Introduction/Background/Tentative Thesis
One of the foremost aspects of a post-industrial living is the fact, during the course of recent decades; the progress in the field of informational technologies has attained a clearly defined exponential momentum.
In its turn, this naturally causes the lives of people in Western countries to become ever more technologically intense, while simultaneously prompting Westerners to adopt a number of qualitatively new existential attitudes.
The validity of this suggestion can be well explored in regards to the phenomenon of video games becoming increasingly popular with not only adolescents, but with grown up adults, as well (Walker 57). However, just as it always used to be the case, throughout the course of history, the introduction of new technologies into people’s everyday lives causes the advocates of ‘traditional values’ to resist the process.
Partially, this explains why, ever since playing video games became an integral part of the conventional entertainment-culture in the West, this technologically intense form of entertainment began to be referred to as being utterly counter-productive (Levin & Carlsson-Paige 428). This point of view, however, cannot be considered as such that represents an undeniable truth-value, but rather as such that can be well referred to in terms of an urban myth.
In my study, I will aim to substantiate the validity of this thesis at length, while specifying the already identified benefits of playing video games and elaborating on what accounts for these benefits’ objectiveness.
Questions
While conducting this study, I will seek to address the following set of research questions:
- What can be considered objective preconditions for video games to be potentially capable of benefiting players?
- What accounts for the foremost benefits of playing video games?
- What accounts for the technical aspects of how video games benefit players?
- Are the benefits of playing violent video games, on the one hand, and the benefits of playing pro-social video games, on the other, can be considered qualitatively different?
- What causes many people to adopt strongly negative attitudes towards the very activity of playing video games?
Method
The research method that I choose to utilize, within the context of conducting this study, is the review of discursively relevant academic literature. The rationale for opting in favor of this particular method reflects the qualitative nature of the researched subject matter.
Given the fact that the activity of playing video games has a number of strongly defined controversial connotations to it, the exploration of this activity’s possible benefits should not be affected by the potentially concerned parties’ perceptional subjectivity.
The analysis of discursively relevant literature will provide us with the opportunity to define the objective (scientifically proven) benefits of playing video games. In its turn, this will allow us to ensure, whatever the controversial this study’s implications may sound, they nevertheless would logically supported.
Timeline
Week 1: I will familiarize myself with the discursive aspects of what accounts for the perceived significance of the activity of playing video games.
Week 2: I will conduct a preliminary research on the technical aspects of video gaming.
Week 3: I will play two pro-social video games (Super Mario Sunshine, Animal Crossing).
Week 4: I will play two strongly violent video games (Grand Theft Auto III, Manhunt).
Week 5: I will review relevant academic literature, in regards to what are being commonly considered the negative effects of playing video games.
Week 6: I will review relevant academic literature, in regards to what are being commonly considered the negative effects of playing computer games.
Week 7: I will synthesize the acquired knowledge and write the preliminary draft.
Week 8: I will refine the preliminary draft methodologically, structurally and conceptually.
Week 9: I will reread the study’s final version and apply necessary adjustments, if proves necessary.
Purpose
The foremost purpose of this research is to dispel the myth that playing video games is by definition a counter-productive activity, which necessarily results in the committed players becoming socially withdrawn, cognitively aggressive and physically unfit.
I believe that by doing it, I will be able to contribute to the process of people slowly getting rid of their moralistic prejudices, in regards to what they perceive as the ‘threatening’ manifestations of a modern living.
The Benefits of Playing Video Games (Literature Review)
When it comes down to analyzing positive or negative effects of just about any type of people’s activity, it is important to adopt a proper analytical approach towards reflecting upon their actual significance. In its turn, this requires analysts to understand what accounts for the activity effects’ discursive subtleties.
Therefore, while researching the proposed subject matter, it will be thoroughly justified to provide a conceptual framework for categorizing the beneficial effects of people’s exposure to video games.
These effects can be classified as confirmed – supported by many empirical studies, suspected – supported by relatively few empirical studies, and speculative – those that require an additional scientific inquiry (Barlett, Anderson & Swing 378).
