Are Video Games Hazardous or Beneficial?

Violent video games have grown popular worldwide. The U.S alone has spent over $20 billion on video games in 2013 (ESA, 2014). Although video games can influence on how an adolescent behaves, there are bigger factors, like family/peer support and involvement that can affect the child greatly. Because of this, I believe that videogames are not hazardous to adolescents.

There has been no direct relationship between playing video games and violent crimes, according to a graph published by the Washington Post (Fisher, 2012). The U.S has the most crime by far when compared to the other countries. However, it does not spend the most on video games. Instead the countries that did spend the most money on video games tended to have the least amount of gun-related crimes. This could be because more adolescents are now preoccupied by playing video games and have no time to commit crimes. It could also be because the two variables have no connection whatsoever. If it did, we could have millions of murderers in our hands without us knowing. Although some people, believe that because school shooters all have one thing in common; they all play violent video games, they forget that would mean people you know could be shooters as well. Your children, husband, wife, or even neighbors could be an option. But because video gamers understand that they are playing a game, this means that they have are unlikely to become murderers. They are able to differentiate between fiction and reality, so they will not act upon the violence they see in the video games. To conclude, video games and crimes have no direct relationship that could affect the player’s ability to differentiate fiction and reality.

Video games can have physical, educational, and psychological benefits. Playing violent video games can help a teenager release aggression or anger without causing real physical harm. Playing video games prepares adolescents for the real world. The world we live now is not peaceful, instead there is chaos and terror. Gamers can experiment with war and death without actually living through them. It teaches them what steps to take to prevent certain situations or save people’s lives. Fast-paced games make gamers react 25% quicker, that could be valuable in the end. "Action game players make more correct decisions per unit time. If you are a surgeon or you are in the middle of a battlefield, that can make all the difference," said study researcher Daphne Bavelier (Specter and Loria, 2014). Video games have also helped people recover from phobias and traumatic events. Researchers from a University of Washington are using virtual technology to help survivors from terrorists attacks recover from PTSD (Mohammadi, 2014). Severe cases of anxiety can be cured and help people do their everyday activities. In addition, gamers have surprisingly helped scientists discover new information that they have missed. Gamers that played an astronomy game, Planet Hunters, discovered new planets and stars. Another game called Foldit solved a problem- AIDs in monkeys- that researchers have been working on for more than a decade. Gamers have taken the next step from just playing the video games to solving real-world dilemmas.

In conclusion, there is still controversy over the effects of video games. It depends on the person’s mental conditions that exists beforehand and their peers that could influence them negatively. Although there are some drawbacks, video games are more beneficial than harmful. We can use them to improve our everyday lives. They can help us overcome our fears, discover new information, release aggression, and much more. Think about when you play video games with and against your friends; how have they affected you?