Effects of Online Gaming on Kids

The influence of technology in the field of gaming continues to grow at a rapid pace. As computer and video games have increased exponentially in popularity over time, they have caused significant impact upon popular culture. This form of entertainment has spawned many fads. Video game culture has evolved in time, particularly in connection with internet culture. Today, one can see the impact of computer and video games in politics, television, popular music, and Hollywood. A lot of research is conducted to study its effect on lifestyle and behavior of the wow powerleveling gamer especially kids. Online game is the most sought leisure activity followed by kids now days. Computers play a major role in shaping the future of kids. Days are gone when children loved to indulge in outdoor activities, rather than running or playing outside children spend most of their time playing online games. Online games surely have an impact on minds of kids’ .Taking into consideration it positively is a great mind exercise and helps kids explore many new things. It includes improvement in recursive and proactive thinking, increased sociability, and improved interpretive skills. Research shows that the children who played online games were more active and had sharper minds than their other counterparts. Some video games have been specifically designed to teach people about a certain subject, expand concepts, reinforce development, understand an historical event or culture, or assist them in learning a skill as they play. Computer and videogames also receive much more negative critics because games are often coined with issue such as mindless entertainment, enhanced social recluse, sexism and consumerism. Research shows that kids who play violent video games showed an increase in emotional arousal – and a corresponding decrease of activity in brain areas involving self-control, inhibition and attention. There was a research conducted on a group of children where two action games were included the first game was the high-octane but non-violent racing other was the ultra-violent. The team divided children into two groups, and randomly assigned the kids to play one of the two games. Immediately after the play sessions, the children were given MRIs of their brains. The scans showed a negative effect on the brains of the kids that played ultra-violent for 30 minutes. That same effect was not present in the kids who played non-violent.

Children all over the world seek love and peace from video games, in order to escape abusive parents, siblings, and classmates. The psychological effects of computer games. Some video games lead to aggressive behavior others lead to aggressive thoughts. Much of the debate about gaming deals with the relationship between aggressive behavior and the negative content found in the games. Some studies have purported that there is a correlation between depression and playing computer games. Some psychologists and parents' groups have criticized video games because they believe they cause children to sit alone infront of computer for many hours in a row, interacting with a machine (although chatting can be considered a more socially open environment) rather than running and playing outside as they exercise and improve their social skills by playing with other children. They claim that video games can be even more addictive to children than TV and therefore more likely to isolate them socially in this way. People often think that increased game usage necessarily means increased depression, alienation, and lost of sense of community.

Everyone who plays video games has a different reason for playing and the usage of the game leads to different effects for each individual person. Childhood upbringings, peer influences, pressures at school, and family issues are all factors that have a strong connection with the effects of gaming on individuals. So if a person’s reality doesn’t counter that which is on the computer and television screen, than a child may aim to make the game he plays a reality. From this idea we see school shootings, increased drug usage, and depression. Sure video games maybe therapeutic for some people, but the small amount of people who are negatively affected by gaming impact many. So just like one alcoholic can cause a car accident that can kill twenty people, increased promotion of violence coupled with real life graphics can do the same thing.