Confirmed benefits
Enhancement of visual attention
As it is being shown in Green and Bavelier’s study, playing video games contributes substantially to the concerned individuals’ ability to cope with a number of different visual attention tasks. After having conducted a series of experiments on the sampled participants, authors concluded that, as compared to what it is being the case with individuals that do not play video games; game-players appear more capable of rapidly switching their attention from one cognitive task to another.
Such Green and Bavelier’s finding is being thoroughly consistent with what psychologists know about the very principle of how people address these tasks. Apparently, people can only remain focused on coping with a particular task on one-at-the-time basis, which is why it proves impossible for them to be simultaneously processing two unrelated types of information.
Nevertheless, individuals can well gain a proficiency in switching the focus of their cognitive attention to such an extent that to the outside observers, they may appear being capable of indulging in two unrelated cognitive activities at the same time. In this respect, playing video games comes in particularly handy, as it helps individuals to learn how to apply their mental powers most effectively.
Green and Bavelier explain technical aspects of their study’s findings by pointing out to the fact that playing video games naturally causes individuals to learn how to ‘conserve’ their attentional resources, “When the target task is easy, spare attentional resources ‘spill over’ to the distractor, processing it to some extent and thereby influencing target processing. As the target task becomes more difficult, fewer attentional resources remain to process the extraneous distractor” (534).
Therefore, it can well be suggested that the activity of playing video games does in fact increase one’s chances to attain a social prominence, as it amplifies the extent of his or her ‘quick-mindedness’ – hence, causing the concerned individual to be more capable of scoring high, while IQ tested.
Enhancement of spatial reasoning
Another confirmed positive effect of playing video games is the fact that it substantially increases the effectiveness of the concerned individuals’ spatial thinking. That is, as opposed to those individuals who do not play video games, players have been proven much more capable of properly arranging two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects within the given space-frame. The validity of this suggestion can be illustrated in regards to the empirically obtained findings of De Lisi and Wolford’s study.
According to the authors, children that play Tetris game substantially outperform their non-playing peers, while addressing Mental Rotation (MR) tasks. De Lisi and Wolford explain this finding by suggesting that people’s exposure to pro-social video games, such as Tetris, does help them to improve their analytical abilities, concerned with a spatial reasoning, “After the children played ‘Tetris’ for a number of weeks, a significant association between final ‘Tetris’ scores and the MR posttest was evident” (280).
Because the integrity of one’s spatial reasoning is one of the foremost preconditions of him or her being able to qualify for pursuing a number of highly prestigious careers, there can be very few doubts as to the fact that playing video games may indeed come in particularly helpful, in this respect.
Moreover, because the integrity of people’s spatial reasoning has been well-established as such that correlate with their ability to properly identify a dialectical relationship between causes and effects, the activity of playing video games can be also be referred to as such that helps the concerned individuals to adopt an adequate stance, while facing particularly tough real-life situations.
Facilitation of the learning process
As of today, it became a commonplace assumption among educators that video games can well serve as the particularly effective tool of learning. In its turn, this assumption is being thoroughly consistent with what we know about the very essence of how people acquire knowledge.
Apparently, in order for just about anyone to be able to not only memorize newly acquired information but to also ‘digest’ it cognitively, he or she would have to relate to this information emotionally.
Given the fact that the activity of playing video games would not be considered appealing by players if it was not emotionally charged, it does not come as a particular surprise that people’s exposure to video games is being potentially capable of serving a number of educational purposes.
One of the reasons why, as it was noted, playing video games can be well considered a particularly effective educational tool is that this activity is being thoroughly interactive.
By remaining in full control of the computer-generated action, players become an integral part of the virtual realm, which in turn helps them to gain a better awareness of what accounts for the adequateness of their reactions to different stimuli.
There is also another aspect to it – as opposed to what it is often being the case with conventional forms of learning, playing educational video games appears systematic, which in turn increases learners’ chances to be able to apply the acquired knowledge in practice.
As it was pointed out by Gentile and Gentile, “Video games are well sequenced in levels of increasing difficulty, complexity or pace, with success at subsequent levels contingent upon competencies mastered at previous levels” (129).
