Stop Receiving Negative Effects From Game Addiction

Yiyu Zhang

Macy McDonald

ENG105

27 April 2018

Stop Receiving Negative Effects From Game Addiction

          Video games has been a “great” invention for college student lately. It should be designed to be an entertainment or amusement when they have the free time to relax themselves. However, video games are not designed for college student to addict to it in the first place. Many college students focus on games more than focusing on their academic performance, and game became a biggest distraction to prevent them to achieve a better grade in school. Video games are also an escape for them to get away from large amount of works and pressure brought by school. Sometimes, it facilitates to anger problem when student is playing with others. Games also affect one’s mood by yelling at each other during gaming, and being aggressive. While, health can be a significant issue if game addiction happened on someone. Therefore, college student who’s addicted to video games will result negative effects on one’s daily lives including health, academic performance, and mood.

          Video game is a complicated thing, and obviously some people might have an opposing view of it. According to Marilyn Thompson, she believed that video games can brings up a students’ level of motivation and curiosity. Marilyn states in “Effectiveness of Interactive, online games in learning neuroscience and students’ perception of the games as learning tools” that “This results in an increased degree of learner control by the student and allows for flexibility for individual learning styles” (Thompson 150). However, this point is invalid, because people who are addicted to online games are mostly young adult or college student according to the article written by Laura Stockdale, “Young adult males have been shown to be at greatest risk for video game addiction possibly due to flexible work/ study hours associated with the higher education typical during this age range…” (Stockdale 266). In college, classes are being chosen by student themselves. Some people doesn’t give themselves too much pressure, so they’ve decided to take less class than others. Then that student will take most of the free time as advantage to play games instead of studying. Laura Stockdale has also mentioned in her article that “…living outside of the home for the first time, and increased autonomy” (Stockdale 266). This quote is quite interesting, because this is truly related to the students in the university. For example, referring to freshman, we have all been a freshman before, it is the most enjoyable and peaceful moment where there’s no mom and dad yelling in front of your face and telling you that you have to do certain things or else you’re in trouble. Think the other way around, freshmen are young enough to have trouble with controlling themselves, including emotions, mood, and everything that could happened in daily basis. They would run into games as virtual space instead to escape from the problems that they refuse to face in real world. As time passes, they formed the habit that they would run back to virtual spaces if any unsolvable problem comes. As  the result, this action cannot increase degree of the learner according to Marilyn Thompson, also students will take the free time as advantage to play games due to the flexible schedule. 

         A lot of people disagree with the close correlation between academic performance and game addiction. Matthew Ventura in his article called “Video gameplay, personality and academic performance” has stated that “There is no relation between academic performance and video game usage” (Ventura 1261). This statement does not apply to all the students. Achieving academic goal and passing every class seems painful for most of the students, except the smart ones. In “Social activities, self-efficacy, game attitudes, and game addiction” provided by Jeong, he states that, “it is likely that those with low GPA will exhibit a higher degree of game addiction than those who achieve better grades” (Jeong 214). Unlike those genius who always have the confident to get a A plus in any subject even though they rarely show up on class; Students with low GPA consistently having depressions and worrying about their grade, and trying their best to bring the grades up as much as they can. Unfortunately, many of them gave up when they realized their grades are dropping gradually even though they put enough effort. Internet or game are isolating students from social activities in real life, because they are not able to sustain the high pressure living style in school. Therefore, virtual space turn into their spiritual support for them to rely on. 

          Addiction to video game is much worse than what we thought, it can negatively affect our health. People usually stays up late in the night since the game now can being played online with other players through internet. This step is not recommended to anyone, because it can ruin your sleeping patterns that will cause a serious health issue. Referring to health issue, Laura Stockdale also included the sleep patterns of gamers, she wrote “Previous studies have reported increased sleep disturbances and difficulties in pathological gamers. It is likely that video game is directly interfering with sleep and sleep patterns in this population” (Stockdale 270). Because of a lot of working in the day, game is being pushed towards to the end of the day. Their mind will get hyper during the night to keep them focus on the game, but their body will eventually get tired after long hours from awkward sitting postures, highly concentration, and computer/screen radiation.

         In conclusion, sinking into video games will not bring you any good, also it may cause a problematic issue of yourself. It is hard for victims to realized they are actually having the game addiction. But video games should not be continued if the person realized it bring disadvantages to them.           

Works Cited

Garmy, Pernilla, and Teresa M Ward. “Sleep Habits and Nighttime Texting Among Adolescents.” The Journal of School Nursing, vol. 34, no. 2, 19 Apr. 2017, pp. 121–127. Web of Science, doi:https://doi-org.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/10.1177/1059840517704964.

Jeong, Eui Jun, and Doo Hwan Kin. “Social Activities, Self-Efficacy, Game Attitudes, and Game Addiction.” CYBERPSYCHOLOGY, BEHAVIOR, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING, vol. 14, 2011. Academic Search Complete, doi:10.1089/cyber.2009.0289.

Kim, Jae Yop, et al. “A Path Model of School Violence Perpetration: Introducing Online Game Addiction as a New Risk Factor.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence., vol. 31, no. 21, Nov. 2017, pp. 3205–3225. Academic Search Complete, doi:10.1177/0886260515597435.

Stockdale, Laura, and Sarah M Coyne. “Video Game Addiction in Emerging Adulthood: Cross-Sectional Evidence of Pathology in Video Game Addicts as Compared to Matched Healthy Controls.” Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 225, 1 Jan. 2018, pp. 265–272. Academic Search Complete, ac-els-cdn-com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/S016503271730112X/1-s2.0-S016503271730112X-main.pdf?_tid=f3644952-5b4b-4d55-b540-a74449366c81&acdnat=1522806246_618fdc231271e0d712e7a59311b76db3.

Thompson, Marilyn E, et al. “Effectiveness of Interactive, Online Games in Learning Neuroscience and Students' Perception of the Games as Learning Tools.” Journal of Allied Health, vol. 40, no. 3, 2011, pp. 150–155. PsycINFO, docserver.ingentaconnect.com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/deliver/connect/asahp/00907421/v40n3/s8.pdf?expires=1524802898&id=0000&titleid=6329&checksum=355AFF62B2F8CCAEB7A531F8B4E7BED8.

Ventura, Matthew, et al. “Video Gameplay, Personality and Academic Performance.” Computers & Education, vol. 58, no. 4, 8 Dec. 2011, pp. 1260–1266.PsycINFO, doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.11.022.