Discussion on Whether Video Games Are Bad Or Good for Us

An article “Student Opinion: Video Gaming Can Be Harmless and Even Helpful” by Cheney Wu talks about benefits of playing video games. He also says that too much video game is not a good thing, but with right the portion of times, it will give advantages. Cheney Wu responses cannot be blame because there are several facts in support of his arguments. Nonetheless, playing games make us to be addicted. It affects our mental health even though we just take short time to playing games. Therefore, playing video games give us the benefits, but are also harmful at the same time.

All this time, mostly people think that playing video games are horrible and have a lot harmful for us. However, everything has positive and negative side, such as playing video games. Following to Cheney Wu article, he explain benefits of playing video games can improve our eyesight, increase thinking capacity, good for our health, and helps some people manage stress. Not only Cheney Wu, for me, playing video games work very well to reduce my bad mood. Besides that, it is possible for us playing with strangers and can expanding our friend list. If we playing with team mode, it also help us to improve our sense of cooperation. Then, we can learn with playing video games, such as video games based on mathematics, science, and others. Even more terrific, there is study that says playing video games is not bad, and evidently give much advantages for us. It is proven in article “Yes, Video Games are Good…for Your Mind and Body” by Vince, from research and scientific organizations have proven, playing video games help us to have better the quality of life. So, it cannot be denied that playing video games are not always bad.

Not only the goodness of playing video games, Cheney Wu also have opinion that video gaming is not well if we play it too much. Based on my experience, my little brother always playing video games every day. Wherever his handphone on hand it is use for playing games. At all times my mom try to get his handphone, he get mad. Since that, my little brother become lazy and has very bad attitude. Unconsciously, the way he get mad or the lazy thing already affect his mental health. That circumstance not only happen to my little brother. There are studies about how playing games affect mental health, it mentioned in article by James Fox, “Video Games Are Bad for You”. One study shows that areas of the frontal lobe, the region associated with decision making and cognitive function and it inactive after playing video games.

This thing can make a person to have an aggressive behavior. Therefore, we know that playing games is harmful too.

The question of this essay is whether playing video games is bad or good for us. Cheney Wu claimed on his article, He has opinion that playing video games 30 minutes to one hour playing is not wrong. It means, if we play video games not too much is not have problem at all. For me, it is totally mistaken. Although we playing video games 30 minutes to one hour playing, it make us to be addicted. For example, first time when my little brother playing video games, he just take 15 minutes each day. Then, he continuously playing games and it became worse every day. 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, until he played it almost all day long. It influential his daily life, such as always late do the homework, rarely to take a bath, and he became insomnia. What will happen in the next few years if a 10 year kid had that case? As a human, we form our behavior from small things in our past. The bad behavior will affect our attitude gradually and it can determine our future. How the attitude damage to future? Imagine this, we have friends that cannot relate to us, he has bad attitude such as cranky person, not cooperative, and the others. It will hard for our friend to acceptable in every situations. He will be ostracized, hard to get a job just because his bad manner, and lot of things can happen.

After this all, for me playing video games is bad. Although a lot benefits of playing video games, but we can spend time we have for study, sport, and other activities. There are so many activities that can us doing with much opportunities besides video games. Other activities might be harmful for us, but it would be safer than playing video games. We should choose which one is better for us because we have to avoid all the bad things that may be happen in the future. 

Works Cited

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10. Wu, C. (n.d.). Yes, video games are good… for your mind and body. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/featured_articles/20121214friday.html