Final Essay

Essay topic 2: The impact video games can have on the health of young people.

Video games have become very popular the last few years and the industry has increased enormously (ESA Entertainment Software Association 2011). The annual growth rate for the entertainment software industry was over 10 % from 2005 to 2009, and over $25 billion were spent on video games in the U.S in 2010 (2011). As much as 97 % of American youths between 12-17 years play some sort of electronic game (Lenhart, Kahne, Middaugh, Macgill, Evans & Vitak 2008). 31 % plays every day (2008). With such a large amount of players, video games naturally have a big impact on their lives. In my essay I will look at different opinions and thoughts surrounding the impact video games can have on the health of young people, in both negative and positive ways. In the end I will compare the two sides and see if games really have an adverse effect based on my research.

The concerns surrounding gaming and health risks started already in the 1980s (Funk 2005). The first concerns were physical problems like arm pain, headache and exhaustion (2005). Researchers like Provenzo (1991) soon connected video games to psychological problems.  There has been most research around violent video games (Barlett, Anderson & Swing 2009). The concept is that the player get rewarded and become successful if they hurt others (2009). If someone plays these kinds of games repeatedly over a long period of time, it may affect the player’s behaviour with increased arousal or aggressive thoughts or feelings (2009). Research done by Flemming and Rickwood (2001) indicated that children got noticeably higher heart rate and arousal after playing violent games, compared to nonviolent games or non-digital games. Carnagey and Anderson (2005) found that the player got more aggressive feelings when he got rewarded for violent acts, compared to when he got punished for hurting others.

Numerous methods have been used to prove that violent games lead to aggressive cognitions. With Anderson (2005, 2008, 2009) as one of the main resources, the research has shown that violent video games can activate more aggressive thoughts, anger and hostile attitudes than nonviolent games. Anderson, Sakamonto, Gentile, Ihori, Shibuya, Yukawa, Naito & Kobayashi (2008 p. 2) found that children who frequently played violent video games showed a more aggressive behaviour later on. The hostile conduct may lead to less prosocial behaviour when the affected player interacts with other children in real life (Barlett, Anderson & Swing 2009). 

Another concern is regarded to the question if video games reinforce gender stereotypes. Brenik, Henning, Killen, O’Connor and Collins (2007) points out that male characters often are presented as masculine and violent with big muscles, while the females looks like sexy sex symbols. Beasley and Standley (2002) did a research that revealed that most of the women in video games wear minimal clothing to show off their disproportionately, thin bodies with big breasts. Only one in four characters are female, and that can give an impression that women are less important, and that males are the dominant sex (2002). There were actually less female characters than there was indeterminate gender, consisting of characters like animals or aliens (2002). The sexualized and disproportionately women may also teach children wrong ideals and perception of the female body (Smith 2006).   

Even though violent video games can lead to negative outcomes, some suggest that playing video games can have positive effects on young people. The player can improve their learning, math, skills and vocabulary regardless of what kind of game they play (Barlett, Anderson & Swing 2009). Most of these types of games are non-violent (2009). Video games have many characteristics that indicate that they can be useful to educational purpose. First of all are they interactive (Ritterfeld and Weber 2006). Children learn better when they are active producers, can make their own decisions and their actions make a difference (2006). Interactivity is also important because you must understand your task and complete it correctly in order to continue (2006). You have to use the information you learn in practice straight away, and it’s therefore easier to remember the information better later on (Gee 2005).

Players often get the opportunity to customize the game to fit their own learning style and pace, and this way the game suits different types of people (Gee 2005). Video games are useful to learn problem solving and logic (Raise Smart Kid n.d.). They are built up so the different problems are related to each other and you always have to have an overview (Gee 2005). Children are motivated when they overcome difficult challenges that are frustrating, but doable (2005). Video games have complex challenges and various levels, and the players get motivated when they see that their effort and problem solving is paying off (2005). Playing games gives you better strategy thinking, spatial abilities and hand-eye coordination learning (Raise Smart Kid n.d.).

76% of all teens in America play video games with others and they often have to cooperate to achieve their goals (Lenhart et al. 2008). The kids learn to work together, listen to others and they can play with other people from all over the world (2008).

