video games help

Hello my young friend, I would be delighted to debate you on this issue, I see this is really an issue on your mind this is your third time wanting to debate it, I sincerely hope you'll agree with me and make a life decision not to waste your life playing video games. The title of the discussion is video games help, that"s a very broad title, of course it could help sometimes, if a mom has to leave for a few minutes and she needs to occupy her children so they shouldn't wreak havoc, then a video game is very helpful. With that being said I'll argue that video games haven't given the world anything it didn't have already, and the world would probably be better off if we wouldn't have video games. Now four of your "studies" of why video games are helpful are like the above mentioned example example. (I'm short on space so I'll have to just reference your studies). 1."2009's Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine included a study that found that gamers who suffered from mental health issues such as stress and depression were able to vent their frustration and aggression by playing video games " and showed a noted improvement. The study hypothesized that games gave certain "Type A" personalities time to relax in "a state of relative mindlessness" that allowed them to avoid reaching "a certain level of stressful arousal" as they tried to relax." So first of all even if it's true that it supplies "a state of relative mindlessness" which is necessary for people suffering from mental health issues i wouldn't start defining video games in general as a helpful thing, it's just a band aid, one of many which can help someone to be less stressed. But I'll be honest with you, I'm skeptical about the whole study. It seems to contradict itself. Does a video game put someone into an angry and excited state which would help vent their frustration and aggression, or does it put one in a state of relaxation by way of relative mindlessness. 2."Video games don't just provide relief from emotional pain. They can also help those who are suffering from physical pain" " No need to elaborate, when someone is in immense physical pain a distraction is always helpful. 3. "Playing brain-teasing game for just two hours a week may help slow the degree of mental decay associated with the natural aging process, according to a study this year from the University of Iowa. A study of 681 healthy individuals ages 50 and older revealed that playing 10 hours of a specially designed video game was able to stall the natural decline of different cognitive skills by up to seven years, in some cases, Over five to eight weeks "" So first of all i can't say I really understood what they're doing. I mean for 6 to 8 weeks straight they play this game for 10 hours, did 700 people really sign up for the study, the whole thing sounds ridiculous. But anyways it has nothing to do with video games it's crossword puzzles and road tour (read above how it's helpful to old people) this Jason Allaire guy is off his rocker there is no connection. 4. "In February, the Italian researchers presented evidence that playing fast-paced video games can improve the reading skills of children with dyslexia. The team separated children age 7 to 13 into two groups, one of which played an action game called "Rayman Raving Rabbids" while the other played a lower tempo game. When the reading skills of the children were tested afterwards, those who played the action game were capable of reading faster and more accurately. The authors of the study hypothesized that the action games helps kids increase their attention spans, a skill considered crucial to reading." At first I was totally puzzled what does dyslexia have to do with video games then I read the last line that it helps attention spans.(something I have a hard time believing, and it's unclear who did the "study", there's no names). But anyways surely there's other ways to help attention spans. Now let us discuss another point if something is merely a band aid, it doesn't help the problem, it just temporarily quiets it. for example a power drink doesn't give one energy it just gives a boost of energy for a little while. This is such an example "Dr. Daphne Maurer of the Visual Development Lab of Ontario's McMaster Universitymade a surprising discovery: People suffering from cataracts can improve their vision by playing first-person shooter games like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty. She believes these games are so fast-paced that they require an extreme amount of attention, training the visually impaired to view things more sharply. They can also produce higher levels of dopamine and adrenaline that "potentially may make the brain more plastic," she said. Researchers found that following the 40 hours of game playing, the vision of five of the six patients showed signs of improvement. They were able to recognize faces more easily, as well as make out small print and judge the direction of moving dots". If it"s due to dopamine and adrenaline how long do you think it lasts? (When I googled this study the first few things that came up were video game companies advertising with this.) "Researchers from North Carolina state university looked closely at our aging population to see if there was a link between playing video games and mental well-being " i.e. "happiness." They found that senior citizens who said they played video games " even occasionally " reported "higher levels of happiness, or well-being," says Rick Nauert at PsychCentral. "Those who did not play video games reported more negative emotions" and were more likely to be depressed. It's unclear what exactly is behind this link " or if the relationship is even causal."" Sheer nonsense, this study can't prove anything obviously,it's from the most inconclusive and ambiguous studies i've ever seen. But even if there is a connection it's because those who play are more physically and mentally able than those that don't even occasionally play. And here comes my point why I think video games can be a terrible thing. Because I vehemently disagree with the following study you quoted. "Video games improve your decision-making skills Most video games require fast reactions and split-second decisions that can mean the difference between virtual life and virtual death. Cognitive neuroscientists at the University of Rochester in New York found these games give players' brains plenty of practice for making decisions in the real world. Researchers suggest that action-oriented games act as a simulator for the decision-making process by giving players several chances to infer information from their surroundings and forcing them to react accordingly." This is not just an issue of video games, this is a problem with our culture, that more and more people are living in virtual reality (tv,movies,video games) instead of actual reality. The problem with this is that even when people are dealing with real life, people and real life situations, they think their living in a movie or something. I can give you many examples but first there's no example like personal experience. I took a personal resolution when I was 16 not to watch fictional movies I kept it for close to 5 years. I can tell you as a fact that me only interacting with real life made me a different person. I used to be able to walk into a room and tell you who has a TV in their house and who doesn't, (Many religious Jews don"t have tvs.) people were just more real. And like I said this affects every area in life especially relationships. In real life there's no script, no one defines for you what your relationship should look like(to an outsider), how to express your love etc. In real life it's a big problem to hurt or embarrass someone (you could be crossing the street 10 years later when you see that person) but in a video game just press the restart button and every things great, even if you run someone over no big deal you got a few lives etc. etc.. I'm not arguing for absolute abstinence but video games are very obsessive (so there's a good chance you'll get stuck in it) and in the overall picture I think it did more harm than good for society. If you have the discipline to limit yourself to play for a certain amount of time that's great, if not I say at least play a game with another person against you (with you in the room) and better yet a board game (Risk rocks) or a card game. That was all my personal opinion but in any event i have to agree with the other guy who debated you that most of life decisions are not split second decisions so it"s not much of an advantage and on the contrary it could be to your disadvantage you may start making split second decisions when deliberation would have been the prudent thing to do. Just to conclude I'll quote your first argument "Letting a 4-year-old sit in front of a TV with a game controller might not seem like the most productive use of her time. But researchers from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, would disagree. Their study examined the development of 53 preschool-aged children, and found that those who played "interactive games" had better "object control motor skills" than those who didn't. It's not clear, though, whether children with better-than-average motor skills tend to gravitate toward video games in the first place." " Here are two sites on line which discuss motor skills. There"s something called gross motor skills and fine motor skills http://en.wikipedia.org... http://childparenting.about.com.... What we are discussing is fine motor skills, which are most necessary for writing. I just hope that a child who at such a young age is heavily involved in video games will still be interested in reading when he/she get older.