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Student Research Guide SPQ25/ Impacts of Playing Video Games

E. Auckland

What is this Guide for?

 

 Impacts of

Playing Video Games

 

 This is a student created research guide for English 102 & Library 201 Learning community. This guide was completed in conjunction with a research paper on the same topic for English 102.

 

This guide presents information and resources on how playing video games for an extended period of time can affect someone's brain development and their body.


 

The research thesis of this guide is to examine the ongoing impacts and changed that playing video games can have on the human mind and body. While it is not talked about frequently, video games have an intense and lasting effect on players which can alter their behavior and attitudes.

 

  • How do video games effect a persons mind?
  • Do video games effect children’s cognitive development?
  • Can video games decrease focus? 
  • Can playing video games cause unhealthy habits?
  • Are video games addictive?
  • How do Video games impact sleep?
  • Do video games influence behavior?

Abstract

Video games have grown in popularity ever since their initial launch. Many studies have been conducted to analyze the impacts video games have on user’s minds and bodies. A large number of individuals do not notice how video games affects the players and how this can impact their daily life. Video games cause numerous problems when played for long perids of time. Some issues that result from playing video games for an extended period of time are addiction, sleep deprivation, and stress. The methodology that was used was a wide search of the writing and research that was found in SVC databases, Google Scholar and other various university websites. The articles were gathered, organized, and annotated. The research suggest that people who played more video games for an extended period of time often slept less, were more anxious, and had less of a social life. Video games impact people more negatively then they do positively. Spending too much time behind a screen playing video games strains the body and reduces social interactions. Implications would be that more awareness is brought to the problems that come along with playing video games. While people are aware that video games are not great for the player, the affects can impact someone’s life and become an unhealthy habit. 

Background Information

 

Video games cause numerous impacts on players who spend extended hours playing. Looking into these problems, we find that video games affect the body and mind in countless ways. While some of these affects are beneficial for the body, most of them negatively impact the player. One main issue of playing video games is that it is easily addictive. Players can spend too much time Infront of the screen that they do not sleep frequent enough. Whether the player wants to stay up late playing games with friends or is still too stimulated from playing games with loud sounds and bright colors, the person will not get enough sleep. Rest is an essential for the human body. Video games can be relaxing and a good way to relax but when it affects the amount of sleep someone is getting, there can be negative consequences such as a decreasing attention span, mood swings, and increase in anxiety.

 

Video, Graph, or Image

How Gaming Affects Your Brain

This video is significant to the topic of how video games impact people because it describes how dopamine is largley released when playing video games and how this can influence the brain. Dopamine creates a happy feeling such as nicotine and can become addictive, especially when playing video games a lot.

 

  1. This video shows how dopamine is collected from playing video games and how this can make people happy from playing but also create unhealthy habits and addiction.
  2. This video addresses the problems video games can cause when a player is addicted.
  3. This video provides information on how video games influence the mind.
  4. This video is important because it describes a big problem video games can cause and brings awareness to it.

 

"How Gaming Affects Your Brain (Andrew Huberman)." YouTube, uploaded by Game Quitters, 3 Apr. 2023 

All Content CC-BY.
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