Life in the 21st century is changing rapidly, and this change is most apparent in the ways that we raise children. A child who was born in the 21st century is brought up with video games, smart phones, and the Internet, and this has significant implications on the way that they develop. The question of how excessive video game exposure impacts child development can be looked at through a number of different lenses, with each of the studies or articles consulted in this research assignment looking at this question from a slightly different perspective. Here, we will look at whether exposure to video games in general is more frequently associated with negative or positive impacts on children, with studies published by a number of different sources being examined. Ultimately, it is clear that video games can have positive and negative impacts on children as they are growing up, and given the proliferation of different forms of video game entertainment among children today, it is more important than ever to have a thorough understanding of these positive and negative impacts. Overall, however, video games today have a more positive impact on children than a negative one. As a parent, it is important to expose one’s child to some video games in order to develop critical skills relevant today. Despite some arguments against video game use, they are still a net positive for child development.

The importance of video games today is enormous. Their cultural impact is large, and beyond this, people all over the world spend a huge amount of time playing video games. A recent study by the video game company Activision noted that 6 months after their game Call of Duty was released, the game had been played for more than 600 million hours, or around 68,000 years, by people worldwide (Bavelier). Overall, exposure to video games and other apps at a young age is a good thing for children, and can help their development in a number of ways, triggering a number of different learning outcomes. One way that video game use at an early age can be beneficial is the fact that video games help to develop a number of fine motor skills. As noted in a study by Vanderbilt University researchers, “video games also increase hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and spatial reasoning” (Hughes, 1), with someone who is playing a video game being put into situations where they need to be keeping track of multiple moving objects in relation to one another, or otherwise encountering visual stimulus that is more demanding than most everyday situations that they would be encountering. The same study notes that there are a number of real-world situations where these types of skills might come in handy, with the article noting the required hand-eye coordination for people who are doing surgical procedures. With a workforce that requires people who have better hand-eye coordination and people who are capable of working with manual tasks, playing video games could be a good way of encouraging children to develop skills that would make them more employable in the future. Parents thinking more long-term might even look into getting their children certified in some type of video game related skill set.

Beyond the practical application of skills that are developed by gamers, video games can also have a positive impact on the development of the human brain and the rest of human physiology. A recent Ted Talk by Daphne Bavelier discussed some of the positive impacts that video games can have on the brain of children, as well as adults and senior citizens. For example, a recent study in a laboratory analyzed the eyesight of many children who did or did not play video games, and found that children who played a lot of action video games actually had somewhat better eyesight than children who did not. Despite the fact that violent video game use is often talked about in a more negative context, which will be discussed later in this paper, the study showed that being required to follow moving targets and pay attention to small details had made the children develop somewhat better eyesight (Bavelier). Similarly, a study found that children who had devoted quite a lot of time playing action video games were able to solve puzzles that involved attention span, as well as the ability to accurately state the color of a word that was written on a page, even when the word itself was sometimes another color (e.g. the word “green” written in yellow color, and the person needs to say “yellow”). In such tests, children who played action video games were able to solve them more accurately, as well as more quickly. 

Further, people who play a lot of action games are able to switch tasks more quickly. The study found that if a person was presented with a set of problems that was requiring quick thinking and the ability to multitask or switch between tasks effectively, those who had been exposed to video games performed better. Finally, another study done by the University of Geneva showed that if they took a handful adults and gave them a test that measured their mental processing skills. They then took the same group of adults and exposed them to 10 hours of action video game training over the course of two weeks, and then gave them the same tests. Not only did the group perform better on the tests immediately after the training, but they also were able to maintain this improvement in skills over the longer-term, as they were tested in the same game weeks later (Bavelier). The researcher noted that this was important in terms of the impact of video games because ultimately, researchers view video games as having potential for education. If they are being used to educate children, then clearly it will be beneficial if they are able to teach people concepts that they will be able to remember and use not only immediately afterwards, but also for the long-term. In this way, video games appear to have a physiological impact on humans that provides a solid base for the potential for use in educational applications, such as group learning and distance learning, or training for specific tasks. 

