The purpose of this guide is to explore video games and how they've positively changed high schoolers lives in multiple ways. In modern day, video games are akin to a tool that teenagers use to navigate daily life.
The research thesis of this guide is to explore how video games positively impact high schoolers in our modern age. There are several aspects of student life that they affect such as social life, education, online communities, and even the classroom.
The research questions addressed in this guide are:
Video games have been around for a while and have proven themselves to be a popular medium regardless of age. Over the decades, they have caused moral panics and an abundance of myths that continue to proliferate in our modern day. This research paper sought to find out whether video games were truly negative by examining various studies and drawing a conclusion based on them. Research was done using a mix of several media, mainly scholarly journals. Studies involving teenagers or young adults were sought out to find the various effects that video games could have. These resources were found through the SVC databases, Google Scholar, and the Pew Research Center. A total of thirteen sources were compiled and annotated. The results found that while video games can impose negative effects, it is more likely that they cause positive ones. Effects depend on the genre of the game, but it is obvious that because video games require skill, players unintentionally learn new skills through gameplay. One example would be a study that found that gamers were better at visually tracking objects than non-gamers. Research also suggests that video games could be useful in the classroom as learning tools, in a method called game-based learning. Though implications suggest that there is more research needed to fully understand how to make game-based learning effective. Regardless, the results show that video games are not an issue compared to other media, but that the general public should still be cautious. While gaming can produce good effects, excessive gaming can be bad for anyone and should be avoided.
Video games started in the 1950s with the credit typically going to Tennis for Two. As technology advanced and the audience got older, games started to have more mature themes, including violence and sex. This mature content caught the attention of parents and policymakers alike and sparked a moral panic. Soon video games would be blamed for crime, obesity, loneliness, and much more. Much of this fear also stems from school shootings such as Columbine, where both of the shooters were fans of the game Doom. This widespread fear not only affected video games' reputation but also how researchers handled the subjects. While some studies suggested that video games can cause violence, many of those studies are also biased and likely false. In the current day, there is much more research suggesting that video games are useful and have positive effects.
This source explains the various effects video games can have on people through several research studies that Professor Bavelier references. This resource is important because it discusses the uses video games have while also exploring the struggles with utilizing video games for education.
Bavelier, Daphne. "Your Brain on Video Games." TED, June 2012,
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