Video Games Affect the Brain—for Better and Worse
By Douglas A. Gentile, Ph.D.
Dr. Douglas Gentile is the director of Media Research Lab in the psychology department at Iowa State University. While he’s there at the lab, he studies and conducts researches on the mass media’s effect on children and adults. He’s a co-author of Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy (2007, Oxford University Press). He’s well qualified in this area and effectively researches on many factors that may have an effect on children and adults.
In this article, In respect of fairness for the readers, he listed both the pros and cons of consequences for children who play video games. Therefore, he was not biased, but instead he gave his professional opinion based on facts from studies and researches; logos. He’s very logical since he used facts and also used others’ ideas and data to further cement his main points in his article like this quote from Nature that was listed in his article, “One neuroscience study, published in Nature, showed that playing action video games can improve visual attention to the periphery of a computer screen.”
I decided to choose this article because I am a fan of video games and I have always get involved in many discussions concerning video games and why is it good or bad for you. I strongly believed that video games aren’t really bad for us if we carefully manage our time or minimize our addiction to video games. So, I was able to connect successfully to this article because I’m an avid gamer and I knew the consequences of playing video games.
To state the pros in the heated issue about video games, he used his and outside resources to state, that educational games are good for your brains and also may help strengthen your working memory if it has lot of repetitions in video games. Also, he said low-violence activity and pro-social games has demonstrated that it was more helpful to players who was able to learn the concept of teamwork or improved their teamwork skills.
He stated the cons by using resources from respected scientists and researchers. The “addiction” to video games had negative consequences as well. Video games were linked to obesity, isolation, poor academic performances, and also may cause a distortion between reality and fantasy. In the researches shown in his article, high violence games have caused the players to be more aggressive in real life. Also, experienced players have been desensitized to violence in video games, while new players would experience high emotional reactions to the intensity of violence in the games. He implied that it’s not the games that really affects the players, but the way players play them and how they react to it.
I felt that this article by Dr. Gentile have opened many parents’ minds to the aspect of video games and let them realize that video games are also good for the children. I certainly disagree with the cons because I never really experienced these symptoms or consequences of video games. However, I was able to comprehend the risks of playing video games because my future kids maybe will play video games as well. He used logos to execute and clarify his main point of his article and prove that video games is just another form of entertainment that influences us. However, I’ve noticed that he seemed to neglect the exposure of violence games to age groups especially kids under 10 years old. Video games can have serious impact on the youth whether its violence or social games online. Violence can cause young kids to be more aggressive and their behavior may easily be copied from the video games. The kids are susceptible to the actions they see every day and would have an effect on them in the future. Online games can be beneficial for the kids, but it can also be dangerous. Child predators could stalk young kids and easily fool them into telling them where the kids live and what’s their address. But, they also can learn many things from online friends because many people have different perspectives and the kids can learn from it.
http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=22800
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
My Rhetorical Analysis
Video Games Affect the Brain—for Better and Worse
By Douglas A. Gentile, Ph.D.
By Douglas A. Gentile, Ph.D.
Dr. Douglas Gentile is the director of Media Research Lab in the psychology department at Iowa State University. While he’s there at the lab, he studies and conducts researches on the mass media’s effect on children and adults. He’s a co-author of Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy (2007, Oxford University Press). He’s well qualified in this area and effectively researches on many factors that may have an effect on children and adults. In this article, he listed both the pros and cons of consequences for children who play video games. Therefore, he was not being biased, but instead he gave his professional opinion and wrote them based on reasons and facts; logos. He also used others’ ideas to further cement the main points of his article like this quote that was listed in his article, “One neuroscience study, published in Nature, showed that playing action video games can improve visual attention to the periphery of a computer screen.” I decided to choose this article because I am a fan of video games and I have always get involved in many discussions concerning video games and why is it good or bad for you. I strongly believed that video games aren’t really bad for us if we carefully manage our time or minimize our addiction to video games.
To state the pros in the heated issue about video games, he used his and others researches to state, that educational games are good for your brains and also may help strengthen your working memory if it has lot of repetitions in video games. Also, he said low-violence activity and pro-social games has demonstrated that it was more helpful to players who was able to learn the concept of teamwork or improved their teamwork skills.
He also stated the cons by using resources from respected scientists and researchers. The “addiction” to video games had negative consequences as well. Video games were linked to obesity, isolation, poor academic performances, and also may cause a distortion between reality and fantasy. In the researches shown in his article, high violence games have caused the players to be more aggressive in real life. Also, experienced players have been desensitized to violence in video games, while new players would experience high emotional reactions to the intensity of violence in the games.