Further to this, video games can have the physiological impact of actually being helpful in managing pain, with a study done in 2010 stating that “various media, including video games, can be used to distract and relax children during painful medical procedures” (Anderson and Warburton, 58). The same study notes that despite being potentially antisocial, video games also offer a social element, in that a group of people playing video games together can build social bonds. This good for childhood social development, and allows children to interact with others in an environment that they consider fun. The social aspect of video games is in fact quite profound, and “pro-social video game playing led to a short-term reduction in the tendency to see the world as hostile, and an immediate reduction in anti-social thoughts (Anderson and Warburton, 60). The social aspect of video games can therefore be similar to the social impact of more or less any sport, whereby the team and competition factors bring people to be closer together.

Beyond this, there are a number of other jobs that benefit from the usage of video game simulations. While most of these instances would not involve kids playing video games, the idea of pilot simulators, driving simulators, and even more complex simulators as technology becomes more advanced are certainly good example of the way that a virtual world trying to portray the physical world could be a useful thing for training of people in various disciplines. Another potential positive impact of video game exposure for young people are the problem solving skills that are developed by playing video games. The structure of video games themselves is one that encourages children to follow the rules, but to also think outside the box and try new and unique ways to solve the problems being presented by the video game. Ultimately, this is a good way of developing a skill set that will be applicable in a number of different scenarios—being presented with a complex, sometimes ambiguous problem that requires you to “figure it out”, with your actions being limited by a certain framework of rules and criteria. This helps children to develop more “soft” skills that enhance creativity. In an age where many human jobs are at risk for automation due to the improving capabilities of robots, the ability to solve problems effectively, and in a creative way, will be sought after, and this is something that see real improvement from video game use. In a study done on Singaporean school children, “those who spent the longest playing games which involved helping others were more likely to help, share, co-operate, and empathise with others” (The Economist, 1). 

In addition to the above, another way in which video game exposure can be beneficial to young people (or people of all ages) can be in language acquisition. A study published in Education showed that “game developers and researchers have started to investigate video games’ impact on kids’ English language learning…with studies finding that video games use enhances alphabet recognition, concept learning, pre-language knowledge…” (Al Shaiji, 4). The study notes that in a day and age where our society is becoming more globalized and where second language acquisition is becoming a necessity rather than a peculiarity, the effective use of video games in educating a society in a second (or third, fourth, etc.) language on a mass scale will only continue to increase. This will be done due to the above-mentioned effectiveness, as well as the fact that in general, video games are a far more cost-effective way to conduct this type of mass education. For instance, a country wanting to educate its population in English could embark on a program hiring thousands of well-qualified teachers that would go out and teach the population, or it could hire a handful of computer engineers to develop a really nice app tailored for the needs of the local population. Ultimately, the latter option will be a lot more cost effective, and if it’s done correctly, it can also be more effective overall on learning. If video games are to maintain their popularity and go above and beyond the markets that they’ve historically performed well in, it will be important to develop video games that are effective at teaching skills, while also being fun and enjoyable to play. As a Ted Talk by Daphne Bavelier noted, the trick for video games will be to create a product that has all the nice taste of chocolate, but also all the nutritional values of broccoli. In this way, video games can do quite a lot to benefit society and to teach people at scale. 

Similar self-improvement benefits that could be realized at scale from the use of video games include things like exercise. A large number of video game systems and other electronics have been released in recent years with the goal being to encourage people to exercise more. These have included Wii Sports Heart Rate, Wii Fit, and Wii Play, with these all being able to not only encourage people to exercise, but also to monitor this. In this way, video games will soon be able to, for example, tell people if they are doing an exercise incorrectly, due to the fact that they would have sensors on the person’s body measuring their movements. Beyond this, the system could measure a person’s heart rate to tell them if they have an unhealthily high or low heart rate, and can gather a whole host of other data that can be used to help optimize people’s activities, and the game itself. Considering this, despite the fact that video games are a fairly mature industry, there is the real potential for a “renaissance” in video games in the near future, with this being brought on by the ability for companies to collect data on the players’ physical activity and analyze this data. Further to this, the achievement nature of things in video games can help children to develop a better sense of self-esteem, and allow them to achieve greater things by having more self-confidence (Searing, 2). 

