is to be a friend to your child. Do not cry, and do not scold your child, and in any case do not blame him for anything. When you get to become friends with your child, then he/her will tell you everything, from how to start the day, what he did during the day, the people he/she met, etc.

And the last step is to vary your child's life. Many children may not be interested in the computer games but can spend days, nights in chat rooms and engage in the virtual communication and acquaintance. In this case, a child has the lack of "the live communication", whether from his/her parents, or do not have the real friends. Moreover, it is useful to offer your child to join some study group. This can be a sportive one - football, basketball, tennis, volleyball, swimming, etc. Or do something creative for the soul - singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, etc. Importantly, the chosen study group should not be the one that you like, but the one that a child will choose to join. Give your child freedom of choice and not imposed, but only suggest it and provide the right choice.

Conclusion

Taking into consideration the above-stated information I want to draw a conclusion that the computer games have the negative influence on the psyche, as well as the nervous system as a whole. A long work behind a computer often can cause headaches. There are several types of headaches that may be triggered by work on the computer. One of the factors provoking the appearance of headache is a chronic strain, a constant voltage of cranial muscles and facial muscles. Disorders of attention and inability to concentrate are the consequence of a chronic fatigue. Sometimes the prolonged operation at a desk in front of a computer can cause tinnitus, dizziness, and nausea.

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