Therefore, it is fully explainable why the majority of adolescents do prefer studying within the format of playing video games. It is not only that by doing it they never get to experience the sensation of boredom, but they are also able to receive an emotional satisfaction out of being put in a position of controlling all the phases of their academic progress.
Suspected benefits
Enhancement of hand-eye coordination
Even though that, as of today, only a limited number studies have been conducted on the subject of whether people’s continuous exposure to video games improves the integrity of their psychomotoric functions, the available empirical data, in this respect, does imply the legitimacy of this suggestion.
For example, according to Griffith et al., as compared to what it is being the case with their peers that do not play video games, children that do play video games exhibit a much better hand-eye coordination.
Despite the fact that in the mentioned study, the authors did not elaborate on the technical aspects of how game-players are able to improve the integrity of their psychomotoric functions, it does not represent much of a challenge to hypothesize what accounts for the concerned technicalities.
After all, in order for just about anyone to gain a proficiency in playing a particular video game (especially the one that features much of a real-time action), he or she would have to be able to ensure a complete precision of its bodily motions, which control the movements of characters in the game.
In its turn, the individual’s ability to thoroughly coordinate its hand-eye reactions to the input stimuli is being indispensible in a number of professions, such as surgeons or watchmakers. This is the reason why, people that plan to pursue the earlier mentioned careers are being often advised to spend time playing action-packed video games.
Enhancement of communicational skills
One of the foremost qualitative aspects of modern video games is the fact that most of them offer multiplayer options. What is means is that, while playing a particular game, players can now communicate with each other in a real-time mode.
Moreover, whereas, even as recent as ten years ago, the computer-mediated communication (CMC) between players used to primarily take place in the form of people exchanging typed messages, the majority of most up-to-date video games allow players to use voice, while interacting.
As Williams, Caplan and Xiong have noted, “People engaging in CMC over the Internet can thus interact with one another via voice, instead of or in addition to text. VoIP is inexpensive, can connect with existing phone service, and allows for many-to-many communication” (428).
The socially relevant implication of this observation is quite apparent – given the fact that modern video games do encourage players to indulge in close and personal communication with each other, made possible by the multiplayer feature; their communicational skills are expected to improve in the exponential progression to the amount of time, spent playing.
In its turn, this explains that contrary to the assumption that particularly committed video game players tend to be socially withdrawn individuals; this is far from being the actual case.
Quite on the contrary – the fact that video game players spend much time, while tackling simulated but conceptually genuine life-challenges and reflecting upon the particulars of their progress, in this respect, via the medium of Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP), naturally increases the extent of their comfortableness with a number of different socialization-related activities.
Thus, the activity of playing video games does not only represent a socially appropriate form of entertainment, but it also benefits the concerned individuals by increasing the extent of their social comfortableness.
This simply could not be otherwise, because the activity of playing video games is being thoroughly consistent with the discursive aspects of today’s living, associated with the process of informational technology growing to define the very workings of people’s psyche.
In other words, by playing video games, people are able to gain a better awareness of the actual subtleties of the surrounding socio-political reality.
Speculated benefits
Contribution to the emotional/physical well-being
Given the fact that, as time goes by, video games become increasingly popular with more and more people, this state of affairs can be best discussed as such that has been dialectically predetermined. In other words, by being exposed to video games, people are able to improve the state of their emotional and very often physical well-being.
Therefore, there is nothing odd about the fact that, as of today, many health care professionals often refer to video games in terms of a ‘psychological cure’, the application of which proves thoroughly appropriate within the context of clinicians prescribing their patients with the so-called ‘distraction therapies’.
According to Michael and Chen, “Video games have been used to distract patients during painful medical procedures as well as to improve motor skills in physical therapy and to speed recovery for certain operations and conditions” (181). Apparently, while playing a particular video game, people are often able to lessen the acuteness of their depression-related anxieties.
After all, as it was mentioned earlier, humans are only able to address one cognitive task at the time, which means that, while engaging with the computer-generated action, players become literally embraced by it, which in turn leaves them with no option but to forget about their real-life concerns for the time being. Thus, there is indeed a rationale to refer to the activity of playing computer games as being psychologically therapeutic.
