Jun Wei Zhen Synthesis Letter

Research Topic 

• I wanted to research something about video games as it is something I am really fond about. Usually the common stereotype is that people who play video games are typically really unhealthy and I wanna look into that. Why is this happening and maybe there will be a way to fix it.

Research Questions

• How has video games affected a person’s physical health?
• How has video games affected a person’s mental health?

Dear Professor,

Throughout the process of me researching both positives and negatives of playing video games to a higher degree, I have found many sources that I concluded can be extremely useful. I found 3 research studies and 1 journal just saying both potential negatives and positives of playing video games. Like how some of the positives can be used to positively affect some people with ADHD while some negatives can be said to raise awareness of these sorts of issues. I plan on only incorporating one side of the argument in my next assignment but for now I found a way to put all these together.

In my first article, Peter Grinspoon introduces us about the world of video gaming addiction. It is a good opening from a Harvard research article talking about the positives of gaming like building a virtual community to the negatives which is IGD, internet gaming disorder. They talk about how gaming can be useful by saying that it can help some people not feel as lonely by connecting people and can improve spatial reasoning. They then go talk about the negatives where gaming injuries can happen like the “Gamer’s thumb” or “Playstation Thumb” where a “person’s tendons that move the thumb becomes inflamed”. They also talk about how IGD can lead to many issues like “loss of relationship, educational, or career opportunities” and “gaming to escape or relieve anxiety, guilt, or other negative mood states”. I will use this article to introduce the world of “ video game addiction” and maybe even talk about some benefits of gaming and some tips on gaming.

In my second source which is a video from WIRED where they discover what kind of benefits there are to being a professional gamer through a variety of mini tests. When they were running through a test, their editor Peter Rubin went up against a pro gamer, named Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham, and the results were as expected. The professional gamer did really well in all the tests that had concentration, quick snap decision making and removing distractions while focusing on the object at point. The pro gamer placed at the 98th percentile while Rubin got placed at the 60th percentile showing the massive difference it makes to have these kinds of skill sets. They then go try out a FDA approved game marketed towards ADHD kids and I can use this information to prove how useful video games can be to help others. Later Peter Rubin went to cryotherapy to try out what it was like for fun as gamers believe that it helps out a lot. The idea of cryotherapy can give a person a surge of energy after playing extremely too many games. They conclude that gaming can be extremely useful in the body with hand eye coordination but have not truly justified how useful they are in real life situations. I am planning to use this video to just talk about how videogames can help people better themselves.

In my third source, I used an experiment to find out how people get addicted to video games. They split the groups into a “promotion” and “prevention” group, where the promotion players are players who use games to get good and be a better person and prevention players are players who play video games to escape life, which can lead to addiction. They find that playing games with negative messages can lead to better self control in a person while positive messages lead to addiction in a prevention player. I can incorporate this into my final project on a way to design stuff as this shows me that designing things with a negative message can further a person’s self control while decreasing addiction causing the many problems brought up by the Harvard article and the next article I am about to bring up.

For my final article I found an article written by Israel Oluwasegun Ayenigbara talking about gaming disorder and I can fit this article to tell others how not to play video games and the dangers of it. Researchers found that “Gaming disorder” a more extreme version “IGD” has the exact same symptoms as other health conditions. They find that it is connected to major physical health disorders like vision issues, musculoskeletal problems, obesity and overweight, and seizures. It then talks about possible prevention, like getting education on it or counseling. I can incorporate it into my counter argument which then can be used also as a way to bring up some possible dangers of addiction.

I found that I can connect video game addiction through all these articles except in the second one butI find that that one is really useful in the fact that it is a fun video to show how useful video games can be. They all take about all negative side effects of video games addictions like all the potential health problems, but also all talk about the usefulness of video games and how you can easily prevent yourself from getting addicted which lead to those issues. I will use this as a way to try to start a conversation if video games are actually good or not as that is still an ongoing debate in many areas.

Sincerely,

Jun Wei Zhen