Today you have a lot of games that activate the children while they play like Dance Dance Revolution, Sony EyeToy and Nintendo Wii (Maddison, Mhurchu, Jull, Jiang, Prapavessis & Rodgers 2007). These games give the players a good work out, while they are having fun, and playing the game could be a possible new way to increase children’s physical activity (2007).

After analysing my material I have found that the research done on video gaming can be very narrow minded. It is not necessary one thing or the other that is correct, but everything has to be but in perspective. If children only play educational video games, they might only benefit from it. If youths only play violent games they may be negatively affected somehow, but they will also get the positive effects like strategy thinking and problem solving (Barlett, Anderson & Swing 2009). It also depends on how much of a heavy gamer you are.

Even though many players experience aggressive thoughts or feelings while playing violent games, these emotions can go away quite fast after they finish playing. As mentioned earlier video games sales have increased enormously the last five years, but statistics show that violent crime has actually decreased significantly (U.S. Department of Justice 2010). This shows that even though video games have a proved impact on young people, it might not be as noteworthy as many researchers believe. Based on my research my opinion is that the negative and positive effects of video games intertwine and balance each other, and varies from person to person, just like any other leisure activity.      

Reference list:

Anderson, C, Sakamonto, A, Gentile, D, Ihori, N, Shibuya, A, Yukawa, S, Naito, M & Kobayashi, K 2008, ‘Longitudinal Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression in Japan and the United States’, Pediatrics, Vol. 122, No. 5, pp. e1067 - e1072, viewed 11 October 2011, Pediatrics, DOI: 10.1542/peds.2008-1425.

Barlett C, Anderson, C & Swing, E 2009, ‘Video Game Effects - Confirmed, Suspected, and Speculative: A Review of the Evidence’, Simulation Gaming, vol. 40, nr. 3, pp. 377 – 403,

viewed 11 October 2011, Sage Publications, DOI: 10.1177/1046878108327539

Beasley, B & Standley, T 2002, ‘Shirts vs. Skins: Clothing as an Indicator of Gender Role Stereotyping in Video Games’, Mass Communication and Society, vol. 5, nr. 3, pp. 279-293, viewed 11 October 2011, Taylor & Francis Online, DOI: 10.1207/S15327825MCS0503_3

Brenik, A, Henning, A, Killen, M, O’Connor, A & Collins, M 2007, ‘Social Evaluations of Stereotypic Images in Video Games: Unfair, Legitimate, or “Just Entertainment”?’, Youth Society, vol. 38, nr. 4, pp. 395-419, viewed 13 October 2011, Sage Publications, DOI: 10.1177/0044118X06295988

Carnagey, N & Anderson, C 2005, ‘The effects of reward and punishment in violent video games on aggressive affect, cognition and behavior’, Psychological Science, vol. 16, no. 11, pp. 882-889, viewed 11 October 2011, Sage Publications, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01632.x

ESA Entertainment Software Association 2011, Industry facts, viewed 13 October 2011, <http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp>

Fleming, M & Rick Wood, D 2001, ‘Effects of Violent Versus Nonviolent Video Games on Children's Arousal, Aggressive Mood, and Positive Mood’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, vol. 31, nr. 10, pp. 2047–2071, viewed 13 October 2011, Wiley Online Library, DOI: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2001.tb00163.x.

Funk, J 2005, ‘Video Games’, Adolescent Medicine Clinics, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 395-411, viewed 11 October 20011, via ProQuest Database.

Lenhart, A, Kahne, J, Middaugh, E, Macgill, A, Evans, C & Vitak, J 2008, ‘Teens, Video Games, and Civics: Teen’s gaming experiences are diverse and include significant social interaction and civic engagement’, Pew Internet Project, viewed 12 October 2011, <http://www.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7BB0386CE3-8B29-4162-8098-E466FB856794%7D/PEW_DML_REPORT_080916.PDF>.

Maddison, R, Mhurchu, C, Jull, A, Jiang, Y, Prapavessis, H & Rodgers, A 2007, ‘Energy Expended Playing Video Console Games: An Opportunity to Increase Children’s Physical Activity?’, Pediatric Exercise Science, vol. 19, pp. 334-343, viewed 12 October 2011, <http://www.ehpl.uwo.ca/Publication%20PDFs/eGame%20Pediatric%20Exercise%20Science2007.pdf>.

