Aayushi Patel
W. Ford
English 161
22 October 2008
Video Games Deadly for the Mind
One of the hot debates today is whether or not video games are responsible for teenagers’ violent actions. The website created by the National institute on Media and the Family states, “A recent report illustrates that 45% of heavy video game players and nearly a third of avid gamers are in the 6 to 17 year old age group” (NPD Group Inc., 2006). Video games can also be quite addictive. In this modern age of technology, teenagers spend a great amount of time playing video games. The con of this topic is totally against the playing and the display of violent video games. The absolute con believes that video games, in fact, have a great and harmful impact on a teenager’s life, which results in violent actions. They believe the video games make the teenagers antisocial. The time playing video games also takes over academic time, which leads to a poor academic performance. The violent video games teach teenagers that problems are solved through violent means; when they perform violent action, in these games the teenagers feel a sense of joy that they are able to move on to the next level to kill the rest of the “bad guys.” Then this guides the teenagers to commit real violent acts in real life. Based on this information, the absolute con position believes that violent video games should be strictly prohibited for teenagers because they take over the mind of a learning child. The absolute con think that if an individual spends a lot of time playing video games it may bring about violent acts in his life. Through visual or auditory stimulation, players are able to obtain steady reinforcement from the video games. The qualified con sides would suggest that parents should avoid the killing-machine games and parents should check on their kids while they play and what they talk about or how they act after that particular game.
On the other hand, the absolute pro strongly believes...