How do video games impact our health?

Marco Contreras

Have you ever wondered if gaming is bad for you? If you think it’s bad you’re not alone. According to Sutter Health, it says in a 2018 report that 66% of U.S teens consider themselves gamers. You are considered a gamer if you play two hours a day, meaning they stare at a screen for two hours each day.

Side Effects

So why are video games bad for you? Well usually it becomes bad when you play for too long. But how much is too much? Harvard says teens should play two hours or less, meaning that if you play past that you could risk facing the effects of playing too much. If you play more than two hours a day that is considered addiction, and if you stare at the screen for too long you could get bad effects like eye strain, headaches, blurry vision, fatigue, and bad headaches.

Obesity

Obesity is one of the other long term problems that occur when you play too long. You start to gain weight because you stare at the screen for so long that you don’t exercise your body. It is even worse if you are addicted because you might be playing daily. Harvard also says, “Obesity is also thought to be due to increased food intake while playing video games. According to a study in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a single session of video game play in healthy male adolescents is associated with  increased food intake, regardless of appetite sensations….The proposed mechanisms are that the mental stress involved with playing video games that activates the reward centers, which leads to increased food intake.” This means that it doesn’t matter if you’re hungry or not because your brain will make you feel like you are hungry but in reality you’re not.

Violence

Children who played violent video games tended to show signs of violence when playing such as fighting or hitting. Harvard‘s study says, “There has also been concern that exposure to the extreme violence that is commonly found in video games can desensitize teens and young adults to such violence, causing emotional problems and even leading to young people committing acts of violence.” This means that there is a risk of being violent after playing video games.

Positives

Gaming isn’t all that bad, there are also good things about gaming. Cleveland Clinic researchers observed gamers had more activity than non-gamers in regions of their brains that were associated with attention and memory. The Cleveland Clinic says, “Action video games, for instance, are highly associated with improving someone’s ability to direct their attention and filter specific information.” This means you will have the skill to focus on one subject.

Conclusion

AJMS eighth grade student Roselyn Martinez said, “I think it’s a creative way of learning but there are some other games that show an unhealthy way of doing stuff, like too much violence.” 

I completely agree. In conclusion, gaming just has too many bad effects and just depends on how you balance your life and video games.