Hi guys! 馃挏
Here is the first sample of an essay that I will show you. This is a diagnosis essay that I made with my partner Chris for our written communication course. 馃槑馃摑
Honestly, this kind of essay was really difficult to understand, probably because we have never written an essay responding to an article.
I mean, this essay is not perfect, and writing it was an odyssey. 馃槄
Do you like video games? 馃幃 Well if you do I hope you enjoy reading this essay!
Outline
Thesis Statement: Playing video games
has its cons and pros, but it is not always related to violence; it could
have a different effect depending on the age and mental instability of people.
I.
Children
age
A.
Not
old enough to play specific games
1. Age restrictions
2.
Not attention from parents
B. Not the same mentality as adults
1. Everything
is real
2. Imitation
II.
Mental instability
A.
Video games affect people
with mental problems
1.
Recreate scenarios
2.
Reality and fiction
B.
More attention from parents to kid´s behavior
1.
Violent conduct
2. Video games allowed
Conclusion: Therefore, video
games are not always dangerous for players; it depends on certain factors like how
old is the person and his mental health.
Are video games
really linked to violence?
Currently, with all this digital world,
playing video games has become very popular among young people. Unfortunately, more
kids are starting to play aggressive games since they are pretty young. Most of
the time people associate video games that are considered violent with harmful
behavior. Probably this is because they usually think that all these games
always influence people's behavior in a really bad way. Actually, if a violent
event occurs in schools, colleges or even at homes, they usually relate it with
young video game players. For example, many years ago there was an accident in
a Columbine school. It was a sunny and peaceful day, but suddenly a student
pulled out a gun and started shooting. Most viewers said that it was likely
because of the influence of some video games. In part they are right, but not
everything about this is completely true. According to an article about video games,
there are many people playing violent video games like Halo and Counter-Strike,
but they have never killed a person (Scheffter, 2007, pag.162). Young people
used to play these games because it is a way of distracting themselves from their
own problems and literally to get away from the real world. Not all the games
are violent and there are many kinds of video games that people can use just to
get fun or even to learn about something.
In fact, playing video games has its cons and pros, but it is not
always related to violence; it could have a different effect depending on the
age and mental instability of people.
Playing video games is one of the favorite
hobbies for many children and young people, but it is very important to keep in
mind the appropriate age for such games. Actually, there are many people who
are not old enough to play specific games. Each game has an age rating and
without it, the video game cannot be launched on the market and sold as commonly
happens. For this reason, every single game that is sold in stores has certain
age restrictions. The objective of establishing these specific ages is to
protect children from violent contents. Unfortunately, most parents do not pay
enough attention to the restrictions and the kind of games that they buy for
their kids. Shaffler affirms the following “There are studies that look for
correlations between exposure of these games and real-world aggression. This
work suggests that kids who are more immersed in violent video games may be more
likely to get into physical fights, argue with teachers, or display anger and
hostility. (Schaffter, 2007)” Shaffler is right, but that is because the
studies to collect this information was done on children. Age is a very
important factor in this topic of violence and video games. Children just
imitate everything that they see because they do not know the gap that we as
mature people know. If children see a firefighter on TV they will want to be
that firefighter. It is the same for video games, no matter if they are violent
or not. Besides, it is relevant to take into account that children do not have
the same mentality as adults. During their childhood they are not conscious
of what is good or bad, so kids usually think that everything is right.
Also, as it was mentioned before at certain ages they tend to imitate
everything they see. Probably if they see violence from games since 5 to 7
years it will affect their behavior, but not because of this, every single
gamer is going to be aggressive. Children should not play these violent video
games because they do not process the same information as a mature person.
Children's age is really important when it
comes to playing violent video games, but the mental instability of a person is
relevant too. Video games can have a big impact on the behavior of people with
mental problems. They do not think and see things around them the same way
other people do. Regarding this aspect, some analysts say that people probably
use these games to escape from their difficulties and it can be useful
according to their mental condition (Scheffter, 2007, pag.162). People with
mental issues who play a huge amount of hours per day is a really worrying
situation. They could start thinking about recreating what it is shown in the
games. It means that they can commit really violent crimes in awful scenarios.
The main problem of people with this mental instability is that usually they do
not distinguish reality from fiction, so they should not play too many violent
games like other people do. In addition, parents who know that their kids are
mentally unstable should pay more attention to their children's behavior when
they are playing certain video games. For instance, if they were already
aggressive people, it can open the door to a more violent conduct. Like it was
said before not all games affect people in the same way or sometimes playing
games does not have an impact on them at all. Always remember to be really
careful about the video games that children with mental disorders are allowed
to play. Checking what they are playing and avoiding violent games as possible
could prevent future tragedies.
In conclusion,
children should not play these video games because they are very violent and
usually kids do not have the mental capacity to digest this kind of data. Parents
should always be aware of their children and to watch what kind of games they
are playing. Also, it is important that parents or any legal guardian of a
person with a mental disability remember to be always alert about the kind of
video games that their children can play because they do not see the world
around them in the same way as other kids. Unfortunately, violent games can
make their mental state worse, even if they are old enough to play these aggressive games. Many more studies are needed to determine if this kind of
video games are truly linked to cases of aggression in today's children. Because
there are many factors that influence these acts such as those mentioned above,
age, mental state, and others such as a history of family abuse. (Scheffter,
2007, pag.163). Therefore, video games are not always dangerous for players; it
depends on certain factors like how old the person is and his mental health.
