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Dominic Schenck

Dr. Cassel

ENG 1201

3/25/2021

How do video games affect the mental development of adolescents?

Adolescents across the world play video games for long periods of time every

day, and questions have been raised about how it affects the adolescents who play

them. Opponents of video games have raised the claim that video games hurt the

mental development of adolescents. On the other hand, supporters of video games

believe that they can be useful and beneficial to players, rather than a negative impact

on mental development in adolescents. Video games are said to impose negative

effects on the mental development of adolescents due to their mature and violent

content and the risk of addiction. However, the effects are not large enough to hurt the

development of adolescents significantly.

Opponents of video games have expressed concern with the effects that the

mature and violent content included in their gameplay, claiming it causes the

development of aggressive properties in adolescents. Popular titles today, such as “Call

of Duty” and “Grand Theft Auto,” are among many that present high amounts of violent

and mature content, such as fighting, drug use, cursing, and more. Adolescents who

play these mature titles have become “desensitized” to the crude content, meaning that

violence does not generate the emotional response in the brain that normal people

would generate when presented with the same visuals. Douglas A Gentile, Ph.D., who
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does research with the Dana Foundation, stated that adolescents who play high-

violence games experience more change in their rostral anterior cingulate cortex of their

brain than adolescents playing non-violent games, meaning the high-violence players

are less sensitized to the violence (Gentile). This desensitization is claimed to lead to a

promotion of aggressive behavior in the users of mature video games outside of just the

time they play the game. Promoting violent behavior and generating violent, immature

traits could be harmful for adolescents when building themselves for future opportunities

in their lives. The more acceptable that violence becomes to an adolescent as they

develop, the more likely they are to absorb violent development traits.

Playing video games affects the brain in many ways, with constant action filling

the screen that always requires the player to be ready to make a move. Video games

cause a high release of dopamine from the player’s brain. Dopamine causes the frontal

lobes of the brain, which controls the emotions and makes executive decisions on how
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to control them, to function at a lower rate. According to Amy Paturel, research has

shown that just short amounts of time spent in violent gameplay increased reactions in

the brain regions associated with emotions and mental states while slowing activity in

the frontal lobes. (Paturel). This loss of control in the frontal lobe region can cause

adolescents to act aggressively and out of character. If every day gameplay is

continued for hours at a time each day, the frontal lobes of the brain will only continue to

develop at a slow rate, which can greatly affect the control of behavior in adolescents as

they continue to grow. Without strong frontal lobe development, emotions may become

hard to regulate in the future as growth overtakes the declining rate of frontal lobe

development in the brain. Adolescents would be likely to have underdeveloped critical

aspects of the brain that are crucial to mental development which could result in mental

issues that could hinder real life important activities.

Video game addiction is highly common amongst adolescents and can be

damaging to their mental development. Video game addiction is characterized as a

need to play video games that distracts the player from everything else and harms them

significantly. Video game addiction is more common in the 10-14 age range of

adolescents than the older half of adolescents. The severity of addiction is attributed to

the time when the addiction begins to start. Adolescents who started heavily playing

video games in their elementary years could experience a significant addiction to video

games, to the point where they can become violent or anti-social without them.

Addiction to video games can be as severe as addictions to addictive drugs, such as

nicotine and cocaine. Addiction can cause adolescent’s brains to become distracted

from normal development routines and begin to develop unhealthy traits within the
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adolescent mentally. The development of these skills is important for adolescent

development because without them they cannot generate healthy habits and skills that

are essential in school and life.

Video game addiction can result in the development of antisocial behavior in

adolescents. Adolescents spend an average of up to 8 hours a day playing video

games. As they spend these long hours gaming, they begin to fail to maintain a balance

between their social life and their social life on the video game. Adolescents who have

become addicted to video games likely only find joy and happiness through these

games, which is the reason they spend so much time playing them. Developing

antisocial behaviors can be harmful to adolescents because it can result in the

development of depression and anxiety. The brain develops a dependency on the

positive reinforcement given to them by the game and cannot function unless it is on an

activity related directly to video games. Parents have attempted to set limits on the

amounts of play their children may have in a day, and the results were worse.

Adolescents become more anti-social as they play video games less, and the excess

time is spent in agony due to stress related to withdrawals from the game. Video game

addiction is an issue that affects many adolescents across the world.

The effects of video games on the mental development of adolescents are

existent, but the effects are not as dangerous and harmful as they are proposed to be. A

study in Singapore was conducted to test the credibility of the argument that aggression

is developed in adolescents due to the usage of video games. They sampled a large

portion of their youth and had them play violent video games, and once they were

finished the activity levels in their brains were measured. Most of the youth exemplified
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high amounts of brain reaction to the events in the video games. The results of the

experiment concluded that the current results have concluded that an increasing

amount of research questions whether aggressive video games are a credible source of

determining aggressive or passive behavior (Ferguson and Wang). These results are

comparative with other studies, which have concluded either the same thing, or have

found insufficient data to make a conclusion. This shows that the effects of video games

on adolescents may exist but may require unbelievable amounts of play time to truly

experience significant negative effects on development. The study also concluded that

any data found did not support the hypothesis that video games cause players to

develop immature or aggressive traits that affect them long-term.

