This blog post is in regards to our upcoming writing
assignment and a small exert from it. My essay is about video games and their effects
on our youth. I have been a gamer since I could say, “up, up, down, down, B, A,
Start, Select,” and have always had a great fondness for them. In my opinion,
video games are at their base another art form that is meant to be appreciated
and enjoyed. Many people make the claim that the excessive playing of video
games can be harmful to a child social and even mental development, mainly but
not exclusively pertaining to violent content. This is the small portion of my
essay that I chose to blog about. I chose an article written by a man named Douglas
Gentile who writes for the website babycenter.com that publishes many articles
on child rearing and development. In his article he describes that many kids
that play games in front of computers miss out on physical, intellectual,
social and emotional development and children that play console games are
missing out on making friends and spending time with their parents. So to straighten
that out, kids that sit in front of the computer are slow, fat, stupid,
anti-social, emotionally stunted freaks while anyone with a console sits alone
in their room crying themselves to sleep after a full day of leveling. Now to
clarify, anyone that chooses to be anti-social and sit at a computer all day
are going to do so anyway and any gamer playing will be a byproduct of
behaviors already in place. Also, if that guy thinks consoles lead to loneliness
then he’s obviously never rocked a Guitar Hero or Super Smash Brothers party. As
a closing thought I will leave you with this, if parents want to spend more
time with their kids, maybe they could try picking up the controller one time.
Scott, you make an intriguing statement: video games are an art-form. I think this is a great idea to develop in your upcoming papers. Also, I really like how you critique this essay's logical fallacy of presenting a correlation as a causal relationship. Well-done!
ReplyDeleteI have often wondered if all the experts that say video games ruin kids are right or wrong. I mean we all grew up on video games and nothing is wrong with us, is it? The games are different and they do have more violence now, but if kids are raised right with good values I think they will still know right from wrong. Also is it sad that I knew what you meant, because I used to do a little "Up, up, down, down, left, right left, right, select, select, start" myself.
ReplyDeleteSonney, I have never been much of a "gamer" but I was really interested in your post. We talked about this issue in one of my high school classes once. We mostly discussed violent video games and we all decided that these games could only be harmful to children who are already emotionally unstable. We also concluded that if parents did not let young children play games that were rated above their age, there would not be a problem.
ReplyDeleteI just want to say it is funny that the author of the article you wrote about said that gamers were fat. This is me stereotyping, but when I picture a gamer, I think of a little skinny pale kid locked in his room with a headset and a controller. haha
And lastly, I liked your closing sentence! :)