Effects of Computer Games on Children

Question: Discuss about the Effects of Computer Games on Children. Answer: Introduction: Computer games are now widely popular activity among various age groups. According to a report, video game industry earns more than movies and DVDs. Individuals of various age groups especially children are addicted to video games. Children spend hours in playing video games on computer, which affect their health in many ways. This essay deals with the positive and negative effect of computer gaming on both psychological and physiological health of children. Computer games possess a number of positive effects on the health of the children. Studies of Renji Li suggested that video games such as shoot-em-ups could improve eyesight of a child by instructing brain to spot small details, navigate transient movements, notice minute changes occur in the display screen and increase the ability of the person to differentiate between the contrasting shades of grey. Li investigate the effects of these video games by examining their performance in Gabors Patch test. The test clearly depicts that contrast sensitivity of action gamers increase almost 43-58% (Li et al., 2009). Studies also suggest that children with poor eyesight improve their visual acuity after playing kid-friendly video games for about eight hours (Green Bavelier, 2012). Recent studies also showed that children suffering from dyslexia improve their spatial and temporal attention while playing video games and it enables them to read fast with better precision (Franceschini et al., 2 013). Studies of Emily Holmes suggest that Tetris, a game of falling blocks helps to reduce post-traumatic stress disorder. Visual tasks for playing video games, like Tetris, uses the same visual processing areas of the brain where traumatic images lie and compete with post traumatic images which reduces the flashbacks (Holms et al., 2009). According to the study of Kowert and Oldmeadow, video games have positive impact on mental health of child. Online connectivity of video games allows children to communicate with unknown individual and peers (Kowert Oldmeadow, 2013). According to the study of Khn, playing computer games like Super Mario 64 for 30 minutes significantly increase grey matter in right prefrontal cortex, right hippocampus and cerebellum. Therefore, computer game addicted child contain increase amount of grey matter in their brain structures, which are associated with effective working memory ((Khn et al., 2014). Despite of remarkable benefits computer games also associated with a series of demerits. Main disadvantage of computer games are associated with the presentation of extensive violence. Studies explained that children who are addicted to violent video games often face behavioral issues like aggressiveness and expresses prosocial non-cooperative activities. Studies found that children who daily experience a lot of violence in computer games gain immunity against the violence and act violently in minor issues they face in their daily life (DeLisi et al., 2013). Addiction to video games often results in several physiological disorders among children such as obesity, musculoskeletal disorders, nerve compression and postural issues (West Bailey, 2013). Verbal tasks like quiz games worsen the posttraumatic stress disorder by enhancing the flashbacks of traumatic images. Quiz games uses the verbal processing area of the brain that enable the gamer to sense about what has happened (Holms, La ng Shah, 2009). Therefore, conclusively it can be said that selection of computer games for a child is highly essential to manage his health issues. Parents can make the child understand about the demerits of violent games and prevent him to play those games that might lead to serious health issues. References: DeLisi, M., Vaughn, M. G., Gentile, D. 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