Provenzo, E 1991, Video kids: Making sense of Nintendo, Cambridge, Harvard University Press.

Raise Smart Kid n.d., The Good and Bad Effects of Video Games , viewed 11 October 2011, <http://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/34-the-good-and-bad-effects-of-video-games>

Ritterfeld, U & Weber, R 2006, "Video Games for Entertainment and Education", in P Vorderer & J Bryant (eds), Playing Video Games: Motives, responses, and consequences, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, London, pp. 399-414.

Smith, S 2006, "Perps, Pimps, and Provocative Clothing: Examining Negative Content Patterns in Video Games", in P Vorderer & J Bryant (eds), Playing Video Games: Motives, responses, and consequences, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, London, pp. 57-76.

U.S. Department of Justice 2010 – Federal Bureu of Investigation, Crime in the United States 2009, viewed 14 October 2011, <http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/violent_crime/index.html>.

Essay progress

This article is about how video games promote gender stereotypes. I have never thought about that they do that before, and I found the research very interesting.

Beasley, B, Standley, T 2002, Shirts vs. Skins: Clothing as an Indicator of Gender Role Stereotyping in Video Games, Mass Communication and Society, <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S15327825MCS0503_3>

Essay progress

I found this journal article very useful. They have looked at many interesting theories and the reference they have used has given me a lot of new, important resources.

Barlett, C, Anderson, C & Swing, E 2009, Video Game Effects: Confirmed, Suspected, and Speculative : A Review of the Evidence, Simulating Gaming, http://sag.sagepub.com/content/40/3/377.short

Essay progress

I found this site that I found really informative and intereseting, but it's unfortunately not an academic source. I will however find it useful because now I know what I can search for when I look for scolary sources. I really liked that they enlightened me on the positive effects. Way too many sites only focus on the negative outcomes.

The site I found:
http://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/34-the-good-and-bad-effects-of-video-games

Tutorial task week 9

-This is the e-petition that I signed. I signed it because I love animals, and I don't want them to be hurt, even though they're dingoes.

- I responded to Blitzer's blog: Clinton on economy, GOP candidates on CNN.com. http://situationroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/20/blitzers-blog-clinton-on-economy-gop-candidates/?hpt=sr_mid, viewed 20 September 2011.

- Barack Obama is delivering a statement announcing his Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction, in the Rose Garden of the White House.

Source:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/09/19/president-obama-washington-has-live-within-its-means, viewed 20 September 2011.
I chose to reach Barack Obama through his twitter account.

- Clean Feed:
The Australian government wants to make the internet a safer place. They made a promise called Cyber-Safety, known as Clean Feed, that is a national internet filter. They legally mandate Internet Service Providers such as Optus, Telstra and iiNet to implement technical means to filter out certain websites. They will focus on sites containing images of child abuse, and especially child pornography.

I found this in a text file while searching for clean feed australia on google.






- My belief is that you should have as little censorship as possible in a democracy. I've been raised to make up my own opinons and to hear all sides of a story before I make up my mind. Censorship can put a stop to the freedom of speech. In a democracy the public sphere is extremly important, and everyone should be heard without any limits. With that said, I also believe that it's imporant to censor the statements and content that crosses certain lines. I don't think you should hurt someones reputation if you don't have any particulary good reasons for it. You should treat everyone with equal respect and not say anything that defames anyone. The censorship in a democracy should almost be non-existent, so as many as possible can speak and be heard in the public sphere.

- The NBN will reach my place in the second release.

