Study Examines Video Game Play Among Adolescents(Summary)
In its number dated on July, 4th, 2007, Science Daily, published the result of a survey that states that teen males and females who play video games seem likely to spend less time reading and doing homework respectively, than those who do not play video games. According to the article, the enlargement of video game popularity has provoked worry among practitioners, parents, scholars and politicians. The consensus is that video games will have undesirable effects with the development of abilities needed to turn out well to adulthood. The survey gotten through in teenagers by the Professors Hope M. Cummings, Ann Arbor, and Elizabeth A. Vandewater during 2002 and 2003, consisted of collecting full time use diaries where the teens had one randomly chosen weekday and other weekend day respectively. The teens took notes about their time spent playing video games, with parents and friends, reading and doing other activities. The authors found that from a total of 1491 teens, 534 or a 36 % played video games. Most of these, an 80% were boys and 20% were girls. As a result, the teen girls spent an average of 44 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and four minutes playing on the weekends. On the other hand, the teen boys spent an average of 58 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and 37 minutes playing on the weekends. In general, for boys and girls on the weekdays, more time spent playing without parents was linked to less time spent with parents doing other activities. Likewise, the more time girls spent playing with their parents, the more time they spent in other activities with them as well. In this sense, on weekends, the more time boys and girls spent playing without their friends, the less time they spent in other activities with them, and the more time they spent playing with their friends, the more time they spent in other activities with them. Likened with non-video game players, teens that played video games spent 30% less time reading and 34% less time doing homework. Finally the results indicate that game play has different social implications for girls and boys who play.
Personal Opinion
Well, first of all, this is not the first time that a survey is carried on to know about the effects of video games over a determinate human group. However, this study comes to confirm that video games if used in a exaggerated or unbalanced way can generate many problems, not only related to the time spent on them, but in health, economy, etc. Video games and consumism go held in hand to show that anything is important to those who contribute to spread violence and other anti-values, but making money. According to this, parents and teachers play a very passive role as observers of this phenomenon. It seems people don’t realize that all this form a great part of huge business that only want to make money, the more video games they can sell, the more money they can make. Remembering about background information I have read before, I would say that I agreed with the previous article because spending too much time playing video games may encourage aggressive behavior in our children and teens. Certainly, they can be more than a simple spectator of violence; they are designed to make them feel like a participant where it is difficult to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Besides these games are an addiction that can lead to neglect of important obligations and relationships. Therefore, video games can consume time that teens should spend on other important activities, such as studying, interacting with others, and enjoying other activities. Finally, in my opinion, video games can run family out of money and time.
Ubaldo Gandica
No comments:
Post a Comment