Despite all the positive impacts that video games can have, there is quite a lot of negative press about the impact of video games, with much of this negative press being generally fair criticism. The main criticism of video games tends to refer to the idea that playing violent video games can desensitize children to violence, thus making them more likely to commit violent acts, and that video games can impact a child’s attention span and their ability to function in a normal society, but there are other, broader concerns about the impact of the constant exposure to video games and smart phones. Chelsea Clinton—daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton—and James P Steyer wrote an essay recently for CNN discussing the impact that video games have had on children. She notes that “at 5, more than 50% of kids regularly interact with a computer or tablet device, and by 7 or 8, many kids regularly play video game. the fact is, by middle school, our kids today are spending more time with media than with their parents or teachers, and the challenges are vast” (Clinton, 1). The challenges that Clinton notes include the hypersexualization of female characters in video games, which many people would say encourages sexism and objectification of women. Beyond this, there are potential challenges that are yet to be fully understood. While Clinton’s essay acknowledges the findings of some of the studies mentioned above—namely studies that have shown that video games can have a positive impact on children—she also notes that the impact of “technology on kids’ social, emotional, and cognitive development is only beginning to be studied” (Clinton, 2), with most of the early studies being negative, but some also being positive.  

Another perspective that people who think that video games have a negative impact on children would frequently take is the idea that violent video games can sensationalize violence, and cause people who play these games to become used to the concept of committing horrible acts of violence. In the United States, over 98 percent of pediatricians believe that “excessive violent media exposure has a negative effect on childhood aggression” (Anderson and Warburton, 61). Not only do video games expose the players to the ability to commit violent acts, but perhaps most importantly, in a number of video games, these violent acts are not even bad, but rather, can earn the player rewards, points, etc. These are not only limited to games where the player is meant to be the “good guy”, like in the aforementioned Call of Duty, whereby the player is meant to be a soldier. In some violent video games, the player is meant to be a “bad guy”, that is, a thief, gangster, or other member of the criminal underworld. The most noteworthy game of this type is the highly controversial Grand Theft Auto series of video games. In these games, the player oftentimes plays the role of a low-level criminal who is trying to work his way up within the organized crime world of the city in which the game takes place. Clearly, in an instance such as this, the player is being rewarded for doing things that help the character advance up the organized crime ladder, with many of these things being violent or illegal (Anderson and Warburton, 64). T

The study by Anderson and Warburton, as well as other studies talking about the potential negative side effects of video games, tend to emphasize that video games are most likely to have negative consequences if they are either played too much, or if they have themes or actions that themselves are violent or negative. Children who play video games much more often than the average child are known to be more likely to show aggressive behavior (Norcia, 1). These studies tend to recognize the potential for video games to improve society in a number of different ways, but that it is important to have people—especially children—learn to use video games in a responsible way, and to learn the difference between video games and real life in terms of what is and is not acceptable behavior, and the consequences for children when they conduct behavior that is deemed unacceptable. Beyond this, it can certainly be helpful—and good for society—to have parents play video games with their children so that the parents can better understand what their kids are being exposed to.

The world that we live in today is becoming increasingly digitized, and we are continuing to expose ourselves and our children to more and more video games and other digital content, including smart phones and eventually, virtual reality. Children today are in some instances spending more time around media and video games than they are around their parents and friends, and this has had a profound impact on not only the “best” way to raise children, but also the way that children have developed. As more and more Generation X and Y kids—who have spent much if not all of their lives around video games—become adults, our society will be increasingly full of people who have significant exposure to video games, and who are aware of how to play them. This could lead to one of two things. As noted in a number of studies above, these tech-savvy, video-game friendly adults could use video games to continuously educate themselves and ensure that they are capable of learning new skills well into old age, with huge benefit coming to society. The reverse scenario would be if these adults were to have learned too much from the violent tendencies of video games, with this leading to an increase in societal violence. Only time will tell the outcome, and it is likely to remain somewhere in between, but the end result is clear—we need to ensure that video games are used responsibly in order to get the best use out of them for society as a whole. 
