Does Gaming Cause Social Issues?
Or is It Just The Users?
By: Crystal Smith
What is my question/ argument?
All through growing up I was active, not only physically active but mentally as well. I would go all day at school, and then when the school day was done I would either have soccer, dance, mathletes, or gymnastics. When I wasn’t obligated to go to a practice or school, my free time was playing outside, or socializing my Barbie’s with my best friends Barbie’s. Even though I personally would choose playing with friends over staying at home, I still enjoyed a little Mario Go Kart competition on the Super Nintendo. The extent of my “gaming” was just that, playing a little car racing game or Donkey Kong, competition style, for maybe an hour then going outside to play. Isn’t this how everyone plays video games? I thought it was.
I met my husband when I had just turned 19 and I knew that like every 19 year old, he played video games. What I didn't know was the world of videogames that I knew, was a whole separate world to what he knew. He would tell me stories of him and his friends playing games for upwards to 24 hours straight. I was astonished! I couldn't believe that someone could sit and play a video game for that long. Thankfully, for the first two years of our relationship he was heavily involved in school, work, and of course courting the love of his life, so he was unable, due to time, to be a heavy gamer like he said he was in the past.
Of course as time went on he finished school, got a job, had much more free time on his hands. He soon got back into his gaming rituals. Shortly after realizing how much gaming he chose to do, I became intrigued to know if that was normal, so I asked. His response to me was that he was a “casual gamer”, someone who played on free time, I thought his 12 to 14 hours a day on the weekend, and 4 hours a night on the weekdays was excessive. I couldn't believe that there are those that do it more, until his best friend moved in with us. I proceeded to do more research on the matter and I found that there are people who would choose to play games rather than go out of the house, go to social gatherings, and even talk to someone about things other than gaming.
This worried me quite a bit, and even angered me. I am, if any of you know me, a social butterfly, and enjoy going to, and hosting functions. I was realizing that the more intense the gaming got, the less my husband enjoyed the functions, not to mention his best friend not even wanting to go due to his, what he called, shyness. Yet, I realized he was extremely not shy to other fellow gamers. I soon recognized that his choice to game throughout his day had an effect on how he socialized with others not via a computer screen. Choosing to be not social, or even neglecting human to human interaction brought me to my research, in which gaming makes it easier to become less sociable, or even worse, socially inept.
What is the Story of My Research?
When deciding on what my argumentative research paper was going to be on, I found myself constantly defending it. More than anything I found myself becoming extremely bias and completely stereotyping the gaming community. This is when I decided I was going to research completely unprejudiced to what I find. I realized was unable to write an argumentative paper that was geared to persuade an audience if I am completely closed minded. So I am writing about the process of my research, I want to show how and if I grew, not only as a researcher but as a person as well.
Throughout the duration of my research, I found many of the things that I already knew to be considered common knowledge. As I continued to utilize the database from the Lane Library, I discovered more in detail. I really sought to find surveys, studies, and more examples of how gaming promotes social isolation, which I did, yet I also found a multitude of surveys, case studies, and examples of how it does not.
Research Results- Anti Gaming
There are in many ways a stigma on gaming, and the effects that they have on children and teenagers. The social skills development of a child is a critical part of growing up. Social skill deficiency can lead to emotional, intellectual, and behavioral issues with high levels of anxiety or anger. Research has indicated that aggressive and other related behaviors have a negative effect on social skills. Animosity, which was found to be detrimental to social skills, was also a significant outcome of video gaming (Chiu et al.).
Some researchers believe that gaming is a large contributor to the interruption of daily life. As evidenced by John G. Messerly, 90 percent of college students surveyed knew other students or they themselves had their social or academic lives interrupted by video games, by which, were confined to their rooms for long periods of time, and did not respond to human interaction while playing. The alienation from RL, gamer talk for real life, human contact made social relationships more difficult to maintain, since they spend so much time glued to their computers (30). The gamer may then choose to interact with their virtual world friends more often than RL friends.
Virtual worlds are often called hyperrealities. According to Maria Frostling-Henningsson, “the hyperreal is a universe of simulation...If one transfers these theoretical notions to online gaming, it implies a construction of reality forms that have no referents in an objective reality, but instead are mediated in abstract reality.” There is an inclination within video gamers, to build, as well as live in the simulation, suggesting a willingness among gamers to live in the virtual worlds rather than the real or actual world (557). This hyperreality can take over someone’s actual reality, which in turn may cause isolation from the real world, an escape.
Escapism is, clearly, a motivating tool for some of the gamers. Several gamers that I spoke with mentioned that gaming online provided them with an opportunity to get away, to flee from their everyday problems. The gamers could enter a world that occupied their minds and at the same time give them a break from the anxieties that come with real life. This is in direct view with a recent study that shows escapism as one of the 10 motivating factors of playing online games, saying that some gamers were using the online environment to avoid thinking about real life problems (Graham). The fear in this is that the “escape” may seem to be much better than real life; that the gamer’s obvious choice is to continue to “live” in the virtual world, rather than the real world, causing them to alienate themselves to a life solely in the virtual world.
Aaron Smith, an avid gamer, also my husband and the purpose of this research, was readily available to answer questions on the subject of gaming and becoming too immersed in the game due to escapism. He used words such as “too absorbed” and “that involved” to express the risk he feels that playing games like World of Warcraft would imply. Staying in control is something that is very important for gamers (Graham). “I have seen warning signs among my gaming friends, that some of them have been too absorbed by the game. So they play constantly, because I do not have the time, the strength, or the energy to be that involved in a game, I have not decided to go that route.” For Aaron, gaming only gives him a valuable break from the obligations and duties of his everyday life: “You get some time to yourself, just as you women do going to the salon.” He does express his concerns showing that gaming can escalate from something so casual to an extreme addiction, yet he feels that it is not the game’s fault.