I felt that this article by Dr. Gentile have opened many parents’ minds to the aspect of video games and let them realize that video games are also good for the children. I certainly disagree with the cons because I never really experienced these symptoms or consequences of video games. However, I was able to comprehend the risks of playing video games because my future kids maybe will play video games as well. He used logos to execute and clarify his main point of his article and prove that video games is just another form of entertainment that influences us.
http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=22800
Monday, September 14, 2009
List of Things I believe in
- "pay it forward"
- unique
- Intelligence- everybody is intelligent in their own way
- adventurous
- determination
- live, love, laugh
- work ethnic
- it's never too late
- we are part of something bigger
- persistence
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Nafsi in Lunsford
In her commentary, I believe Azar Nafisi is trying to say that everybody has a connection to each other even if they have different beliefs or differences. She believed that all human beings have an unique connection that is within us. In addition, she was implying that empathy in many situations may help you or other people because the more empathy is used, more people will empathize. Who knows? Maybe it could stop any undesired events from happening such as wars or crimes that was committed in vengeance.
She used examples of empathy from Huckleberry Finn when Huck didn’t follow his religious beliefs and viewed Jim, a runaway slave as a human being. Despite his religious belief of going to hell because he befriended a runaway slave, he preferred to suffer than to lose Jim because Jim was his best friend. This loving, motivational, touching scene reminded her of a similar experience she had while she was at Tehran University. She argued about empathy based on reason and facts because she talked about her experience at Tehran University and how it is similar to the scene in Huckleberry Finn. First, she used the scene from Huckleberry Finn to give the readers an idea before describing her experience and how her two students who had huge differences with her still supported her when she was expelled from Tehran University. In one of two students’ words, he said, “Remember your own lectures on Huck Finn? Let’s just say, he is not the only one who can risk going to hell!” The similarity of Nafisi’s experience and the scene from Huckleberry Finn symbolizes empathy Nafisi was emphasizing about in her commentary.
I think Nafisi wrote this commentary because of her experience and also the knowledge of many bizarre situations where empathy was shared unexpectedly. She wrote these arguments based on emotions. It was emotional because she felt empathy from her two nasty students when she was expelled. Also, she was able to use this experience and explained it through a scene from Huckleberry Finn and she valued it very much. Therefore, she believed that everyone has feelings and can empathize with everyone else in spite of differences such as religion or disputes. She also argued based on character and values because why wouldn’t she write about empathy if she doesn’t value it? She believed empathy is one of the most important qualities a human should have. In her commentary, she stated that only through empathy, pain that is shared by a person can become real and can help lessen the pain if people empathize people with pain.
She used examples of empathy from Huckleberry Finn when Huck didn’t follow his religious beliefs and viewed Jim, a runaway slave as a human being. Despite his religious belief of going to hell because he befriended a runaway slave, he preferred to suffer than to lose Jim because Jim was his best friend. This loving, motivational, touching scene reminded her of a similar experience she had while she was at Tehran University. She argued about empathy based on reason and facts because she talked about her experience at Tehran University and how it is similar to the scene in Huckleberry Finn. First, she used the scene from Huckleberry Finn to give the readers an idea before describing her experience and how her two students who had huge differences with her still supported her when she was expelled from Tehran University. In one of two students’ words, he said, “Remember your own lectures on Huck Finn? Let’s just say, he is not the only one who can risk going to hell!” The similarity of Nafisi’s experience and the scene from Huckleberry Finn symbolizes empathy Nafisi was emphasizing about in her commentary.
I think Nafisi wrote this commentary because of her experience and also the knowledge of many bizarre situations where empathy was shared unexpectedly. She wrote these arguments based on emotions. It was emotional because she felt empathy from her two nasty students when she was expelled. Also, she was able to use this experience and explained it through a scene from Huckleberry Finn and she valued it very much. Therefore, she believed that everyone has feelings and can empathize with everyone else in spite of differences such as religion or disputes. She also argued based on character and values because why wouldn’t she write about empathy if she doesn’t value it? She believed empathy is one of the most important qualities a human should have. In her commentary, she stated that only through empathy, pain that is shared by a person can become real and can help lessen the pain if people empathize people with pain.
Monday, September 7, 2009
GSR 102-Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue,” in Lunsford al. p. 804.
"Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan was about the author's mother struggling with her language ability since English is her second language. In these situations like this, deaf people and hearing people are no different from each other because English is their second language next to their primary language. Amy said she understood her mother's broken English most of the time while her friends can only understand about half of what she said. This implies that Amy grew up with her mother and have gotten used to her english and it's similar to us as well. Deaf people who has English as their second language has some form of "broken english" and their parents have gotten used to it because they lived together for many years. It is the same thing with Deaf people using their "deaf" voices only people who knows them for a long time can understand, while other people can't understand them.
I believe what the author is trying to say here is that in America, "perfect" english is mandatory to the Americans and they acknowledge people through their language ability. It's pretty a fact since I've noticed hearing people, even deaf people avoid or doesn't recognize people with their limited languge ability. This dilemma proves the idea of arguments based on character and is language ability a quality that adds to the character? Illiterate? Incompetence? Perhaps so.
I understand the author's anger and frustration about her mother because I was in the same boat with her too. Sometimes, I get embarassed when some deaf people with limited english I know went up to hearing peole and handed them a piece of paper of what they wanted. I often thought they were bemused, or didn't even understand what the paper said and they might have their first impression of deaf people. Their first impression could be, "Oh, deaf people doesn't know how to write??" Also, this impression of deaf people may impact the whole deaf community because most of the time, a deaf person usually represents the deaf community.
I think Amy Tan wrote a great story about her mother and she exposed the difficulties people with their limited language abilities had to go through here in America.
I believe what the author is trying to say here is that in America, "perfect" english is mandatory to the Americans and they acknowledge people through their language ability. It's pretty a fact since I've noticed hearing people, even deaf people avoid or doesn't recognize people with their limited languge ability. This dilemma proves the idea of arguments based on character and is language ability a quality that adds to the character? Illiterate? Incompetence? Perhaps so.
I understand the author's anger and frustration about her mother because I was in the same boat with her too. Sometimes, I get embarassed when some deaf people with limited english I know went up to hearing peole and handed them a piece of paper of what they wanted. I often thought they were bemused, or didn't even understand what the paper said and they might have their first impression of deaf people. Their first impression could be, "Oh, deaf people doesn't know how to write??" Also, this impression of deaf people may impact the whole deaf community because most of the time, a deaf person usually represents the deaf community.
I think Amy Tan wrote a great story about her mother and she exposed the difficulties people with their limited language abilities had to go through here in America.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Respond to question #2
When I want to inform someone, I let them know in a clear and convenient way. Information is a valuable way to gain knowledge. I'll give you an example. I'm a football player and I need to know the plays. I would need information about the plays if I am to play in a game later. So, I would inform that football player about the plays and it allows him to benefit from this and use it well. How am I blogging about my respond if I didn't get information? Dr. Wood informed me to blog about this and so I knew what to do. After all, knowledge is power.
To convince people is like trying to change their mind about a thing they're dead set on. If it was I that needs to convince people, I would bring hard, cold facts, evidence and strong points to be able to change their minds. It's like being a lawyer when you have to convince the judge to prove that your client is not guilty. I would bring out discussions with people and give out their own opinion and why theirs right and mine is wrong. How do you do that? Convince them.
Ah, exploration. What moves me, you, us to explore? Perhaps it's curiosity that drives us to have the desire to know what, when, why, where, or how or determination to uncover the secrets behind a door. When I explore, it's mainly curiosity because I want to know why do people do that or like it. I want to be in other's shoes and know how they feel.
Decisions are made with convincing myself and arguments. Decisions are made every day, small or big. Small decisions are daily like what to wear, jeans or shorts? polo or T-shirt? Big decisions i make is like picking classes, deciding colleges like I decided to attend Gallaudet University. Decisions can be changed with peruasion and arguments. They can be convinced to change their decisions.
I don't really meditate or pray since I'm not really religious. I do believe in God, but that's basically it. The only times I meditate or pray is before serious games like football or basketball. I think meditation and praying are methods to calm our minds and get rid of stress that is upon us.
To convince people is like trying to change their mind about a thing they're dead set on. If it was I that needs to convince people, I would bring hard, cold facts, evidence and strong points to be able to change their minds. It's like being a lawyer when you have to convince the judge to prove that your client is not guilty. I would bring out discussions with people and give out their own opinion and why theirs right and mine is wrong. How do you do that? Convince them.
Ah, exploration. What moves me, you, us to explore? Perhaps it's curiosity that drives us to have the desire to know what, when, why, where, or how or determination to uncover the secrets behind a door. When I explore, it's mainly curiosity because I want to know why do people do that or like it. I want to be in other's shoes and know how they feel.
