Whether dad and mom like it or not, video games have proven to be significantly important in the lives of many teenagers. The reputation of video games has sparked an ongoing public debate regarding the effect of video games on adolescent behavior. Much of the focus of this debate has been on the negative outcomes of video games related to addiction, aggression, delinquent behavior (APA.Org), and decreased tutorial performance. The controversy surrounding this debate calls for an in-depth discussion to investigate whether or not video games influence adolescents. Let us therefore try to identify the positive and negative effects of video games. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Contrary to popular belief, most published research has shown that playing video games does not have a negative effect on teenagers. Christopher Ferguson and Cheryl Olson in their study concluded that playing video games does not increase behavioral aggression and social violence among adolescents. In fact, their findings show that video games have a "moderate calming and cathartic effect on young adults with pre-existing intellectual health problems such as attention deficit or depressive symptoms." Regarding the influence on social aspects, Dr. Olson says that playing video games is a social movement, as teenagers will likely play video games with a group of friends or on the web. Additionally, some studies show that computer games are a stepping stone to enhance learning and activity to improve visual/spatial skills. Computer games have also been used to demonstrate self-care, improve physical abilities, and help psychologically. Although most research conducted in this field has focused on action games, recent studies show that different types of video games can also improve some cognitive functions. In particular, while action video games force you to quickly think about some distinct elements on the earth and expect players to react quickly to avoid losing, another type of computer games, real-time strategy (RTS), places emphasis on maintenance. multiple things at once Using a procedure like those used in RTS game exams Glass, Maddox, and Love (2013) demonstrated that forty hours of preparation on an RTS game produced a large increase in cognitive flexibility (including task switching and memory work). Because video games make such enormous improvements in primary processing capabilities, researchers have sought to use these video games for realistic applications, for example to retrain people with amblyopia (called "lazy eye"). Amblyopia usually develops from vision problems during early adolescence (for example, from strabismus where the two eyes are not well aligned) or from cataracts (where the lens of one eye becomes cloudy). Because the brain expects the eyes to collect constant data, while one eye does not, the mind essentially learns to "forget" the terrible eye's input. Severely, "ophthalmologists usually consider this typically irreversible after a critical factor at some stage in early childhood" given that action play has been proven effective in improving vision in normal adults, doctors and colleagues have tested the same type of training in adults suffering from amblyopia. The researchers instructed the suffering patients who had before the testa bad eye to play either an action game or another game genre for 40 hours with their bad eye and with a patch worn over their better eye. At various points in the training, subjects completed numerous tests of visual controls such as measures of visible accuracy, visible attention, and stereoacuity. Visible accuracy for testers within the action game group improved dramatically – some of their eyes became completely normal back to 20/20 or better! To decide whether the consequences were due to the eye patch better, every other tester organization wore an eye patch while engaged in activities that included reading, knitting, and watching television. however, after twenty hours of using the patch, no improvement in the accuracy of this research was found, demonstrating that the benefits were definitely due to the effect of video games within the cognitive domain, video games have become a powerful way to prevent cognitive problems. decline seen with normal aging and perhaps also to reduce the chances of Alzheimer's and similar disorders by ensuring players remain mentally healthy. Many studies show that online gaming could have a fantastic effect on older adults. playing a personalized online action game can improve skills along with information processing and attention span. A group of people aged between 60 and 85 participated in multitasking and cognitive activities. They performed better than those who had never played. Online gaming training studies have documented improvements with "older adults able to develop perceptual, alert and cognitive skills." All studies show that older contributors also had better self-concept and cognitive improvements following online gaming education. It also appears that children with dyslexia benefit from video game training for action. While researchers typically view dyslexia (an umbrella term for age-inappropriate reading ability not explained by underlying intelligence problems) as exclusively related to language-specific problems. Recent studies suggest that some of the deficiencies may relate to visual attention, at least in some children (because vision is essentially the "front end" that provides information to the language system during reading). A recent study compared the reading, phonology, and attention skills of two matched groups of dyslexics after training with an action or non-action video game for twelve hours. Action game training produced improvements over the non-action game control group for all skills measured. These improvements Please note: This is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Video games have evolved over the last half century into effective learning tools. In addition to promoting an incredible amount of time spent on activities, games also use a number of techniques known to promote effective and transferable learning. While some researchers express concern about the potential negative outcomes of gaming, others clearly see that training in video games creates a large number of positive outcomes. A growing body of research shows that certain types of games, particularly action video games, promote improvements in a wide variety of perceptual, attentional, and cognitive skills. These improvements are of the same scope and scale used for such games. For a variety of practical applications ready to use. Today's video games are much more.