Violent video games

b. Opponent’s point of view;

Many experts consider that today the fascination of some people, especially children in violent video games reaches the level of dependency.

As a rule, psychologists call this process gambling. It can be said that there is a psychological portrait of gamer: a teenager, that is immersed in the virtual world and ignoring all external events, very often such child has not been adapted to life in real world. The first stage of addiction is easily reversible disorder. At first, child is simply fascinated by the “new toy”; this stage is characterized by the detriment to education and other businesses. He gradually becomes estranged from family and friends. As a rule, children on this stage hide from their parents how much time they spend in front of the computer. The second stage is characterized by the following symptoms: if a child is prohibited to use the computer, he experiences a feeling akin to “breaking” of a drug addict. The child may steal money to pay for the time that he spends in the internet club. As a rule, the child feels decreased efficiency, impaired attention, the emergence of obsessive thoughts, headaches, cramps in the eyes, insomnia and so on. The third stage is called social disadaptation. As a fact, on this stage the child is completely lives in the virtual world and considers that this is his real life and the real world is a fiction, as stated in Violent Video Games Effect on Children.

c. Examples of social stigma, associated with violent video games;

As a matter of fact, the problem lies in the fact, that previous generation refuses to accept new generation’s passion ”“ video games.

Consequently, today, the prevailing view is that the video games, especially violent video games have inevitable negative impact on children’s psychics only because the fact that our parents, in their time, used to walk on the street but not playing games, only because in their time, there were no video games. Moreover, one more argument, which confirms the misconception, lies in the fact that nowadays, we are living in the world full of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, which are not so hard to get if you really want it. So, arises the question: is it better to walk on the streets and gradually become addicted to alcohol, drugs and cigarettes than to play at home in video games, even violent. I would rather play video games. Moreover, I believe that every parent, who does care about the fate of his child, will agree with me.

It can be said that there are number of social stigmas associated with violent video games. Further, I would like to examine each of them separately. The first social stigma is connected with character of the player, as a rule it includes following statement: “violent video games affect teenager’s character”. I fully disagree with this statement, because there are no proven studies that confirm that the fascination with games affects the character of the person. Nevertheless, the introvert, who prefers solitude, gaming in violent video games, is more typical.

So, rather the character contributes to this hobby, rather than vice versa. The next social stigma is following: “People, who constantly play video games, have worse vision than those, who do not play video games”. As a fact, the number of gamers, who wear glasses, is no more than the number of non-gamers in glasses. Again, there is no official proves for such stigma. The next and the most developed social stigma concerning video games is following: “people, who constantly play video games have not enough time for relationships with the opposite sex”. This is wrong opinion. As a rule, gamers spend their spare time on video games, but for the relationships too. Another question is that many girls look down with pity on the guy’s passion for games and prefer not to have relationships with gamers. It is the most common such a social stigma. Moreover, often parents put pressure on the psyche of their children and say that they will never be able to marry until stop playing video games, as stated in Unraveling the Contexts of Stigma: From Internalization to Resistance to Change.



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