Violent video games and teenagers

Everyone has access to violent video games on the market. Many of these brutal videos focus on substance trafficking and human slayings. They also encourage illegal behavior that is disrespectful to authority and the rules. Notably, watching these videos has become a popular pastime for many adolescents. Teens spend more time viewing videos. The aim of this paper is to investigate the different effects of violent video games on teenagers.
Teenagers who play these games are more likely to be aggressive when faced with problems. In fact, in future marriage days, they appear to use aggressive means to deal with family tension. Most of the teens who easily get angry over petty things can be brutal when dealing with such issues. In fact, they tend to have a low tolerance for anyone who offends them. They have less time to socialize with friends since most of their time is spent watching these games (Breuer et al., 2015). Therefore, they fail to know more about the teenage life. Addiction to these games may lead to reduced grades in school. The teens who are always playing these games put aside less time for their studies. Also, they have less time to spend with the family member or even do their school work. Additionally, they have less or no time to exercise their hobbies. Besides, these hobbies would later form the basis of their careers. Instead, they choose to play the games and forget about things they can do best.The teenage spend more time on these videos than they spend on doing their exercise. Thereby, their bodies become overweight and such weight can cause some disease. Lack of training for teenagers is not suitable for their health. The criminal activities carried out in these videos makes the players try and exercise the same in real life. Thereby, the tendency of committing these crimes severally makes them vulnerable to break the authorities and the laws of a country. As a result, they are dealt with by the criminal systems, and they can be jailed for such criminals. For instance, the video showing the activities of mass killing and theft may arouse the teens urge to steal using the tactics in the video (Gabbiadini et al., 2014). Most of the times are when they get caught and are judged accordingly. Therefore, the videos increase the criminal act by the teenage group.The teenage are required to become less aggressive as they grow. Instead, the players tend to use more violent actions when dealing with other people because of these games they play. In fact, the only way they can deal with their conflicts or their rivals is by using violent means. They cannot solve any conflict as adults as they are likely to react the same way as the characters in the games do. The more they watch these videos, the more they become aggressive and hostile. These violent videos teach the wrong teen values (Gentile, 2014). For instance, videos which show violence against women makes the teens think that women are helpless and that abusing them is not an issue. Therefore, male teenage tend to use violent means to solve any conflict between them and females. Also, they are likely to behave violently toward their wife when they marry since to them the videos taught them that violence is the only way to deal with their conflicts. In fact, these violent videos showing women been abused by men also makes female teenagers develop hatred against the male. They view them as their enemy, and they fear having them as friends.These games make the teenagers socially isolated. Teens who are addictive to these games find less or no time to play other games outside the field which may be of help to their health and development. The only source of entertainment to them is playing these videos. Thereby, they exclude other significant activities which are essential in their life. Indeed, they fail to engage in sports and other activities as most of the time they spend playing games. The player learns how violent may be associated with pleasure. For instance, games which show people being rewarded for hurting another person. Thereby, this video is against moral values in real life setting as people acquire rewards for helping others (Granic, 2014). A teenager playing a video where one gets rewarded for hurting the other gives them the perception that inflicting pain on other people is right. Therefore, they are more likely to keep injuring other people rather than helping them. The players have less time to talk to their friends and to discuss on teenage issues. Therefore, this stage will not be helpful for them in their lifetime because they fail to do the activities carried out at that stage.The player tends to practice the violent actions in these violent videos they play. As a result, these practices become an automatic response to issues in their adulthood. In fact, the players learn how to be a criminal by practicing criminal acts that they have seen in the play which for that matter are rewarded (Greitemeyer, 2014). The videos which have more emphases on drug abuse and alcohol use make the teens addictive to such behavior. Thus, they find it fun to take those drugs which later affect them in the decision making on how to improve their life. The teens may get expelled from school due to drug taking activities. As a result, their education is impaired, and due to these frustrations, they join criminal groups.Nevertheless, these games have some positive impact on the teenagers. The player can improve on the technological performance. Consequently, they can learn to coordinate their eyes and hands while playing. The game requires a tremendous visual ability and the ability to have hand-eye coordination for them to be successful. In fact, the player has to match the brains reaction and interpret it with his hands' movement. The player learns how to think quickly and to be accurate. Indeed, the activities in the video require the player make quick decisions. Additionally, the activities provide training to the player brain to make a quick decision without losing accuracy. These games encourage teamwork among the teenagers. There are games which require cooperation with other people online who need to work as a team. Thereby, everyone would want to contribute to the team, and this encourages teamwork and improves the teen’s skills. Despite the videos causing people to commit crimes, it can also help in reducing the crimes. The time which they might have used to do criminal activities is spent playing these videos. For teens to avoid adverse influence by the violent videos, they have to avoid using long hours playing. They should find an alternative way of spending their leisure rather than playing the videos. Also, they should balance their time by using more time on essential activities like reading and doing their homework. They should play videos which help to improve their moral behavior and how they relate to other people of their age (Greitemeyer, 2014). They should not at any point try to practice whatever violent act played in the video. Notably, they should have an understanding of what’s to pick and apply in real life. Also, they should avoid playing the videos in the presence of their younger sibling because children can hardly control their feelings. Parents have a role to play in preventing their teen children from getting addicted to the videos. In fact, they should monitor the time they take to play and ensure they do not partake of them for long hours. Parents should strictly set specific hour when the teen can play and for how long they should play. Also, parents should not keep the playing instruments in their children’s room so that they can carefully watch the game they play (Gentile, 2014). Additionally, parents should have a close relationship with the teen to ensure that they monitor any criminal activity that the teen could engage. Closeness between the two parties will help the parent note any changes and try to rectify if it’s an adverse change.In conclusion, these videos have more negative impacts on the teenage development stages. Also, the violent activities played tend to affect their lives when they become adults negatively. Therefore, it is advisable that they watch these games for a shorter time if at all they must watch. Also, they should try other games without violent acts or even consider engaging themselves in other activities which will improve their behaviors.ReferencesBreuer, J., Vogelgesang, J., Quandt, T., & Festl, R. (2015). Violent video games and physical aggression: Evidence for a selection effect among adolescents. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 4(4), 305-328.Gabbiadini, A., Riva, P., Andrighetto, L., Volpato, C., & Bushman, B. J. (2014). 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