Old People Who Play Video Games Are Happier, Higher Functioning Than Non-Gaming Peers

 I have an example of this article how video games are not always bad and there are good things about them and how they can distract you in a good way."Want to prevent yourself from becoming depressed as you get older? Keeping your video game habit going may be a good first step. A study released this week in the journal Computers in Human Behavior suggests that elderly people who play video games — even just occasionally — are more social, better adjusted, and less likely to be depressed than their non-gaming peers.

The study by researchers at North Carolina State University followed 140 seniors who lived on their own. A rather high-seeming 61% of the participants reported that they played video games at least once in a while, and surveys of the two groups — regular or occasional gamers and non-gamers — found that those who worked a little bit of electronic entertainment into their lives averaged experienced higher levels of well-being and reported depression less often than their peers who never played.

While the study suggests a link between higher levels of happiness and satisfaction and playing video games, it’s not clear exactly what that link is, and whether playing video games can directly result in people being happier and more satisfied with their lives remains an open question. Says Dr. Jason Allaire, who led the NCSU study:"

What Science Knows About Video Games and Violence

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/what-science-knows-about-video-games-and-violence/

        The article "What Science Knows About Video Games and Violence" by Brandon Keim is about what we know about video games and what can we do to prevent in masscares from people who get brain damaged by violent video games. Here's an example," Psychologists aren't sure exactly how video games affect violence, but many are convinced there's a link." However they talk about the killing of the newtown connitcut. "Given that first-person shooters represent a $5 billion market, played by millions of people every day, it’s a scary possibility, and one pushed into the national discussion soon after it was reported that Adam Lanza, who killed 26 people in Newtown, Connecticut, was an avid Call of Duty player. Also disturbing, however, is the possibility that first-person shooters don’t influence real-world violence and are less a genuine suspect than a convenient scapegoat. After all, it’s easier to talk about fake blood than real behavior. This shows that the problem that this guy had was that his brained was too damaged and addicted from video games. I even play the call of duty games but I'm not addicted to them. Another example that there is " at least not of the quantitative, immediately useful variety. Some researchers argue that video games like first-person shooters indeed influence violent behavior—not causing it in some simple, linear way, but making it more likely to occur. Other researchers say this link doesn’t exist. Still others say it might, but it’s impossible to say right now.  What’s possible to know scientifically quickly gives way to uncertainty and intuition.

How Might Video Games Be Good for Us?

https://www.bigquestionsonline.com/content/how-might-video-games-be-good-us

       In the article How Might Video Games Be Good for Us? by Jane McGonigal, there's a question asked, "Is gameplay good for us? It’s a question I hear daily from gamers –as well as from their parents, teachers, doctors, therapists, and pastors". In my opinion I believe some video games can be good for you and some are just way too much it also depends on the age because it's also parents fault that there kids are too young to play shooting and violent games and the parents do not care about it they just still let there kids play these violent games and thats why there massacres like the killings that happened in new town Connecticut which impacted a lot of people. Another example in the article is says how many hours we spend on video games daily,"we now spend more than one billion hours every single day playing videogames – a total that’s up more than 50% from just three years ago. Meanwhile, the average young person racks up 10,000 hours playing videogames by the age of twenty-one. (By comparison, they will spend just 10,084 hours in the classroom throughout all of middle school and high school combined.)" Thats incredible on how many one person spends on just video games.

Interview

        Today I have interviewed an expert in video games in Point Loma High School and I asked him his opinion in video games and what he thinks about them if they are good or bad. He stated that "he believes that video games is all about time management and how you manage your time while playing video games can give you joy and create a happy feeling but can also help you fall behind in your future if you play to much you might fall behind in classes and that can affect you socially. I asked Felix about if how video games can affect are future in a good way he said "Video games can very well affect are future as people also make careers out of playing video games like people play in tournaments for call of duty for over millions of dollars and people live stream it and put game play on you tube and they get paid for doing this".I also asked him if video can affect your mentality and can you make you do crazy stuff he said "It can affect your mentality but not to they point where you go insane cause it can be very addicting and blind your way of what your doing and its personally all i think it is about time management and if you over play it you can really affect your mentality and your physical state while playing video games". Overall he stated that "Video games are not based off of the game itself in my own opinion its about the person and how he responds to playing the game itself".

Are Video Games Truly Bad for Kids’ Health?

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/are_video_games_truly_bad_for_kids_health

     The article "Are Video Games Truly Bad for Kids’ Health?" by Neha John-Henderson is talking about if video games can be really bad for us. In the article it states that it's video games fault that little kids get fat, lazy, violent, and withdrawn, among other social ills. Which I believe it's true and I agree with that statement 100%. In the article there're talking abut how they did a survey on more than four thousand public high school students in Connecticut. They did that survey to find information on how video games affect these kids. They found out that it was like a drug to them. An addiction to video games is like an addiction to drugs and it's hard to recover from. I can talk from experience because I used to be on my xbox 24/7 non stop play all day everyday I was addicted to it and I didn't even know till I lost friends and people that I loved. That's when I opened my eyes and got rid of the video games and started my life again. In the article they had a different survey where it shows how problematic gamers. For example "The survey results show that problematic gamers are much more likely to smoke cigarettes, be aggressive, and show symptoms of being depressed. Interestingly, problematic gaming was not linked to a student’s grades, extracurricular activities, or the use of drugs and alcohol. " Which this shows that problematic gamers don't do drugs which is the good part.

Video Games Can Actually Be Good for Kids

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-hansen-shaevitz/video-games-good-kids_b_1974015.html

Todays article is about if Video Games Can Actually Be Good for Kids. According to ane McGonigal, a woman who received her Ph.D. in game research from the University of California, Berkeley. She said that the simplest games that are there were a waste of time and no need to have them because they weren't useful. Well it turns out to be that she was wrong, here's an example," Author of The New York Times best-seller, Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, McGonigal began her talk by saying that there are 500 million active gamers in the world right now and by the time they reach the age of 21, each one of them will have spent 10,000 hours playing video games, 10,000 hours might sound like a familiar statistic; remember what Malcolm Gladwell said in Outliers about how individuals can become virtuosos in just about anything from sports to science by putting in that much time?." Also, in the article is says that 95% of American kids boys and girls alike the age of 20 play video games. That's a lot and I agree with him because even I did and my brothers do to.

Who plays video games?

http://vidthru.com/TeamPages/gamergyrl/2011/06/08/who-plays-video-games-the-numbers-might-surprise-you/
       Todays article is about who plays video games in reality from little kids to teens to adults. Today you will find out and be surprised by how many people play and who are the people that play. In the article it says " It notes that 72 percent of American households now play video games, and 82 percent of gamers are adults. Even more interesting than those numbers is the fact that 42 percent of gamers are now women! A third of the gaming population is made up of women aged 18 and up." Which is quite surprising because basically i thought only teens played video games but after seeing this im surprised of how many adults play video games online. Also the reason why might there might be so many adults playing video games is because they have tournaments were they play and the winner goes away with thousands of dollars. Also in the article it says "Think that playing video games makes people anti-social? Think again. The report says that 65 percent of gamers not only play with other gamers but play them together in person." Basically what its saying is that dont think about only one thing because you could be wrong because there are many things to that answer.