By: Yena Lee

Currently, 3.32 billion people play games. This means that fifty-three percent of people in the world are gamers. Fifty-eight percent of people eighteen to thirty-four are gamers. For young people, gaming is a habit and a big part of life. However, is gaming safe for us? In 2019, the WHO (World Health Organization) recognized game disorder as a disease. Video games can have many negative effects on young people. They can lead to violent behavior and vulgar language, are easy to become addicted to, and can cause many health problems.

To begin with, video games can promote violent behavior and vulgar language. In some video games, there are violent elements. For example, famous games like Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto, and many others feature graphic violence. Playing these games, people start to use bad words. For example, if someone makes a mistake in a game, then that player uses bad words to another player. This process repeats; players use bad words many times. Then the use of bad words continues in real life and in formal places too. Additionally, when playing video games, players can learn cruel things. For example, the aforementioned games that are popular usually depict war or battle. These games promote fighting, use of guns, among other violent and inappropriate behavior. In 2011, scientists conducted an experiment with violent games to see if there was a correlation between these games and violence. There were sixty participants. Twenty participants played violent video games; another twenty participants played nature simulating video games; and the other twenty participants played prosocial video games. After playing for fifteen minutes, their behavior was observed. For results, twenty participants who play violent video games experienced increased dehumanization. Also, collect crimes that are related to violent media and analyze the relationship between violent media and violent behavior. That is almost similar to the relationship between lung cancer and smoking. It’s not a theory, it comes from real crimes. In the real case, a man, who is twenty three years old, killed a person he didn’t know. The reason he killed that person is because he was addicted to a game named Blazblue. This game is about battles with other characters. He lost in battle to a character he hated. He was mad, so he killed the first person he saw outside. For these reasons, video games can and have motivated people to act violently. 

In addition, video games make it difficult to manage time. Video games are very addictive. People, especially students, have difficulty managing their time. There is no exact cause for video game addiction, but scientists forecast that the process of playing and winning makes many Dopaminergic. Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter. It makes people feel-good and creates a strong drive to do the same behavior and get more Dopamine.When people play video games, Dopamine increases . For this reason people want video games again and again. If it gets worse, all they will do is play video games. It becomes a serious problem for children. Also, for people in their twenties and thirties, it is easy to get addicted to games as well. Rather than getting a job, many adults did not get jobs and instead played games at home. Game addiction is an important societal problem.

Finally, video games are not good for health. When people play video games, there develop many physical problems. For example, playing video games many times in the same position can cause neck problems, headaches, disk and neck pain. Also, video games usually use require use of a mouse, which can also cause health issues for the hands. The most common disease that occurs is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. In addition to this, a bright monitor can cause many eye diseases, like Computer Vision Syndrome. Also, people can develop poor sleep hygiene, muscle atrophy, and obesity. These problems can look like small, but if left untreated, gamers’ health will only get worse and causes serious disorders.

In conclusion, video games are harmful for young people; because they lead to learning violent things, inability to manage time, and cause many health problems. Some people think these problems do not exist, however, video game addiction affects between 1.7 percent of all people and 10 percent of the U.S. population. If people use video games moderately, then these problems would not occur, and they’re not chosen by the WHO as the ICD( International Classification of Disease). People need to find resolutions to the game disorders and find solutions to this serious societal issue.

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Work Cited

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