Video game content has the potential to promote aggressive development in

adolescents, but the referred aggression is much more likely within 15-20 minutes of

playing the game, not a long-term aggression. It is scientifically unproven that playing

video games has ever developed someone into an aggressor or has promoted the

execution of a large-scale act of violence. Opponents of video games have accused

video games of being a cause of shootings and other large-scale terrorist acts. These

accusations have not seen any solid supporting evidence for it to rise, making these

accusations faulty and unbased. Committing violent acts in a video game has not

developed any severe aggression traits to the point where mass violence has been

committed. Playing video games within itself does not cause a person to develop into a

violent human being, but it can promote violent behaviors within the time of play.

Addiction to video games due to a dependency on it for joy and happiness is the root
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cause of aggressive behavior, not from simply playing the video game for a short

amount of time or on a healthy schedule.

Opponents of video games have proposed that the effects on mental

development are caused by all video games, whether they are non-violent or violent.

This is a false claim, because studies on the subject have concluded that aggressive

traits are developed only from the participation in violent gameplay. Playing non-violent

video games will promote the player to act with good regards while playing violent video

games can result in the opposite. Douglas A. Gentile, Ph.D., from Dana Foundation

talks about a study that took 161 college students, having half play a violent video game

and the other half play a non-violent video game. After playing, the students were asked

to harm or help another student. The results were that those who participated in

gameplay of violent games were often harmful to other students, where the ones who

had played the pro-social games were more likely to assist the students (Gentile). This

evidence shows that the effects of violent video games are violent, but only violent video

games will produce the violent development of adolescents at a dangerous level.

The concerns related to video games and their effect on mental development

within adolescents have been intensified when related to an adolescent who has ADHD,

or Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorder. Christine Mathews, an expert in psychology,

stated that the short-term reinforcement of positive behaviors given to players can be

the root of a serious addiction in adolescents with ADHD because “they may be more

strongly influenced by the reinforcement contingencies in video games than other

individuals” (Mathews). Due to the high loss of attention span, ADHD players may

become more susceptible to addiction due to their ability to become completely lost in
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the satisfaction produced by the game. The severities of ADHD within adolescents can

be used to predict the amount of addiction the adolescent can have towards certain

games. ADHD symptom severity is the root cause of how much an adolescent who has

ADHD will be affected and the severity of their problematic play if they allow their

playing habits to see a drastic decline.

The effects of video games on the mental development of adolescents can exist

and become negative for adolescents, but the possible benefits of video games on

mental development are hidden. Video games have been utilized to train people for jobs

and educate children. Video games can utilize positive reinforcement, which is the

continuous rewarding of the wanted behavior so that the behavior will continue.

Companies around the world have begun to implement video games designed to train

people to do the work their company requires (Paturel). Educational games have been

produced globally to help teach young children early concepts that they will learn in

school. Examples of activities in these games would be earning points and unlocking

new items or abilities for a character by solving simple math problems correctly at an

efficient rate. These games work so efficiently because they reward students for doing

well in school-based activities, and as they progress and play more, they develop

positive studying skills and avoid the negative effects that video games can have on

mental development.

Video games can have negative effects on the development of adolescents

through the risks of addiction and the presentation of mature and violent content.

Although the risks of playing video games for adolescents exist, it does not produce any

severe long-term effects and the overall effects are not as drastic as assumed and can
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be avoided or prevented. Video games and their effects on mental development still

require much more scientific study and testing to find more accurate information to

scientifically support the evidence. Video games would benefit if they were able to

suppress the negative effects they have on mental development and find new ways to

promote it instead.

Works Cited

Bezrutczyk, Destiny. “Video Game Addiction - Get Help Today.” Addiction Center, 25

Mar. 2021, www.addictioncenter.com/drugs/video-game-addiction/#search.

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Brilliant T, Denilson, et al. “Does Video Gaming Have Impacts on the Brain: Evidence

from a Systematic Review.” Brain Sciences, MDPI, 25 Sept. 2019,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6826942/.

Gentile, Douglas A. “Video Games Affect the Brain-for Better and Worse.” Dana

Foundation, Dana Foundation, 9 Sept. 2019, www.dana.org/article/video-games-

affect-the-brain-for-better-and-worse/.

Ferguson, Christopher J., and John C. K. Wang. “Aggressive Video Games Are Not a

Risk Factor for Future Aggression in Youth: A Longitudinal Study.” Journal of

Youth & Adolescence, vol. 48, no. 8, Aug. 2019, pp. 1439–1451. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1007/s10964-019-01069-0.

Gunter, Barrie. Does Playing Video Games Make Players More Violent?, 2016. Internet

resource.

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Oliveira, Crystian B., et al. “Effects of Active Video Games on Children and

Adolescents: A Systematic Review with Meta‐analysis.” Scandinavian Journal of

Medicine & Science in Sports, vol. 30, no. 1, Jan. 2020, pp. 4–12. EBSCOhost,

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Paturel, Amy. “Game Theory: The Effects of Video Games on the Brain.” Brain and Life

Magazine - Trusted by Neurologists, www.brainandlife.org/articles/how-do-video-games-

affect-the-developing-brains-of-children/.

Travaglino, Giovanni A., et al. “We Are All in This Together: The Role of Individuals’

Social Identities in Problematic Engagement with Video Games and the Internet.”

British Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 59, no. 2, Apr. 2020, pp. 522–548.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/bjso.12365.

“Why You Should BAN GAMING in YOUR Home; Today’s Video Games Are as

Addictive and as Damaging as Cocaine. Here, One Mother Explains Why She

Eradicated Them from Her Children’s Lives; The Adrenaline Triggered by

Gaming Has to Be Released Somehow - Usually through Anger; A Cycle of

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