RRL

Foreign

Ahmadi (1998) Isfahan researchers looked on how computer games affect young people there. His
research’s objective was to determine whether video games have any social consequences. According to
the findings, pupils who played these games shown more anger and violence than those who did not.
Also, there was little social interaction among kids who were playing video games.

The first factor noticed in most studies as well as the present study is the disorder in general health of
players. Various studies show that playing too much computer games causes physical damages and
increases anxiety and depression in players. Many studies show that most adolescents who are addicted
to computer games have high heart beat and blood pressure due to too much excitement and stress.
Most of those who involve in these games do not notice the time passing and even forget to eat. It
seems that creating a cause and effect relationship between computer games and physical health or
more generally speaking, cause and effect relationship between addiction to computer games and
mental and physical health is simplification of the subject. There are various causes for correlation
between addiction to computer games and physical health, anxiety and depression. First, addiction to
computer games can cause disorder in physical health, increase anxiety and depression. Second, it is
possible that disorder in physical and mental health cause people to get attracted to computer games.
Third way is that both addiction to computer games and disorder in physical and mental health are
created due to the effects of other factors.

Considering associations between playing computer games and physical and mental disorders, the
negative effects of these games are basically related to the games and their nature. Therefore, some
computer games can be constructive, while others can have damaging effects on children’s body and
mind. Therefore, we should accept anyway that computer games like many other phenomenon of
technology age have found their way to our children’s and our lives. If we want to ignore them and
deprive our children playing them, we make them more eager to access them and if they cannot play
games at home, they will go to their friends, if they cannot play there, they will go to Internet café and
places they can find computer games.

On the other hand, if we want to leave our children on their own in this field, mental, psychological and
physical risks threat them. So, parents and authorities in cultural and educational fields should have
appropriate plans to provide proper involvement of children in these games and in this regards, we
should produce games which are based on our culture. Moreover, it is important to prevent import of
damaging and harmful games to the country, which is a responsibility of authorities. Also, serious
supervision on children’s involvement with computer is needed at home; especially their involvement
with computer games and parents should teach their children the proper culture of playing games. In
fact, one of main worries about computer games, considering their wide usage among adolescents is
that these games may create a more attractive environment compared to school works and interfere
with school and educational performance of children. It is obvious that if children spend all their time
out of school to computer games and neglects other activities which may be useful from the social
viewpoint or for their thinking, it will not be favorable. In addition, the newness of this phenomenon
demands lots of curiosities and researches. Investigating the negative effects of computer games on
educational achievement is recommended for further studies.

In spite of more than 20 years studies on computer and video games and their outcomes and effects in
the world, in Iran where a great portion of population is youth and adolescents and there is a significant
prevalence of computer games, there are few studies on this topic, which suggest the need for further
studies.

Ince an important part of social skills is acquired through playing games in childhood, nowadays, despite
improving technology, we can observe the advent of modern phenomenon in the children’s new game
world which is a milestone in the structure and content of the children’s games.Children and
adolescents in the current world are extremely affected by the mentioned games. And considering the
importance of computer games in the social life of this age range, computer games have inevitably
allocated the major part of socialization of children and adolescents to itself.4 The attractiveness of
computer games for children and adolescents have caused them to be more acceptable among other
playing instruments.For example, in a study performed by Griffiths et al (1998), adolescents were asked
to explain the advantage and disadvantage of computer games. In that study, individuals described their
eagerness to computer games as having fun, excitement and challenges. A few percentages of the
players mentioned the benefits of computer games as improving mental-dynamic skills. One third of the
subjects believed that the disadvantage of these games was due to game addiction.

Computer games represent the first digital media technology which is applied for socialization of a
generation in a large scale and often most of the teenagers in other countries are using these games.
But on the other hand, excessiveness in playing these games has caused some concerns about the
possible side-effects they have on the players. Major concerns about these games are due to two main
factors; first, the amount of time children spend and second, the nature of these games, particularly,
when children spend their time playing to compensate for ignoring other educational-social activities
and leisure time. They are potentially harmful, because computer games may be replaced by other
activities such as homework, free reading or exercising. It has been observed that children addicted to
computer games tend to play more and avoid social relationships. Recent studies indicated the
significant statistics about the excessive use and addiction to games. However, the figures are various;
for example, in the United State, one out of 10 is addicted to computer games. They may also be used as
means to satisfy psychological needs of players who play games in an excessive way. As Wan and Chiou
mentioned in their study, these needs are mentioned as need for fun, entertainment and recreation,
overcoming psychological mechanisms, running away from reality, mutual social interactions, need for
arousal and competition and need for feeling powerful expressions10, like those who seek computer
games in order to satisfy their social interaction because they would experience anxiety and distress
facing the real world’s social situations. The players may practically prefer all the social interactions and
relations occurring in the virtual environment to the real world, and they provide the need for stabilizing
the social situation and sense of belonging through interaction with other playmates in the game.
Moreover, recent studies showed that excessive use of computer games (more than 20 hours a week)
would lead to negative impact on health, negative moods, depressive syndrome and weak social
interactions.

On the whole, currently, by progressing mass media and electronic entertainment we are facing one of
its aspects which is computer games; besides, the premier and main users are children and teens.
Therefore, we are all aware that adolescence is one of the most sensitive, decisive and determinant
stages in human life. So, it is necessary to emphasize more on the effects and consequences of addiction
to computer games on children and adolescents and their world.