Decisions are made with convincing myself and arguments. Decisions are made every day, small or big. Small decisions are daily like what to wear, jeans or shorts? polo or T-shirt? Big decisions i make is like picking classes, deciding colleges like I decided to attend Gallaudet University. Decisions can be changed with peruasion and arguments. They can be convinced to change their decisions.
I don't really meditate or pray since I'm not really religious. I do believe in God, but that's basically it. The only times I meditate or pray is before serious games like football or basketball. I think meditation and praying are methods to calm our minds and get rid of stress that is upon us.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
GSR 102-01 Reaction/Reflection Blog Introduction
Wow, this is very exciting as this is my first time with blogs. I've never blogged in my whole life until now! Writing is not really a big deal to me, but it is mandatory since I am leaning toward majoring in history. I really love history and I always get fascinated by old stories, myths, or legends. Okay, I believe I should introduce myself now.
I was born in Wisconsin and I live only fifteen minutes from Milwaukee. I live in South Milwaukee and yes, it is a city. Many people thought I meant by living in the south side of Milwaukee and i had to explain that South Milwaukee is actually a city! Wisconsin is a wonderful state to live in because it's convenient to live in because there's almost no natural disasters at all! I was born deaf and it was caused by a disease my mother had while she was pregnant with me. So, she passed it on to me and caused me to become deaf. I'm the only deaf family member of my whole family, so you can imagine how boring thanksgiving was! I have two sisters and both are in college. Andrea, my oldest sister is twenty two and she's a graduate at University of Minnesota and my other sister, Jessica is nineteen and is a sophmore at Winona State in Minnesota. I guarantee that nobody at Gallaudet University nor people who live on campus has the same name as me because my first name is very unique. Maybe, this will help you in figuring out who I am. If you want a hint, my name is same as a city in Texas. My father named me after his childhood street where he was raised on and I still don't know the reason behind it. hmm, I grew up going to public schools and I was practically the only deaf person in my mainstreamed schools, heck even in my hometown! After I graduated from middle school, I decided to enroll at Wisconsin School for the Deaf. It was a tough decision to make considering I'm a hour away from home and I never had any daily contact with deaf people. The reason I made this decision is because I wanted to be with people that is like me, deaf. I didn't want to continue to be known as the "deaf guy" in public schools. I wanted everyone to recognize me as who I am, not my disability. Anyway, I graduated from Wisconsin School for the Deaf and I was the valedictorian of my class of 2009.
Let's see. I love to play! I practicaly play anything from sports to video games! I'm always up for a challenge. I'm a shy person, but once you get to know me, I'm a very friendly person and outgoing as well! :) well I think that's all I can say about myself so far!
I was born in Wisconsin and I live only fifteen minutes from Milwaukee. I live in South Milwaukee and yes, it is a city. Many people thought I meant by living in the south side of Milwaukee and i had to explain that South Milwaukee is actually a city! Wisconsin is a wonderful state to live in because it's convenient to live in because there's almost no natural disasters at all! I was born deaf and it was caused by a disease my mother had while she was pregnant with me. So, she passed it on to me and caused me to become deaf. I'm the only deaf family member of my whole family, so you can imagine how boring thanksgiving was! I have two sisters and both are in college. Andrea, my oldest sister is twenty two and she's a graduate at University of Minnesota and my other sister, Jessica is nineteen and is a sophmore at Winona State in Minnesota. I guarantee that nobody at Gallaudet University nor people who live on campus has the same name as me because my first name is very unique. Maybe, this will help you in figuring out who I am. If you want a hint, my name is same as a city in Texas. My father named me after his childhood street where he was raised on and I still don't know the reason behind it. hmm, I grew up going to public schools and I was practically the only deaf person in my mainstreamed schools, heck even in my hometown! After I graduated from middle school, I decided to enroll at Wisconsin School for the Deaf. It was a tough decision to make considering I'm a hour away from home and I never had any daily contact with deaf people. The reason I made this decision is because I wanted to be with people that is like me, deaf. I didn't want to continue to be known as the "deaf guy" in public schools. I wanted everyone to recognize me as who I am, not my disability. Anyway, I graduated from Wisconsin School for the Deaf and I was the valedictorian of my class of 2009.
Let's see. I love to play! I practicaly play anything from sports to video games! I'm always up for a challenge. I'm a shy person, but once you get to know me, I'm a very friendly person and outgoing as well! :) well I think that's all I can say about myself so far!
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