English Report
The Effects of Video Games on Modern Society
Jonathan Lopez
Abstract:
This report is aiming to explore the effects of video games from three main perspectives to observe the impact on modern society. We will be looking critically at how games effects society culturally, socially, and economically. This will be done through other studies, which they are analyzed to find through which social aspect are games affecting and to what degree. Utilizing this method, I have found out the games do provide many contributions to society in terms of social, cultural, and economic aspects, in a positive way with many minor negatives.
Introduction:
The modern video game was introduced in the early 1970’s with the arcade machine being made but where the popularity in video games really saw a noticeable increase was soon after the release of the arcade with the release of the first-ever home console. Ever since this event, the modern home console was spreading to homes all across the United States and taking with them an ever-increasing weight on society. It can be argued that the influence of games also increased with each new resident purchasing one. Knowing this and finding out about recent shootings happening in the United States, it is thought that the correlation between these two aspects of life is strong and that video games, specifically violent ones, cause violence to increase in society. As mentioned before, this is done to see how concrete is the claim of video game violence which this seeks to answer. This will be done through the utilization of other studies to provide the data on these claims through the three perspectives on society. This is done as a response to the rising fear of games causing violence and having a rising negative impact which is affecting Americans as benefits do come from games but many people in power are saying the opposite which misinforms the public and causes all of society to be bad.
Methods:
The methods used for this report is very simple as we will look to five other studies to explore the weight society has on society. There are three perspectives; Social, Cultural, and Economical. One study will be done looking into each other’s ideas with two being used to explore the negative aspects of video games on society. Then finally, one more analysis will be done to see if the idea of video games cause violence is true or not.
Results:
The recent studies conducted on video games shown many consequences on how it impacts people from a social standpoint. In a study published by Sage Journals called “Do Video Games Promote Positive Youth Development” by Authors Paul J.C. Adachi and Teena Willoughby, it analyzes the authority games have on kids behavior. It discusses how kids who play video games in a healthy and planned amounts of time, it improves children’s concentration, problem-solving abilities, and goal settings. This is because video games are providing a healthy challenge to these kids by constantly presenting a problem and ways to solve them, keeping them focused or risk losing. These results are further reinforced if they are also playing games requiring online corporations as they have to work together to reach a common goal. In addition to these findings, the article also mentioned that games that require multiple people to cooperate to do an objective, they can also start to form friendships from these groups as they are someone you understand and empathize with their emotions to a certain extent. These are not all the benefits talked about in the article but are the ones emphasized the most.
Culturally, games have little to no effect on the culture for everyday citizens and therefore contributes much. This may be seen as a truth to a certain extent but this new research report titled “What is Video Game Culture? Cultural Studies and Game Studies” by author Adrienne Shaw, explains the reason behind this is that video games have their own culture. Video games here in their world have the power to influence our own through many ways like education, workplace and family gatherings. This is because according to the report, games can be “… played by many if not all ages, genders, sexuality, religion, and nationalities .”(Shaw, 416) The games themselves do not directly influence the modern culture but influences the people who can which supports the idea of video games having a cultural positive impact on games.
Lastly, video games can serve the US economy with massive amounts of money being involved every year. This is implied by the “2017 Economic Impact Report” by the ESA(Entertainment Software Association). According to their findings, video games sales were 24 billion US dollars, employed 65,000 employees, and added to the US GDP 11 billion US dollars. These numbers cement the idea of games contributing to the economy with many jobs being made along with a lot of national revenue. The idea of positive economic impact is very real but is often ignored by many when talking about games.
All these contributions seem to imply games can do good but they can also cause much harm to the same people who use them. This is implied in the article titled “The Effects of Video Games Violence on Psychological Desensitization to Real-Life Violence” by authors Nicholas L. Carnagey, Craig A. Anderson, and Brad J. Bushman points out that videogames are very violent in today’s society and with the general audience games aim for being kids, kids will act out these violent actions, desensitizing them to real-world violence as they are rewarded with points and cheers from the game. And these types of games are everywhere with at least “Over 85% of games contain some violence, and approximately half of video games include serious violent actions…”(The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence) These actions can happen as kids usually mimic the world around them and the ever-increasing technological advances which is worried to be making it difficult to stop kids from being violent as the real world seems to fuse with the digital one.
Conclusion:
After analyzing all the articles which take on a different aspect of modern society, it seems as games contribute more positive actions than negative ones. Video games impact the world of US citizens through encouraging social interaction, promoting diversity by making people see them for who they are, and contributing greatly to the economy with new jobs and an increased GDP. While the negative aspects are still present like targeting kids specifically these can be overcome with other factors not discussed in the paper.
References:
Adachi, Paul J.C., and Teena Willoughby. “Do Video Games Promote Positive Youth Development?” , 2 Nov. 2012, https://journals-sagepub-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/doi/10.1177/0743558412464522.
Carnagey, Nicholas L, et al. “The Effect of Video Game Violence on Physiological Desensitization to Real-Life Violence.” Science Direct, 17 June 2006, https://www-sciencedirect-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/science/article/pii/S0022103106000825.
Shaw, Adrienne. “What Is Video Game Culture? Cultural Studies and Game Studies – Adrienne Shaw, 2010.” SAGE Journals, 1 Jan. 1970, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1555412009360414
