Are Video Games Bad For You – Health Myths Of Playing Video Games
Playing video games is a common pastime, not only for children but for adults as well. With the rise of video game technology and the wide selection of games, many people choose to spend their free time playing video games.
However, there are many related health concerns that have been brought to the public’s attention. Many of these health concerns have proven to be nothing more than common myths.
In this article, a number of persistent myths that have to do with playing video games will be dismantled and disproven.
Video Games Lead To Social Isolation
Video game culture tends to have a reputation of being nerdy and confined to the indoors.
A common stereotype is that one of a young man sitting in his mother’s basement staring at the television all day long and not going outside to interact with his peers.
The This image makes less sense given the rise of Internet connectivity and socialization through services like Xbox Live. Gamers can play with their friends and socialize through instant messenger or microphones.
Games like “World of Warcraft” and “Quake” involve a certain level of cooperation, which leads to a particular brand of camaraderie and can even lead to meaningful friendships.
Sitting Too Close To The Television Ruins Vision
Although this is a common health myth associated with watching television and playing video games, there is actually no evidence that states sitting in front of the television damages eyes.
According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, children can focus up close without eyestrain better than adults, so they often have a habit of sitting closer.
Video Games Lead To Violence
The two teenagers responsible for the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 were avid players of “Doom”, and a German teen who killed 15 people a decade later learned all his moves from “Counter Strike.”
Faulty logic has led many to believe that playing violent video games turns kids into violent beings.
However, studies have been conducted that concluded levels of aggression had not changed among players of violent video games.
In fact, sales of video games have gone up from 1999 to 2007, but according to the FBI violent crime among youth actually decreased during that period.
Authorities are still divided about the long-term effects of violent video games on the real-world violence of the people who play them.
Video Games Train Soldiers (and Children) To Kill
Former military psychologist David Grossman argues that because the military uses video games to train soldiers (including how to shoot and kill), the new generation of kids who play games are subconsciously being taught to do the same.
MIT Professor Henry Jenkins, in a documentary aired on PBS entitled “The Video Game Revolution” that explores the impacts of video games on youths, disagrees.
The military uses video games in a specific curriculum and in a specific context where the students are eager to learn a specific skill, he argues. Without such a specific environment, such skills will not be mastered be someone who is only passively playing.
Video Game Play Is Desensitizing
Several psychiatrists and media reformers claim that playing violent video games can cause a lack of empathy for real-world victims.
However, children who respond to video games the same way they respond to real-world tragedies could be showing symptoms of being severely emotionally disturbed.
Children understand what is play and what is not and are much less likely to blur the lines between the fantasy represented in the game and the real world than adults are.
