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Lovella Santos

Instructor Judith McCann

English 1301.127

01 December 2021

The Dangers of Gaming: A Rhetorical Analysis

Children used to enjoy their youth by playing outside, but as video gaming was brought

into the globe, children gradually lost interest in the outside world and began to play video

games instead. Video games have been a part of the globe "since 1952, when professor A.S.

Douglas invented the OXO, better known as Tic-Tac-Toe," according to History (The Early

Days). Children nowadays waste time playing computer games and disregard the relevance of

their everyday life. In an article titled "Computer Game Addiction and Loneliness in Children,"

Hülya KK EREN and Özlem ÖRSAL employ ethos, logos, and pathos to convince their audience

by providing evidence that shows gaming is not beneficial for children of a specific age.

To begin with, gaming has evolved throughout the years and so do children and not for

the better. Nowadays, games are all about violence win which it affects the social development

of children causing them to be physically and mentally unhealthy. According to Hülya KÖK

EREN and Özlem ÖRSAL, “the social development of the children, who widely use the internet

and spend this time with computer games, has slowed significantly, the self-confidence of these

children is low, whereas their social anxiety level and aggression behavior were found to be

high” (1504). In other words, children who play video games to an extent are affected with

anxiety, depression, become violent and more. It is evident that Hülya KÖK EREN and Özlem

ÖRSAL are using pathos and logos as their main rhetorical appeal to persuade and overall show

the audience that the children who play video games have a high risk of getting depression,
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anxiety and other mental illnesses. Mentioning these mental health disorders trigger the emotions

of the audience to feel empathy towards the children who play video games for an extended

amount of time.

Furthermore, Hülya KÖK EREN and Özlem ÖRSAL conduct their research on gaming

addiction and loneliness within families in children. For example, on pages 1506-1507 there are

two tables in which they show Hülya KÖK EREN and Özlem ÖRSAL’s research. These tables

illustrate the children which the research was conducted on, by showing their suffrage from

game addiction and loneliness amongst families. In the first table on page 1506, both male and

female children revealed similar personal information in which it showed the percentages of

loneliness within their families. This feeling of loneliness was caused by the absences of their

family members which resorted to their escape to gaming. On the second table it is seen the

number of hours that were played, the number of hours slept, the emotions felt when restricted

from gaming, and lastly difficult encounters. The data shown in the second table shows the

dangerous outcomes that children can experience if they play too many video games. The two

tables help the authors’ article by letting them see the records that were taken as well as observe

if games do or do not affect kids. It will also help their audience have a deeper understanding

about gaming addiction and loneliness in families by using logos and pathos as their main

rhetorical appeal.

As mentioned before, both tables provide evidence in which the results show that males

have a higher negative effect towards gaming than females. According to Hülya KÖK EREN and

Özlem ÖRSAL, the “outcomes of our study, performed to determine the level of computer game

addiction and loneliness among children, computer game addiction scores for the males are

higher than females” (1508). As stated by Hülya KÖK EREN and Özlem ÖRSAL, “The average
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score that males obtained from loneliness scale were greater than females” (1507). Both Hülya

KÖK EREN and Özlem ÖRSAL use logos as their main rhetorical appeal to persuade and show

their audience their results in which they both found out that male children have a higher risk on

game addiction and loneliness within their families than female children. In these two quotes

Hülya KÖK EREN and Özlem ÖRSAL use logos and ethos to show their audience the results

that were found based on their research by showing them that gaming does affect kids specially

males. Making the audience feel concerned for these children since they are suffering from

addiction and mental illnesses.

"Our study indicated a substantial association between students' game addiction and

loneliness, in other words, when game addiction develops, loneliness increases," Hülya KK

EREN and Zlem RSAL write in their conclusion to "Computer Game Addiction and Loneliness

in Children" (1509). Meaning that when children play video games, they get lonelier, and in

order to intervene in children's gaming addiction, a solution must be devised to address these

difficulties. Children can attend "a rehabilitation treatment among school-hospital-family for

abnormal instances" (1509), as mentioned in their conclusion, to cease any hazardous behavior

produced by gaming. Hülya KK EREN and Zlem RSAL employ logos, ethos, and pathos as

rhetorical appeals in both statements, demonstrating that their study was successful while also

proposing a remedy for children who suffer from gaming addiction and loneliness in their

homes. In conclusion, gaming is played form all ages from adults to teenagers to kids, but

playing to much video games can cause to not be active and create unhealthy habits such as

depression, anxiety, aggressiveness, social development issues and loneliness. And so Hülya

KÖK EREN and Özlem ÖRSAL use ethos, pathos, and logos in their article titled “Computer

Gaming and Loneliness in Children” to effectively show their audience that gaming can be bad
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for children on certain ages. Both Hülya KÖK EREN and Özlem ÖRSAL are not against

children playing video games, but by their research they recommend for children who are young

to not play video games due to the fact that they can be affected with mental and physical health

issues.

Work Cited

History.com Editors. “Video Game History.” HISTORY, A&E Television Networks, 21 Aug.

2018, www.history.com/topics/inventions/history-of-video-games . Accessed 29 Oct.

2021.

Hülya KÖK EREN, and Özlem ÖRSAL. "Computer Game Addiction and Loneliness in

Children." Iranian Journal of Public Health, vol. 47, no. 10, 2018, pp. 1504-1510.

ProQuest, https://tamiu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-

journals/computer-game-addiction-loneliness-children/docview/2351545070/se-2 .

Accessed 27 Oct.