I found these benefits on the NBN site:
Better business solutions
Transforming the way Australians can do business by: • Increasing productivity and reducing the time wasted
waiting for information to be downloaded.
• Providing better workplace flexibility – greater opportunity to work from home with fast, efficient access to information.
• Opening new and distant markets through high-speed interaction with customers.
• Lowering work expenses – instead of work-related travel, broadband offers reliable, real-time alternatives, such as web-conferencing.
• Offering superfast access to market information. From financial markets to agribusiness, the network will allow you to access superfast information to enhance your business performance.
A better education for a brighter future
Helping Australia be a global leader in 21st century educational innovation by:
• Improving the ability of our schools to access information, collaborate and communicate with each other.
• Supporting new learning and teaching practices, such as virtual classrooms, video and audio streaming and high definition video conferencing.
• Preparing students for future education, training and life in an increasingly digital world.
• Providing teachers, parents and schools with rapid access to data.
improved medical technology
Assisting the medical community in a variety of ways by:
• Narrowing the medical gap between urban and rural
Australians and expanding access to care through the use of telemedicine for clinical care programs.
• Improving the quality of care for Australians by linking patients and practitioners to top specialists through real-time internet consultations.
• Bringing more care into the home through remote monitoring.
• Addressing current health shortages through internet- based care that connects doctors to communities where medical resources are in short supply.

Endless entertainment
Allowing you to watch, listen to or play what you want, when you want. Download an album in seconds and a movie in minutes. Spend less time waiting and more time enjoying.
The NBN aims to enable speeds of up to 100 Megabits per second to 90 per cent of Australian premises and up to 12 Megabits per second to the remaining 10 per cent. These speeds are of course dependent on factors such as the retail package you choose from your retail service provider and your chosen hardware and premises connection.
Source:
http://www.nbnco.com.au/our-network/maps.html, viewed 19 September 2011.

Then go to this link to se the benefits:

- Since I'm not from Australia I don't know anything about Australian politics or who's representing which part of an area. I'm from Norway and there we have something called "kommunevalg" where we choose our local representatives that decides everything within a certain area. My area is called Frogn and the local representative is Rita Hirsum Lystad. The federal representative is Jens Stoltenberg, our primeminister. They are both from the same party, but that is just an coincidence.

- I live in Surfers Paradise and the local representative in the Queensland Parliament is John-Paul Langbroek.The last time he spoke in the parliament was Thursday, 8 September 2011.
I figured that out by searching for Langbroek + parliament here:

http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/global/search/, viewed 19 September 2011.

- I sent Langbroek an e-mail.

I chose to not say anything about the actual content since I don't know any background information, and can't really say my opinion about anything. But I though I would give him an encouraging mail to make him happy. He seemed like a good politican and I wanted to give him my support.

I found his e-mail here:

http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/members/current/list/bio?member=Langbroek+John-Paul

Essay preparation

Essay plan:

I have chosen essay topic nr. 2: Does the extensive use of computer/video games have an adverse impact on the health of young people. What are the most recent papers? Clarify what both sides of the argument claim and only then offer your reasoned opinion based.

I will start the essay with an introduction about how many young people who play video games in today's society, if I can find the right statistics. I will then tell a little about when and why the concerns occured. (100-150 words)
In paragraph two I will present one side of the case, those who believe that it has an negative effect. I will present the different arguments I find most interesting and realistic. (250-350 words)

In the third paragraph I will present the arguments to those who do not think video games are damaging. (250-350 words)

In my conclusion I will compare the two sides, and at last present my opinion based on my research. (150-200 words)

Expanding on the lecture - Week 8

Free software is based on an ideology that everyone can use, share, modify, study and improve software. It’s based on the belief that we should share our knowledge with each other and everyone should be able to contribute. If you use proprietary software you are denied these freedoms, and you will be punished with a fine or jail time if you break the license agreement. You can even be punished if you copy the program to another computer in your own home.

The reason why free software is important to all computer users is that everyone should have the opportunity to live in a free society where we can help each other and contribute to improve the life quality of others. Everyone should have the chance to be able to do what they want with what possess, without being restricted by someone who doesn’t believe in the benefits of collaborates. If the possibility to improve the software is limited to the employers of a corporation, you will miss out of other contributors that may have something better to add. Why should you pay a lot of money for software with rules and limits, when you can freely use software any way you want without paying a fortune? It’s just a basic question about the liberties in life, and that you should be aware of all the available options before you settle down with something just because it’s more famous.