Research Results- Pro Gaming
Along with evidence showing that games encourage anti-social behaviors, the evidence of video gaming promotes pro-social actions are observed. A conducted survey of 1,100 young adults with ages ranging from 12 to 17, states that 65 percent of teenage gamers utilize their free time playing games with multiple people in the same room. The survey also observes the link between gaming and possible new game based social networks (Bailey). This survey shows the social effects of gaming in the teenage world, yet neglects to speak of the times when games are played alone.
Those that argue that today’s modern “gaming” encourage little to no face to face interaction, unlike games in the past (board games, card games), causing social isolation may not realize that gamers in this day in age, play and hold competitions with each other more than those in the past (Bliven and Abernathy). The bulk of people playing video games are playing MMOGs, or massively multiplayer online games, that bring an opportunity for social interaction. In the past, with online gaming, there would often be LAN parties that may have been held at convention centers, or even the convenience of the hometown high school auditorium (Greitemeyer and Osswald). LAN parties would bring out many different types of people who enjoyed playing games, and have never met; therefore, more social, and possibly creating their own social network.
Almost one quarter of participants in the study by Harris and Williams said that they play because their friends play, supporting the idea that video game play can be a social activity, or at least socially motivated. It is possible that games do aid social interaction because many require team play, and getting to know other players (Messerly).
It seems as though that there are many other benefits to playing video games other than possibly improving social skills. Other research proves that positive benefits from playing video games include enhanced problem solving skills, better communication skills, and team building skills (Lucas and Sherry). I know that because my husband plays video games, he has a steadier hand than I do, that helps him with his precise shooting abilities (first person shooter games).
Video games may provide more benefits than disadvantages. Because video games are so visually entertaining for children, the game developers are coming up with educational games. My niece who is 3 is already reading due to her Leap-Pad games, and her brothers are enjoying problem solving games on the X-Box. I am still unsure if this is enough to excuse the addictive behavior that it enables.
What is My Search Conclusion?
This research paper weighed heavily on my heart. I knew that with whatever I concluded, it will affect me for the rest of my life. With my husband being a gamer, our future children growing up to most likely enjoy video games, and to future self-proclaimed gamers that I meet, I needed to make sure that I saw what was on both sides of the fence. I started researching and finding out more about this issue due to a perfect example of it from my husband’s best friend, yet I needed to see if every “die hard” gamer was this way. After researching, reading, and looking through an open point of view, I can clearly see that yes, gaming can cause an issue. I use the word can solely on the fact that it can only cause an issue if YOU the consumer let it.
Everything can be addicting and cause social isolation if you let it; from reading, to quilting, if done in excess, can create an issue. As for the subject of only enjoying ones company if they too play games, well that again can be interpreted in many ways. Is it just common interest, or is it discrimination? I am unsure, but what I do know, is that I will never discriminate against gaming ever again.
How Did I Grow as a Person?
Seeing how I held some deep down hatred towards games, and yes this is true, I feel that learning more about the gaming world, and the psyche of a gamer, made me much more open minded and somewhat remorseful for some of the things that I have said to my husband. Once again, Sandy Jensen, my writing teacher, has helped and forced me to grow as well as reach out of my comfort zone. I don’t quite know what I am going to do differently in regards to promoting my husband’s extracurricular activity, or just letting it be, but what I do know, is that I am going to be much less of a nagging wife! :-)
**Disclaimer** I would like to really thank my husband for allowing something so personal to be brought out into the www. I love him deeply and thank him for his patience with me!
Works Cited
Bailey, Ronald. "Halo Health: Fit, Happy Gamers." Reason 1 Jan. 2009: 14. Print.
Bliven, Brooke, and Marin Abernethy. "Is Gaming Social Isolation?" FYSM-126: Game Changers. N.p., 19 Oct. 2010. Web. 04 Nov. 2012. <http://fysm-126.wp.trincoll.edu/2010/10/19/is-gaming-social-isolation/>.
Chiu, Shao-I, Jie-Zhi Lee, and Der-Hsiang Huang. "Video Game Addiction in Children and Teenagers in Taiwan." CyberPsychology & Behavior 7.5 (2004): 571-81. Print.
Frostling-Henningsson, Maria. "First-Person Shooter Games As A Way Of Connecting To People: “Brothers In Blood”." Cyberpsychology & Behavior 12.5 (2009557): 557-62. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
Graham, Richard. "Trends in Anxiety During Asolescence." Healthcare Counselling & Psychotherapy Journal 11.1 (2011): 14-18. Web. 09 Nov. 2012.
Greitemeyer, Tobias, and Silvia Osswald. "Playing Prosocial Video Games Increases the Accessibility of Prosocial Thoughts." The Journal of Social Psychology 151.2 (2011): 121-28. Print.
Harris, Mary B., and Randall Williams. "Video Games And School Performance." Education 105.3 (1985): 306. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Nov. 2012
Lucas, K. "Sex Differences in Video Game Play:: A Communication-Based Explanation."Communication Research 31.5 (2004): 499-523. Web. 21 Nov. 2012.
Messerly, John G. "How Computer Games Affect CS (and Other) Students' School Performance." Communications of the ACM 47.3 (2004): 29-31. EBSCOhost. Web. 22 Nov. 2012. <http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0f088d8f-b0de-4a2b-809a-8531052fb076%40sessionmgr13&vid=9&hid=20>.
Smith, Aaron. Personal Interview. 2012
