Can video games be healthy

I do agree that the links you provided give good evidence, but I shall now show you some major points against video games: 1. Addiction. If you spend your time "interacting" only with a machine playing on the computer, TV or handheld, that reduces your experience in interacting with real people. If you become addicted to anything, your other relationships and skills all suffer. Just as alcoholics and shopaholics sustain tangible damage to their physical bodies, relationships, finances and emotional health, becoming addicted to video games can be extremely destructive to a child or teen. They tend to become loners with low self-esteem and the problems compound and multiply. 2. Desensitization to Violence and Sexualized Content. As many as nine out of 10 video games depict violence in some form. That's unconscionable, to be presenting that much violence to impressionable young minds. Women and girls also tend to be depicted only as hyper-sexed beings, which is a grave concern. It's not true that every child who spends time with violent video games is going to "go postal" and kill people or hurt females. But studies do show that these young people have a significant increase in aggression and a significant decrease in the ability to delay gratification. Those tendencies make them worse family members, students and future employees, a tremendous problem. 3. Obesity. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that childhood obesity increases as time spent before a screen increases. One-third of American children are now considered overweight. Those who play video games for several hours every day would end up being overweight or obese. The only way to counter this is hours of exercise which gamers don"t really show interest in. With obesity on the rise across the country and the world, video games are not seen as the best form of fun or entertainment. Obesity also opens the doors for various kinds of health ailments. 4. Video games can damage the nerves and tendons in the hand, especially the thumbs and other fingers that are subjected to too much use. Slouching and stagnant postures are not healthy either. Anyone who plays video games for several hours and does so regularly every day or on several days in a week would eventually have physical problems. 5. The recent release of Grand Theft Auto IV has sparked controversy over the effect of video games on human behavior. Gamers have the option of getting drunk and getting behind the wheel of a car, which has provoked MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) to petition to the ESRB to change GTA IV"s rating to AO (Adult Only) and for Take Two (makers of GTA IV) to withdraw their game from store shelves. 6. A few people's opinion on the topic is: "I've known a few people who would gamble so much with in-game gachapon that they would not be able to afford anything in real life, like one friend couldn't afford a BED for years, but she'd spend a lot of money gambling for her video game character's clothing pieces. The same happened with a friend who would be unable to afford a place to live, and kept bouncing from his parents' and grandparents' home, and even begging me for real life money, even though he did have money that he'd use to gamble for more virtual game items than I could afford myself." Kouki (quora) "The cons of video games include Reduced physical activity, along with all associated health effects. Increased risk of myopia. This doesn't actually have anything to do with games directly, but the fact that most gaming occurs indoors, and the lower light intensity of indoors environments relative to sunlight leads to higher myopia rates. Reduced patience to deal with situations where nothing changes at all. Takes time and money that can be allocated to other activities. Reduced tolerance for injustice. The real world is extraordinarily unfair where success is very badly correlated with individual effort and far more closely linked to the social context in which the individual was located. Games are almost perfectly fair where success is linked mainly to individual effort, ability and decision making ability. Someone who is too accustomed to the fairness of a virtual world programmed to be so might not ever be able to accept the reality of the real world." Ryuu Shun (quora) "I think that Fatigue, Eye Strain,Auto Disconnection From The Real World and Laziness are just a FEW of the cons of video games" Animesh (quora) 7. Here is a recount of a gaming addict:- OFFICE worker, James Perrott, 26, from Peterborough, was a professional gamer in his late teens and early twenties. He says: "I started playing games when I was 15 on a PC. When I went to university I dedicated more time to gaming because there was no one there to tell me to stop. I"d skip lectures and stay up gaming until 2 or 3am, then sleep until midday. I"d get takeaways instead of cooking just so I could continue gaming. It was a dangerous cycle. I had gained weight and my grades were starting to slip. I also chose gaming over school friends and didn"t have a girlfriend. It became my whole life when I started competing at tournaments all over the UK and Europe. When I scraped through my second-year exams I knew something had to change or I"d fail my finals. I gave up completely, which was really hard to do." (The sun.com) 8. Research on The Negative Effects of Video Games on Children: . Increasing levels of obesity with screen-based time, primarily television (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu...) . Playing more than 3 hours of video games day can result in poor psychological adjustment in children (http://pediatrics.aappublications.org...) . Violence and video games (http://ithp.org...) . Ignoring other activities due to 7 hours 38 minutes a day of digital-media time(http://kff.org...) . Possibility of video game addiction (https://www.psychologytoday.com...) 9. Promotes Poor Health video games promote poor health in general. We need sunlight for some vitamins to work on our body, and while we are playing video games, we are not getting a lot of sunlight. 10. It can damage your relationship:- Video Games can Leave one-Half of a Couple Feeling Abandoned When playing video games becomes more than an entertaining hobby, the result can be that one-half of a couple feels like a video gaming widow/widower. Any time somebody in a relationship feels as if video gaming or another hobby is more important to their partner than they are, the relationship is at serious risk. Too much time spent gaming can definitely harm a relationship.Easily Influenced Players can Pick up Anti-Social Behaviors The average person can spend a few hours playing video games that are highly competitive in nature or even violent, without exhibiting any negative behavior changes. Unfortunately, there are a few individuals who cannot do this. Instead, these folks become irritable, isolated, and in some instances aggressive. This can be more troublesome with male gamers who can be badly influenced by the extremely sexist subculture that permeates the world of online, multiplayer gaming. When these behaviors impact a relationship, the result can be permanent damage to a relationship. In extreme cases, verbal abuse and even relationship violence can occur.Couples can Fall into a Pattern of Using Video Games as a Means to Avoid Real Issues It takes a lot of focus and attention to play a video game. A gaming session that begins early in the evening may not end until it is time for a couple to go to sleep. This can mean hours of fun for a couple. It can also mean hours of time spent not working on the relationship, not hashing out problems, and avoiding difficult conversations. When this happens, problems that need to be dealt with fester and grow until they become a major issue in the relationship. Even worse, the relationship simply atrophies from neglect. Follow these links and look into it yourself: 1. 2. 3. www.c-span.org/video/?192984-1/violent-video-games 4. 5. https://www.researchgate.net... 6. http://neurosolution.ca... 7. http://internetaddictionresource.com... 8. http://www.cnet.com... 9. http://www.premier.org.uk... 10. http://ocw.metu.edu.tr... 11. https://contentiousissues2010a.wikispaces.com...