Writing 2150t: Spring 2021

Author: Jun Wei

Outline Jun Wei Zhen

Introduction

Hook – Nowadays gaming is probably a mainstay in most of lifes as we are in the middle of this pandemic. The stereotype is that gaming is bad for a person or playing games is bad for people but what if I tell you that there are a lot of benefits from gaming.

Statement of the Problem/Debate – Whether gaming is actually beneficial or just deteriorating to a person’s health has been an ongoing debate going on for a while and is becoming more of an issue as it is the pandemic. People still doubt that video games can do any good to a human, and it makes people antisocial or it affects people in a negative way. 

Thesis Statement – Video games can actually do a lot of good to a human and can actually improve us. It can help us as a whole as a person, it can also help us have faster reaction times and make better decisions, gaming can offer many physical benefits and games can be used to help people who need help.

Body Paragraphs

Subargument # 1 –
Help improve a person as a whole

  • Support 1: 

Make people more social as opposed to making people more anti social.
An article from Harvard Medical School shows that “Our society suffers from an epidemic of loneliness, and gaming can be a vehicle to connect with others”(Peter Grinspoon, 2020). Video games are also seen as a way to also to connect “difficult-to-connect-with people in your life, such as kids, grandkids”(Peter Grinspoon, 2020) as who does not love video games, everyone does.

  • Support 2: 

Games can sway the way people feel about things.
BBC talked about a report where a group of experimenters in Japan gave kids “prosocial” games like Lemmings, that old game, and they found that the children were “more likely to help others in real life or in stimulated tasks”. They also found that in a “study involving 3,000 schoolchildren, studied over three years…pro-social games affect children’s sense of empathy” (Nic Fleming, 2013)

  • Support 3: 

Build a virtual community
People can be connected making people you never expected to meet online connect better. The article from Harvard states that “gaming can provide a way for people to interact with each other — a virtual community — as they work together toward completing common tasks” (Peter Grinspoon, 2020). Virtual communities can be a useful way for people to help each other and socialize and even make friends that would have not been possible if not for video games.

Subargument # 2 –
People have faster reaction times and decision making abilities

  • Support 1: 

Go off more on decision making and reaction times
Multiple studies from different articles, like from Harvard, BBC, and many more all always state that video games can boost a person’s decision making abilities and reaction times meaning that it improves cognitive ability. They also found that people who play lots of video games can manage to avoid distraction and focus on the important things. 

  • Support 2: 

A experiment that shows
A mini experiment done by a reporter from WIRED played multiple games with a pro gamer named Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham. They played games that really depend on reaction time by pressing buttons, and to practice hand-eye coordination, and to ignore distractions and practice decision making. They found that the pro gamer landed in the 98th percentile, while the report only landed in the 60th. (Wired, 2018)

  • Support 3: 

How this can applicable to real life
This can be applicable in real life by the fact that decision making is really good to know when you are in a hard situation with lots of distractions. Gamers can usually come up with multiple ways to decide what is the best option out. 

Subargument # 3 –
They offer physical benefits 

  • Support 1: 

More fun as opposed to real exercise
Studies led by a behavioral scientist at “The Miriam Hospital” found that “video game group engaged in more minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity than those that took part in the standard exercise intervention”.(Salit R, 2019) People that exercise are usually proud of it and if gamers are exercising longer than those people that actually workout, that means video games is a key motivation in making people work out.

  • Support 2: 

Talk about certain physical games
There are many games and consoles that allow a person to be more active and those are the Nintendo Wii, Switch and the Playstation or Xbox. Some of the games that are physically intensive are stuff like WiiFit, Ringfit, Just Dance 3, Your Shape:Fitness Evolved 2012, Disneyland Adventures, Kinect Sports Season 2, and that is only just a few. A study conducted by Louisiana State University where one group received a copy of 4 of those games, a XBox and Kinect and a control group that just does the usual behavior with no exercises. They found that “Reduced their body mass index by about 3 percent while the control group increased their BMI by 1 percent” and “Reduced their cholesterol by 7 percentiles while the control group increased cholesterol by 7 percentiles.” (Louisiana State University, 2018)

  • Support 3: 

Talk about more benefits
There are also many benefits like a boost to hand-eye coordination which can help people in terms of playing sports. For example, in basketball dribbling seems to be hard for beginners but with good hand-eye coordination you can also pick up a lot of sports somewhat easily. Which can translate over to playing more sports which can boost a person’s mentality into playing sports.

Subargument # 4 –
Gaming can help people mainly those with ADHD 

  • Support 1: 

ADHD kids and talk about issues of it
WebMD says that “ADHD is a chronic condition marked by persistent inattention, hyperactivity, and sometimes impulsivity.”(Bhandari S., 2019) What all this means is that they are overly energetic. This problem usually leads to kids with ADHD “sometimes have trouble forming relationships” (Bhandari S., 2020)

  • Support 2: 

How video games help
The WebMD article states that “Online games allow them a way to make and keep friends.” and build important skills like “visual-spatial skills, hand-eye coordination, strategy and problem-solving, etc.” The video that WIRED made with the reporter also went to investigate and found out that there are already games in the making to help with kids with ADHD by improving their cognitive abilities. The game is called Project EVO and during the video they talked about how they sent the game to the FDA to test it and allow it as an actual prescribed medicine to help treat ADHD and it is in the process of getting approved.

