Major Assignment #2. Draft #2

One thing that makes a change in the world for good or bad is technology and with it also brought many ways to spend our time or entertain us, one of these things are video games. I mean they are known but almost everybody and it is really difficult to find somebody that has no idea of what they are. Video games change the world and they also become a job so they are not only a  way to spend your free time, now you can actually do it to earn money from it. But have you ever stopped and thought about how video games Influence us?. I mean it not just in a physical way but also in a mental way. This is the question that we are going to deep into and try to find and answer or multiple answers. To answer this question I can think of two different answers one being that videogames are a good influence to us, since they help us to entertain us when we have nothing to do. And the other one is that video games are a bad influence because they only teach bad behaviors and are a waste of or time that only can cause us problems.

To answer our question let’s begin with an interesting information given by the study called The influence of violent video game enjoyment on hostile attributions conducted by James Alex Bonus,  Alanna Peebles and Karyn Riddle. The interesting fact of this study is this one that said “Observational learning theories (e.g., social cognitive theory) argue that positive feelings, such as those derived from alleviating negative affect, can serve to reinforce behaviors that led to those positive feelings (Bandura, 1978). Thus, it is possible that when virtual violence leads to decreases in negative emotions (and subsequent increases in positive emotions), the act of using violent games to manage negativity is reinforced“ (Bonus,Peebles,Riddle). This data gives us the idea that video games are a good way to release all the bad emotions/feelings. With that being said we may say that releasing our bad emotion playing would make a positive impact in our day to day life, since now we can use video games as a way to not overwhelm ourselves with negative feelings.  These are not just words, this is a fact  for some people and an example of this is the person who was interviewed by me who said “I enjoy them (video games) and they are a good way to release the stress of my day”(Hernandez). So as we can see for this person video games are a way to relax and forget about the bad things that happened during the day. So far this information supports the idea that video games are not that bad, but we need more information to get a solid answer to our question.

Another study that supports the same or a very similar idea is the one called The influence of television and video game use on attention and school problems, by Christopher J.Ferguson. The purpose of this study was to examine how video games and television can be a risk for the next factors attention problems symptomatic of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and poor school performance. The results of this  found that “internal factors such as male gender, antisocial traits, family environment and anxiety best predicted attention problems. School performance was best predicted by family income. Television and video game use, whether total time spent using, or exposure to violent content specifically, did not predict attention problems or GPA.”(Ferguson). Even when this text is not saying that video games are good, it is saying that others factors can also be a cause for problems in the life of the people. So the influence of video games is not always the cause of bad behavior or attention problems. This information goes against what the news always says about video games because they said that the bad behavior is caused by video games but we know that it is not the case. Another source that supports the same idea or a very similar to the results of Ferguson is a journalistic note/reportage made by CNN called Video games unlikely to cause real-world violence, experts say. By Arman Azad which said that “Researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health published research in July that looked at meta-analyses of pre-existing studies. The team found that violent video games may increase aggressive behavior, but ‘these effects are almost always quite small.’”(Azad) This piece is showing that there is not a strong relation between video games and bad/aggressive behaviors. The publication also said that  “In one 2016 study, researchers analyzed crime data and found that general societal violence decreased in the weeks after the release of popular video games.”(Azad) This part even says that there is a decrease in violence when a new game is released, so video games cause more good than  bad to us. These are two examples that show that video games are not a bad influence, but what is on the other side? what information do we have to prove that video games are not a good influence?, that is what we are going to take a look at.