Resources:
Lee, M 2011, What is free software and why is it so important for society?, Free Software Foundation, viewed 16 September 2011, <http://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software>

GNU, The Free Software Definition 2011, viewed 16 September 2011, <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>

Tutorial task week 8 - Audio-visual production

We finally finished our audio-visual production product. We edited it in Imovie, and downloaded a song from jamendo.com that we found on jamendo.com through Creative Commons. The editing went really well, and it turned out exactly as we pictured it would be. The reason why we put the song on was that the chat part on Facebook would be boring to watch without music, and we thought the music gave the movie a nice ending.

We used old-movie-effect on the first scene, and slow motion effect on the last scene. That worked out really well and we thought it improved the film. When we found out that we wanted to add music we searched the music we found on CC, and tried to found a happy song. We had to listed to a few songs, but it didn't take much time before we found the one we used.

We created our own youtube-account, and it was really easy and quick to just upload it on youtube.com. We own the rights to the movie since we produced it all by our selves, but we do not own the rights to the song we used. Since we are not using it for commercial purposes and we achknowlegded the artist of the song in both the video and in the description on youtube, we can not be accused for copyright infringments.

We chose to use the names Romeo and Juliet to let the viewers easily understand that the movie was about two lovers when we didn't have any sound. We don't think that can cause copyright infringements, since we didn't intend to steal the names and to copy the famous story. By obtaining a license from Creative Commons, we are able to “share, reuse and remix their material, legally” (Creative Commons Australia).

NCT - Romeo and Juliet.mov by Nillie, Catherine, Helga is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License.

Based on a work at techknowworld.tumblr.com



Here is our final product:


Created by: Nilushi Warusevitane, Cathrine Tallulah Magelie Smith and Helga Woll Lunder.
Music: So Happy- Bert Jerrad. Taken from jamendo.com.

Source:
Creative Commons Australia, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence, viewed on 20 September 2011, <http://creativecommons.org.au/about>

Expanding on the lecture - week 7

In the lecture we talked about how the internet has developed citizen journalism, and how everyone can be a journalist these days. If you are present to an important event you have the possibility to report the information, pictures, sounds, movies you obtain. You can either post this on e.g. your blog, Twitter, Facebook or send it to a real media channel. Because of citizen journalism people hear and see the latest news often while it happens or straight afterwards. Even though this is a positive development, the issue if citizen journalism is the end of traditional journalism has occurred.

Bentley, C H (2011 p. 103) claims that citizen journalism is no more a replacement for professional journalism than teabags are a replacement for water. Both can stand comfortably alone, but when combined they produce something quite wonderful. I could not agree more. I think citizen journalism and traditional journalism help and complete each other, and will not obliterate one another. Citizen journalists are not trying to steal someone’s job, they just want the world to see what they have to say or show about a specific theme, a recent experience or just an ignored issue. The professional journalist on the other hand seeks information about an issue and has heaps of new resources because of citizen journalists. I’ve learned that sharing is caring.

Resource:
Bentley, C H 2011, Citizen journalism: Back to the future, Geopolitics, History and International Relations, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 103-118, viewed on 8 September 2011, via ProQuest Database, http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/docview/887545817.

Tutorial task week 7 - making video

In tutorial week 7 we filmed all our scenes for our movie. We made up our own story and shot the scenes ourselves so we would not have any copyright problems. We filmed with my Canon digital camera. In the first scene we used the color effect sepia to get an older look. Then we used normal black and white in the second scene, and regular colors in the last scene. I think that worked great, and was a clever way to seperate the scenes. When we filmed the Facebook-chat we had to use Word to get the names right and to get the chat big enough.

The most difficult part was to figure out how we should organise the scenes to get out the message that we wanted. It was particulary hard when we shot the scenes without sound. We shot the scenes we were uncertain about several times and tried out different things like angel, situation etc. so we could pick the best outcome.

It was really hard to figure out so many scenes and lines in that short amount of time, but at least we got finished and are ready to edit the movie next tutorial. When we were supposed to upload the films from my  camera we ran into some troubles. My wire did not fit my camera, and neither the school computer or Cathrine's computer had a memory card access. I just have to upload the film to my computer, and bring them on a USB-stick to the next tutorial where we will edit the movie in imovie.