It really seems like the kids have become obsessed with all the video games they’ve been playing. Every day, children are caught up in the excitement that these video games bring to their lives, but parents are really worried.
Many children are becoming obsessed with video games. They spend all the money they receive from allowances or birthday gifts on video games, accessories and video game magazines. They play hours of these video games every day, while at night they dream of ways to get to the next level of their favorite video game.
It seems as if these kids are becoming robots as their little fingers turn into little machines as they become fast and precise with every touch of the controller. Many times, you can see their little palms getting sweaty when they play really difficult levels. They may have anxiety because their hearts race and the knots that develop inside their stomach when they play some video games are just as exciting as watching an extremely scary movie.
Parents feel that these video games have taken over their children’s lives as they watch the TV screen while playing these video games. Researchers have found that children who play video games are affected by the way they act, think, and feel. These types of changes have been the subject of intense debate and concern. One of the biggest concerns is violence due to the special effects and computer graphics as they become more and more realistic.
Of course, most parents will blame the shootings that have been going on at school and all the aggressive behavior they have seen in a variety of TV shows, movies, and video games. Psychologists feel that children get used to seeing so much violence and after a while they start to think that it’s not a big deal. It is extremely difficult to prove that watching violence in video games and movies will lead to violence in real life, but it is possible that people who already have aggressive tendencies may be drawn to violent games and movies.
Creating a link between watching violence in video games and movies and acting violently could take years of research. In a study of children, ranging from eight to twelve years old, who participated in viewing a series of video clips showing various scenes of violent fights. Other video clips were action packed only, but still other video clips were just blank screens. While the experiment was taking place, the children lay inside a special type of brain-imaging machine that would take pictures of the brain at different times to show which parts of the brain were working.
The study found that when the children were exposed to the violent videos, a fingernail-sized area in their brains called the amygdala was activated, and the right side of their brain was extremely active. The amygdala part of the brain is best known as a fight or flight organ. Whenever it senses any kind of danger, it will prepare the individual to fight or flee. It also causes the individual’s breathing to slow down and the individual becomes more aware of any kind of hyperactive movement around them as their blood rushes to the core of the brain. This study showed that violent video games can be obsessive and even addictive.