Reduction of aggression
As it was pointed out in the Introduction, many people believe that one’s affiliation with particularly violent video games can be seen as the predictor of this individual’s tendency to act in a socially-inappropriate manner.
Such point of view, however, contradicts the recent discoveries in the field of genetics, which leave very little doubt as to the fact that the qualitative subtleties of people’s behavior only indirectly reflect the environmental specifics of how they were brought up.
What it means is that there is very little rationale in believing that violent video games are the actual cause of a real-life societal violence.
Instead, violent video games should be seen as the instrument of anger management. And, as psychologists are being well aware of, in order for subliminally violent people to be able to of refrain from resorting to violence, as the mean of addressing their deep-seated anxieties, they must be provided with an opportunity to release their anger in a socially-appropriate and publically safe manner.
As Golden pointed out, “The goal in anger management is to increase the options you have to express anger in a healthy way… A person who has learned a variety of ways to handle anger is more competent and confident” (26).
One of the most effective and safe ways of releasing anger, which one may consider, is causing havoc and destruction within the boundaries of a computer-generated virtual realm.
Conclusion
I believe that the provided line argumentation, as to the fact that there are indeed a number of good reasons to consider the activity of playing video games objectively beneficial to the concerned individuals’ well-being, is thoroughly consistent with the initial thesis.
As it was illustrated earlier, playing video games does enhance players’ ability to think logically and to address the simulated life-situations in a thoroughly rational manner – even if there is the element of violence to it.
Moreover, people’s exposure to video games also helps them to recognize the sheer erroneousness of a number of sophistically sounding but essentially meaningless politically correct notions. In its turn, this makes people more capable of adopting a proper stance, while tackling life-challenges.
It is needles to mention, of course, that along with the earlier outlined beneficial effects to this particular activity, there are many counter-productive ones, such as the empirically tested fact that strongly committed game-players do risk the chance of neglecting their societal duties and the logically substantiated assumption that people’s continual exposure to video games is being potentially capable of causing them to experience the lack of social empathy.
This, however, does not justify the suggestion that playing video games should be discussed in terms of an essentially fruitless and even socially dangerous pursuit.
Moreover, given the fact that, as it was mentioned earlier, the activity of playing video games can be considered an integral part of a technologically extensive post-industrial living, it will only be logically sound to hypothesize that, as time goes by, the detrimental effects of this pursuit will be gradually deprived of their discursive acuteness.
Apparently, the growing popularity of video games suggests that humanity may well be standing on the threshold of a new trans-human era.
Works Cited
Barlett, Christopher, et al. “Video Game Effects – Confirmed, Suspected, and Speculative: A Review of the Evidence.” Simulation & Gaming, vol. 40, no. 3, 2009, pp. 377-403.
De Lisi, Richard and Jenifer Wolford. “Improving Children’s Mental Rotation Accuracy with Computer Game Playing.” Journal of Genetic Psychology, vol. 163, no. 3, 2002, pp. 272-282.
Gentile, Douglas and Ronald Gentile. “Video Games as Exemplary Teachers: A Conceptual Analysis.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence, vol. 37, no. 2, 2008, pp. 127-141.
Golden, Bernard. Healthy Anger: How to Help Children and Teens Manage Their Anger. Oxford UP, 2003.
Green, Shawn and Daphne Bavelier. “Action Video Game Modified Visual Selective Attention.” Nature no. 423, 2003, pp. 534-537.
Griffith, Jerry, et al. “Differences in Eye-Hand Motor Coordination of Video-Game Users and Non-Users.” Perception and Motor Skills vol. 57, 1983, pp. 155–58.
Levin, Diane and Nancy Carlsson-Paige. “Marketing Violence: The Special Toll on Young Children of Color.” The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 72, no. 4, 2003, pp. 427-437.
Michael, David and Sandra Chen. Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform. Course Technology, 2005.
Walker, Jesse. “Birth of a Medium.” Reason, vol. 35, no. 3, 2003, p. 57.
Williams, Dmitri, et al. “Can you hear me now? The impact of voice in an online gaming community.” Human Communication Research, vol. 33, no. 4, 2007, pp. 427-449.