Dangerous Territory

There has been a serious debate going on within society about video games.  One side of the argument is that video games are impacting people in a negative way, whereas the other side of the argument is that video games actually improve a person's abilities within the world.  So, the question is, which side is correct?
Although is has been shown that video games can improve upon ones ability to socialize, building communication skills as well as improving on a persons ability to utilize tact within a social situation, there are examples of a negative impact on ones social abilities.  Within the gaming world, these people are known as "keyboard tough guys," and "trolls."  Both of these individuals make it a point to irritate others around them within the gaming community, to the point of people logging off just to escape the aggressors.

The second point that is often used is that video games lead to violent behavior within developing brains.  Although there are many genres to video games, the one most used within this argument is the FPS (First Person Shooter).  Within the FPS, a person takes control of a single unit and plays many different mission types, last man standing, capture the flag, resource based missions, etc.  But the object of all of these is to kill or be killed.  It is easy to see how worrisome this can be with the perception of when a person is killed they simply wait a "respawn timer" and will come back to life, ready to go at it again.  One problem is that parents do not monitor what games their children are playing, and if they are playing more aggressive and violent video games, this may lead to more aggressive behavior within their lives, more resistance towards parents, more violent towards peers and teachers, etc.  This trickle down effect has been seen in numerous studies.

Another problem within video games is that it actually decreases the social skills of people over time.  It has been shown that video games can lead to anti-social behavior observed in people.  What is interesting to note here is that this seems to be quite controversial.  Many studies have shown that video games do lead to anti-social behavior, and yet many more have shown that it improves on peoples social abilities.  One anti social behaviors observed is an obsession over the game they are playing.  Many players opting not to go out and interact with real people, instead staying at home playing their game, and when they are denied their video games, sometimes violence and self inflicted harm occurs.

As we can see although there are some good qualities gained from video games, there are many bad as well.  I do think that video games are good for people, but as with everything in life, moderation is the key.  Too much of one thing can lead to sever problems within ones life.