So far we have seen that video games are not a bad influence but sometimes they are. And we have some proof that video games sometimes can be a bad influence especially to children. According to a study called Effect of video and mobile games on children’s behavior. By Singh, Pankaj; Mujawar, Nilofer; Moharkar, Rupali; Kaur, Harshdeep. The study took place In India and show that “Children who play more video, and mobile games are more likely to have increased Anxiety, communication problems, psycho motor activity, conduct disorder/disruptive behavior, social skills, attention and hyperactive behavior, aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and decreased prosocial helping.” (Singh, Mujawar, Moharkar, Kaur).This is not a good result for video games, because the study is showing that they can lead to problems in our children if they spend a lot of time on them. One example of bad influence about video games could be something that happened to the person I interviewed. He said that “sometimes I feel like I can’t wait anymore to play but I tried to control myself and focus on what I am doing and with time that feeling goes away”.(Hernandez)  As we can see from this answer this person sometimes feels like playing video games is a need so that is not a good sign in fact looks like he is developing some kind of addictions to play video games but apparently he can control himself. This information is the opposite of what is shown in a journalistic note/reportage made by CNN called Video games help children improve literacy, communication and mental well-being, survey finds. By Alaa Elassar.  This show the following information “More than a third (35.3%) of the children who play said they believe video games make them better readers — with the vast majority (79.4%) saying they read materials related to gaming once a month. The materials included in-game communications, reviews and books. All that reading may also be helping players improve their writing. About 3 in 5 (62.5%) young people who play video games also write something related to gaming once a month, the survey found. Many write blogs and fan fiction.”(Elassar) Compared with the study made in India, this information is showing a completely opposite perspective where video games are good for children and even helped them to improve some aspects like their reading and writing skills. The post also said that  “The “shared cultural experience” of gaming also supports positive communication with friends and family, according to researchers” (Elassar). So this also shows that video games help the children to have better social skills. So the information presented in this writing is a contradiction to the study in India which said that video games cause communication problems.

In conclusion video games  can influence us in many and different ways, some of them are good and some of them are bad. All of this varies according to the person and their situation. But this information is important to know because if we see someone spending too much time on video games we know that it may end up in something bad for them in a mental and physical way. Also the importance of this is to make a reflection and notice when video games are being something good in your life or if they are just causing  problems. 

Work Cited

*Azad, Armad. “Video games unlikely to cause real-world violence experts say.” CNN website.

*Bonus, James Alex, et al. “The Influence of Violent Video Game Enjoyment on Hostile Attributions.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 52, Nov. 2015, pp. 472–483. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.05.044.

* Elassar, Alaa. “Video games help children improve literacy, communication and mental well-being, survey finds” CNN website.

*Ferguson, Christopher J. “The Influence of Television and Video Game Use on Attention and School Problems: A Multivariate Analysis with Other Risk Factors Controlled.” Journal of Psychiatric Research, vol. 45, no. 6, June 2011, pp. 808–813. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2010.11.010.

*Hernandez, Douglas. Zoom Interview Oct-24-2020

*Singh, Pankaj, et al. “Effect of Video and Mobile Games on Children’s Behavior.” Indian Journal of Health & Wellbeing, vol. 7, no. 5, May 2016, pp. 488–492. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=115683935&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Post Write 

1-Did this assignment remind you of any writing that you’ve done previously?  Please describe that work. 

This Assignment was very similar to one that I had to do in my history class at high school, but I never finished it because of the current situation.

2-What was new about this assignment?  Please be precise.

The difference between this assignment and the other one is that in this I needed an interview and also use media sources, and other difference is the amount of sources I need to use.

3-What kinds of knowledge/writing skills did you draw on to produce this draft?  Please begin to use some of the key terms that have begun to form the basis of your theory of writing.  For example, did you draw upon your understanding of audience awareness or genre? How so?

The knowledge that I used to do this draft are the things we learn in class, like how to find sources, how to cite and also how to create transitions between the paragraphs.

4-When drafting and revising, what choices did you make? Please explain.

I had to analyze the sources I found and try to find the one the best fit with my work. That was difficult because I did not know if the information I picked would make sense all together.

5-What questions do you have for readers about the piece?

-How easy or difficult is it to understand the information?

-How helpful/useful is the information presented in this essay for you?