Argumentative Essay on Benefits of Video Games

Statistics from Stackup.org state that 64% of households own a device to play video games, and 55% of gamers state that games help connect them and their friends together. Video gaming has made a huge impact on our society, yet critics still insist after over 40 years that they have a very harmful effect on children and even adults. However, there are lots of benefits stored within these games such as mental health and social development.

Firstly, video games generally do not affect most people in a negative way. In fact, there is plenty of research that shows there are benefits for mental health. According to the Association for Psychological Science as recently as September 2020, “games are now more important than ever for socialization, feeling autonomy and control during a certain time, and just de-stressing-Ferguson.” For instance, gamers have shown that gaming has kept them feeling less isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic. These games can also act as a way to distract people from pain, psychological trauma, depression, ADHD, stress, and lots more. A March 2014 article called “Gaming well: links between videogames and flourishing mental health'', they state, “Moderate video gameplay has been found to contribute to emotional stability and reducing emotional disturbances in children.” This demonstrates that video gaming can benefit a child’s emotional state by letting them “let out their steam” which can act as their flourishing mental health.

People show bias toward banning violence in video games, but they barely scratch the surface of their benefits to society. It has helped our community grow as a whole since these games show cultural awareness by helping connect different cultures, races, regions, and more together. These games can improve people’s skills in communication since some games allow the players to work together by talking to each other. In a 2019 World Economic Forum article, Susanna Pollack and Stanley Pierre-Louis both claim, “Video games now provide the platform for this authentic, collaborative play that broadens perspectives and builds new communities by connecting people who may otherwise have never met.” Gaming can actually be an opportunity for players to build a whole new relationship with others. In addition to that, they can help make games become less antisocial and more civilized. The Institute of Gaming mentions, “Over 70% of gamers play with a friend, by playing against each other or working cooperatively in a team. Games such as World of Warcraft open up virtual worlds and communities that extend far beyond the computer screen.” This all goes to show that these games bring people from literally anywhere from across the world closer and improve our society as a whole.

Although violent video games can cause good, it can also cause bad. A project done by Frontiersin.org concludes their study by saying, “There seems to be a link between self-reported violent video game exposure and differences in psychopathic trait expression especially in interpersonal-affective deficits.” They calculated and tested what effects happen after a certain time period of playing these games. One Dana.org 2019 article comments, “Violent games do increase aggressive behavior but these effects are quite small.” Which means there have been signs in the past demonstrating that the games end up causing more hostile behavior, but they aren’t really common/consistent. It is truly stated that some violence in video games have graphical content that could badly influence a younger audience, maybe even adults. Some effects can be future smoking, criminal activity, aggressiveness, and more. Apa.org answers saying, “There is not consistent evidence for the claim that younger children are more negatively affected than adolescents or young adults or that males are more affected than females.” This proves that with all this bad stuff happening, there has not been sufficient proof to confidently say that young ones or young adults are as negatively affected by violent games as you think they are.