Eighth Grade Extended Response Practice

Transcription

1 Eighth Grade Extended Response Pratie Can too many video games make your teenager depressed? Jae C. Hong/Assoiated Press There s been a lot of buzz about whether video games are habit-forming, and whether parents are exaggerating when they say their teenagers are addited to game playing. Now new researh on hildren who are heavy gamers suggests parents may have something else to worry about: depression. Two reent studies of gamers are among the first to follow large groups of teenagers over time to assess their mental health and how muh time they spend playing video games. Their gaming habits were assessed at the start of the study period, and the researhers then followed them for a year or two to see how they were faring. The results are disouraging. The latest study, published Monday in the journal Pediatris, followed 3,000 students in the third, fourth, seventh and eighth grades in Singapore. Children who were more impulsive and less omfortable with other hildren spent more time playing video games, the study found. Two years later, these heavy gamers, who played an average of 31 hours a week, ompared with 19 hours a week for other students, were more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and soial phobias. They were also more likely to see their grades in shool drop and have worse relationships with their parents. Prepared for: Maha Ghanem (maha.ghanem@readingandwritingprojet.om) Copyright 2015 Reading and Writing Projet. Page 1 of 5 The findings ome on the heels of another study, released last fall, that followed more than 1,000 healthy Chinese teenagers ages 13 to 18. Those who used the Internet exessively were more than twie as likely as the others to be depressed nine months later; most of the Internet use was for video games, the researhers said. That study was published in The Arhives of Pediatri & Adolesent Mediine. Even before the latest study was released, offiials with the Entertainment Software Assoiation, whih represents ompanies that sell interative video games, attaked it. They noted that there is no lear onsensus on what defines pathologial gaming or agreement on whether gaming an really be onsidered additive. The assoiation is hallenging a state law passed in California in 2005 that bars the sales of violent video games to minors (the ase was heard by the United States Supreme Court last year). They have also questioned earlier studies by the researher, Douglas A. Gentile. But Dr. Gentile, an assoiate professor of psyhology at Iowa State University, says his latest results don t prove that playing video games auses depression. Rather, he says, in young people a range of mental health problems and what he alls pathologial gaming may develop in tandem, muh as illnesses like the flu and pneumonia an set off one another and lead to new problems.

2 You an get the flu, and then get pneumonia, whih is a different thing, but it kind of ame along with the flu, and flu made you at greater risk for it, Dr. Gentile said. And then, one you got the pneumonia, you re at risk from something else. He says his study shows a ertain hronologial progression: Young people who were more impulsive, more soially inept and less empatheti to begin with were more likely to beome exessive video game players. Then, one they beame what he terms pathologial gamers, their grades were more likely to drop, and their relationships with their parents deteriorated. Two years later, they were more likely to suffer from depression, soial phobias and anxiety than those who played video games less often. In the study, the few heavy gamers who stopped playing so muh tended to show fewer symptoms of depression Dr. Gentile suggested that teenagers who are experiening problems may retreat into gaming, and that the gaming may, in turn, inrease their depression and isolation. He says that parents should regulate their hildren s use of video games and trust their instints on what onstitutes exessive use, something that his ritis from the gaming industry also agree on. We ve always said these games should be used in moderation and should be a part of a well-rounded lifestyle, along with going outside to play, and reading, and doing shoolwork, said Dan Hewitt, a spokesman for the Entertainment Software Assoiation. Many teenagers experiene mental health problems and an benefit from psyhologial or medial help, Mr. Hewitt said, but added, Why point out their game playing? Prepared for: Maha Ghanem (maha.ghanem@readingandwritingprojet.om) Copyright 2015 Reading and Writing Projet. Page 2 of 5 That s where Dr. Gentile disagrees. A gaming habit annot be ignored, he said. Few youths spontaneously drop the heavy gaming, and even if it s not the initial trigger for depression, he said, It looks like it s an independent ator, not just a symptom of something else.

3 By Kristin KalningGames editor msnb.om Prepared for: Maha Ghanem Copyright 2015 Reading and Writing Projet. Page 3 of 5 Can video games make kids more violent? A new study employing state-of-the-art brainsanning tehnology says that the answer may be yes. Researhers at the Indiana University Shool of Mediine say that brain sans of kids who played a violent video game showed an inrease in emotional arousal and a orresponding derease of ativity in brain areas involved in self-ontrol, inhibition and attention. Does this mean that your teenager will feel an unontrollable urge to go on a shooting rampage after playing Call of Duty? Vine Mathews, the prinipal investigator on the study, hesitates to make that leap. But he says he does think that the study should enourage parents to look more losely at the types of games their kids are playing. Based on our results, I think parents should be aware of the relationship between violent video-game playing and brain funtion. Mathews and his olleagues hose two ation games to inlude in their researh -- one violent the other not. The first game was the high-otane but non-violent raing game Need for Speed: Underground. The other was the ultra-violent first-person shooter Medal of Honor: Frontline. The team divided a group of 44 adolesents into two groups, and randomly assigned the kids to play one of the two games. Immediately after the play sessions, the hildren were given MRIs of their brains. The sans showed a negative effet on the brains of the teens who played Medal of Honor for 30 minutes. That same effet was not present in the kids who played Need for Speed. The only differene? Violent ontent. What s not lear is whether the ativity piked up by the MRIs indiates a lingering or worse, permanent effet on the kids brains. And it s also not known what effet longer play times might have. The sope of this study was 30 minutes of play, and one brain san per kid, although further researh is in the works. OK. But what about violent TV shows? Or violent films? Has anyone ever done a brain san of kids that have just wathed a violent movie?

4 Prepared for: Maha Ghanem Copyright 2015 Reading and Writing Projet. Page 4 of 5 Someone has. John P. Murray, a psyhology professor at Kansas State University, onduted a very similar experiment, employing the same tehnology used in Mathews study. His findings are similar. Kids in his study experiened inreased emotional arousal when wathing short lips from the boxing movie Roky IV. So, why is everyone piking on video games? Probably beause there s a muh smaller body of researh on video games. They just haven t been around as long as TV and movies, so the potential effets on hildren are a bigger unknown. That s a sary thing for a parent. Larry Ley, the diretor and oordinator of researh for the Center for Suessful Parenting, whih funded Mathews study, says the purpose of the researh was to help parents make informed deisions. There s enough data that learly indiates that [game violene] is a problem, he says. And it s not just a problem for kids with behavior disorders. But not everyone is onvined that this latest researh adds muh to the debate partiularly the game development ommunity. One suh naysayer is Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Assoiation. We've seen other studies in this field that have made dramati laims but turn out to be less persuasive when objetively analyzed. The ESA has a whole setion of its Web site dediated to the topi of video game violene, whih would suggest that they get asked about it a lot. And they ve got plenty of answers at the ready for the ritis who want to lay shool shootings or teen aggression at the feet of the game industry. Several studies ited by the ESA point to games potential benefits for developing deision-making skills or bettering reation times. Ley, however, argues suh studies aren t redible beause they were produed by hired guns funded by the multi-billion-dollar game industry. We re not trying to sell [parents] anything, he says. We don t have a produt. The video game industry does.

5 The mahine does not isolate us from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them." Antoine de Saint- Exupéry This quote, from author and pilot Antoine de Saint- Exupéry, disusses the impat of tehnology on humankind. Write an essay where you disuss how both artiles embody the spirit of the quote and whether or not you agree with his views on tehnology. In your essay, be sure to inlude: you analysis of the quote how the quote applies to both artiles whether or not you agree with the quote details from both artiles Prepared for: Maha Ghanem Copyright 2015 Reading and Writing Projet. Page 5 of 5