Stephanie Reynolds
English 112
June 21, 2016
Video Games are Bad
Video games are a very popular pastime for many children and youth around. Virtual gaming has become more popular with a wide range of sports, travel and war type games. Violent video games have been an ongoing topic among parents and psychologists alike for many years. Though some researchers have cited depression, family violence and peer influences as predictors of aggression – not videogame violence – much research has been done to the contrary (Ferguson, San Miguel, Garza & Jerabeck, 2012).
This paper will present current research showing the negative effects of violent video games on children who play these games. Studies suggest adults engaged in virtual violence may be more impulsive and desensitized to violence, contributing to long term cognitive and personality changes. So violent video games are more likely than nonviolent video games to present gender and racial stereotypes, which could lead to aggression toward the groups presented in the game
In children particularly, it has been noted by Anderson et al. (2010) that short term
videogame playing (meaning 15 minutes or less) increased physiological arousal and aggressive
cognition among the study’s sample group of children. Similar findings were discovered by
Barlett, Anderson and Swing (2009). Participants experienced higher heart rate and blood
pressure, all sitting down without enter action in any physical activity or exertion.
In addition to higher physiological arousal, Barlett et al. (2009) found that
participants experienced more hated feelings after playing violent video games than they
did after playing nonviolent videogames. The same results by Anderson and Carnagey (2009) revealed that violent videogame participants displayed higher levels of
aggressive cognition than kids who had played nonviolent games. Research conducted by Anderson et al. (2010) found that short term violent videogame...