  • Support 3: 

Vision
Another way that video games can help is that they can help people with lazy eyes. According to the BBC article, they did research on adults with lazy eyes that “adults with lazy eyes who spent 40 hours playing video games with their good eyes patched could improve their ability to distinguish smaller letters on such charts”. Not only that but they also conducted a study on non-gamers and found that “contrast sensitivity of those who trained on action games had improved”. 

Raise Counterargument

Gaming is bad because it can lead to addiction and cause many health issues to a human being
– There are many good ways to implement gaming in your life

*I am not sure if I want to put actual evidence supporting that gaming addiction can lead to many health issues because I have those evidence, but I am not sure If I want to

Support 1:
According to the Harvard article “playing video games can be fun and a social activity when integrated into a healthy lifestyle that includes plenty of sleep, exercise, and good nutrition, rather than letting the game become your life” (Peter Grinspoon, 2020) As long as you treat video games in a fair manner, they can be used as a way to just help a person, but too much always is bad and as long as an addiction does not appear.

Support 2:
Overall, all articles just tell us to manage our time usage in video games
As said from the Harvard Medical article, a WebMD article also back this up by saying that “visual-spatial skills hand-eye coordination, strategy and probWork with your child to agree on rules about how long and when they can play. Also, be careful the video games aren’t replacing other activities kids should have, like social interactions, time with family, physical activity, etc. Make sure homework and household chores are done before they pick up the controller or tablet.”(Bhandari S., 2020)

Conclusion

To sum up,
Video games can be really helpful for a person as they can boost a person’s social life by a lot, help improve someone’s decision making and cognitive abilities, while improving physical abilities and it is also currently really useful for treating people with illnesses.

Sources

Peter Grinspoon, M. (2020, December 22). The health effects of too much gaming. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-health-effects-of-too-much-gaming-2020122221645

Wired. (2018, October 25). Testing gamer vs non-gamer brains: How do video games affect you? | wired. Retrieved March 18, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duxWYK-UEiU 

Bhandari, S. (2020, July 7). The link Between ADHD and video Games: See the research. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/childhood-adhd/adhd-and-video-games-is-there-a-link#:~:text=In%202020%2C%20the%20FDA%20approved,include%20medication%20and%20behavioral%20therapy.

Salit, R. (2019, March 07). Study supports value of video games in promoting physical activity. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from https://www.lifespan.org/news/study-supports-value-video-games-promoting-physical-activity

Louisiana State University. (2018, July 20). New study shows certain video games can improve health in children with obesity. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 16, 2021 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180720092501.htm

Fleming, N. (2013, August 25). Why video games may be good for you. Retrieved April 14, 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20130826-can-video-games-be-good-for-you

Bhandari, S. (2019, October 15). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd) in children. Retrieved April 13, 2021, from https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/childhood-adhd/understanding-adhd-basics

Jun Wei Zhen Marvel

Martin Scorsese goes about to say how he does not think Marvel movies are not considered cinema and he is using this article as a way to explain what he meant by that statement he made during the Empire magazine interview. He defines what cinema is and he defines it as “ about revelation… the complexity of people… the way they can hurt one another and love one another and suddenly come face to face with themselves.” He then says Marvel does not have “ revelation, mystery or genuine emotional danger. Nothing is at risk.” and that is what he means when he does not consider it cinema. He then names Marvel “ worldwide audiovisual entertainment” as he describes Marvel as a series that panders to what the people want which is franchises and being seen on Netflix over the big screen in movie theaters.

The problems with some of his claims is that Marvel in fact does have what it takes to be cinema. He says Marvel does not have “revelation, mystery or genuine emotional danger. Nothing is at risk.”, while in fact it does. There were so many scenes that represent cinema during Infinity War and Endgame, and I will be using those 2 as examples because those are the most popular ones. During Infinity War, there was mystery as during the end of it you would not know what was going to happen next. You were left on a cliff hanger once Thanos got half of the population wiped and during some of those scenes, there was also genuine emotional danger. I am talking about the scene where Spiderman gets deleted right in front Iron Man, and you can really feel for Iron Man because he was treating Spiderman like his own son during the entire movie. During Endgame, there was the moment at the end where Iron Man sacrifices his own life to bring back everyone back from the quantum realm and after that the burial scene play and there was emotional connections between all the characters who went to his burial and even his daughter was there, the main reason he did not want to go to the war at the first place to take care of her. Marvel also shows the complexity of people and how “they can hurt one another and suddenly come face to face with themselves” during Endgame. When Black Widow and Hawkeye went to go for the soul stones they had a difficult time deciding who to sacrifice to get the stone, they were fighting each other wanting each other to live as whoever sacrifices themselves for the soul stone would be gone forever. Another way Marvel showed the complexity between people is how some of the super heroes act in the first scene of Endgame, no heroes wanted to join the fight because they all have families to care for. They can’t just run out there in the battlefield and just blow up Thanos, which they later just did but it took them a while which was 5 years and then wanted to take action again. How Martin Scorsese describes cinema, Marvel has all of those features so Martin’s points are somewhat contradictory.

