The Harmful Effects of Playing Video Games
By: Brian Kim - November 19, 2009
It used to be video games were only played by kids. Now because of the advancement of technology in terms of realistic graphics and other factors, the market has extended to adults.
And you may be wondering what’s wrong with playing video games if you’re an adult.
The stigma is no longer there. It’s fun, it’s something to do when you get back from work, something to do with your friends when they come over, etc.
It seems harmless at first, but when you dig a bit deeper, you begin to find the subtle harmful effects of it.
First off, like any drug, it provides escape from the real world.
And there’s nothing wrong with that once in a while. We do it all the time when we watch movies or a TV show or read a novel.
But if you keep on doing that, if you keep on trying to escape the real world through video games, what do you find?
It slowly BECOMES your world.
You get addicted to it because you find the video game world much “better” than the real world.
After all, in the video game world, it doesn’t take much to become a “winner”.
To be somebody.
To be a hero.
It’s instant gratification to attain that status. Move around a joystick and press some buttons at the right time and bam – you can be somebody.
If you can be a hero in a video game, then why bother with the real world?
Why bother trying to improve when you can be a hero just by pressing some buttons at the right time?
You begin to subtly equate in your mind that becoming a hero is easy. It’s instant. And I use the hero term broadly here.
You can be a Superbowl champ. Be a leader of a clan. A general of an army.
That kind of endowment of virtual status distracts from the real world and cuts any ambition at the knees to improve in it.
Moreover, to rub more salt in the wound, you don’t even have that much time to devote in improving your life in the real world. The video games take up that precious time. And it’s not like you can cut it cold turkey. It’s meant to be addicting as well. The video game industry spends a lot of time and money to see how they can stimulate your mind to produce feel good chemicals when playing their games because after all, it’s good business. That makes you want to buy the next game and the next and the next gaming console as well, ensuring long term profits for those companies.
Young boys today are particularly susceptible to this. By constantly playing video games, they become stuck in this alternate world, where they are somebody, all the meanwhile, forgoing any desire to step up in the real world, delaying their evolution into becoming men.
And if some of them muster up the courage to try to step up in the real world, they find it’s hard to do so, so they inevitably retreat back into tot he safety cocoon of the video game world where everything is soft and easy and can be attained through the pressing of a few simple buttons.
Like all drugs, video games seem harmless at first.
You try it out a little because you hear people say it’s good.
Experiment just to see what it’s like.
You find it’s pretty good.
So you try a bit more.
And a bit more.
And a bit more.
Until you’re free falling down this slippery slope that you don’t realize until you hit rock bottom.
And the climb up becomes twice as hard, because you never really experienced “physical climbing”.
Only “virtual climbing” with a push of a few easy buttons.
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3 Responses to “The Harmful Effects of Playing Video Games”
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November 19th, 2009 at
I believe this is the same thing with TV as well. The shows that have the hero who just seems to play everything right, not very realistic, and can lead some people to believe that life is that easy. So then they use it as an escape like you say. However I’m just repeating everything you say, so never mind. Great article.
November 20th, 2009 at
Thanks Khalspi.
And I just saw ironically ads for video games on this article. For those of you wondering if this is hypocritical, the ads on the site are based on the words on the article so since Google sees video games, it puts video games ads on the site automatically.
March 4th, 2010 at
Video games are a a very fun and enjoyable pastime. They are a great way to bond with friends and loved ones, and they are great for relieving stress and anger release. So while video games are harmful if done in excess, they are great when done in moderation and have many redeeming qualities.
What alot of people even today still don’t realize is that video games are an artform. They are their own medium just like film, music, or books and they are just as valid in their creative and artistic value. Designing and developing a video game requires alot of creativity. It takes a very intelligent and creative person to create a video game that is fun and enjoyable. So whenever the older generation says that video games are harmful, destructive, and a waste of time, the person who went to university for 4 years for video game design and now as a good paying job at EA Studios would probably disagree.
The average age of a “gamer” is 30 years old. There are more gamers who are over the age of 18 then their are under that age. So it’s definetly not “just for kids” anymore since many games are targeted towards adult audiences. That 13 year old boys aren’t even legally allowed to play. I personally believe TV is even more harmful then video games, simply because playing a video game requires interaction, it requires you to actually think and observe, Where as watching TV requires you to do literally nothing. So while everyone else is watching American Idol and turning their brains into a vegatables I’ll be playing Mass Effect 2 and actually using my brain, progressing through the story and having a much more interactive and meaningful experience overall.