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

JunWeiZhen Draft 1

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 the physical health of video game addiction?

 

Entry 1

Zamani, E., Chashmi, M., & Hedayati, N. (2009). Effect of addiction to computer games on physical and mental health of female and male students of guidance school in city of isfahan. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905489/

Summary

This was a study that sampled 564 students in Iran about how video games might correlate with abilities of a normal human being. They collected data based on their “physical health, anxiety and sleeplessness and impaired social functioning” using a questionnaire. They selected one random girl and boy from each school from 3 of the 5 districts within Isfahan Board of Education. The mean age of participants ended up to be 13. Through this they discovered that there was a positive correlation between student computer games and their “physical health, anxiety and sleeplessness”, while there was a negative correlation with “social functioning”. This study already enforces what is well known about the common world of gaming with the real world and tells us using statistics. Then they described how big video games were for the boys in Iran in their free time and how they do not notice their life passing. [This seems like a good source for your topic. You’ve also done a nice job summarizing the main ideas and adding some key details.]

Reflection

Even though this is a study within a different part of the world in the middle of Iran, I still think that this is useful to know. I chose this article because it showed statistics of correlations between some of the key points against playing video games. [Good reason to use this source] People who are addicted to video games usually end up being really socially awkward and physically unhealthy. I can relate to this as this has happened to me during my high school year and these statistics really show the correlation. Currently I am still struggling with sleeplessness as it is really common within people who play video games. They lose track of time and stay up longer than they think it is. The depression one is questionable but I still have seen examples of these from streamers who hate what they do streaming the same thing over and over again. [Is the depression questionable because you haven’t experienced it or because the research from your source didn’t do a good job of proving this correlation?] Like for example some numbers brought up is that the correlation is “level P ≤ 0.05” meaning the information is most accurate and making the relationship of the correlation more enforced. [Be careful presenting data out of context. What exactly does level P mean? Can you give a more detailed explanation about this data?]

Paraphrased section

“Most studies show that playing too many computer games cause physical damages and increase anxiety and depression in players. This goes to adults too, who usually have high heart beat and high blood pressure due to stress and excitement. The problem is that they forget time is passing and people forget to eat which causes a bad relationship within your body systems. There are various causes for the correlation between games and physical health. The first one is that addiction can cause disorder and increase anxiety and depression. Second is that a disorder might have caused the correlation. The third one is that they create each other, the addiction and the disorder.” [Is this the original or the paraphrase?]

I chose to paraphrase this section because it talks about where the possibility of gaming addictions come from. They also describe the effects of playing games and how it can affect a person.

Entry 2

Peter Grinspoon, M. (2020, December 22). The health effects of too much gaming. Retrieved March 12, 2021, from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-health-effects-of-too-much-gaming-2020122221645

Summary

This article tells us about the type of people playing video games and the effects. Contrary to popular beliefs, it isn’t just teens that play as only 21% of gamers are under 18. There are some good effects of gaming aside from being fun and entertaining. It can build a virtual community that helps each other and games can help people improve spatial reasoning. Not only that but it can help people with ADHD with thinking skills. But there can be side effects like inflammation of a nerve on the wrist as gamers use their wrist and arm a lot. Gaming usually also leads to obesity in both teens and adults which has multiple health conditions as people eat way more than they normally should. Another common issue is vision as you can get loads of screen time a day more than a regular person should be getting which can possibly lead to seizures. They have something called “internet gaming disorder (IGD)”, which is gaming addiction to a higher degree. This leads to a lot of social problems like education and job opportunity losses to even gaming withdrawal if they stop. They claim that gaming is associated with sleep deprivation, insomnia, anxiety, etc. They conclude by saying that “video games can be fun and a social activity when integrated into a healthy lifestyle”. [Generally, you should avoid using quotes in summary writing]

Reflection

I completely agree with this article. [Remember, we try to avoid “agree/disagree” when we are writing an analysis because our analysis should be objective] I chose this article because it had the name Harvard under it and Harvard is an extremely well known and powerful college. I found this article really interesting as it also mentions the benefits of gaming which is that it can build a community where you can help others. It also talks about negatives too and even brings up the issue of gaming addiction which is a really serious problem. There was also something called IGD which they bought up and the statistics is that 1-2% of all gamers are just addicted and this cause a lot of social problems within the person. Most of the time people who have video game addiction that are really competitive and play by themself usually end up becoming some of the most aggressive and egocentric people I meet. It also concluded with a really good message at the end saying that video games can be really useful if you integrate it within your lifestyle as it can help you be more fun and social. I agree with all of this as through my 8 years of playing games back to back and some years where I was addicted, I can relate to this article. 

Paraphrased section

Education can help to prevent injury and gamers need to know how to promote their thumbs, elbows and their body. Simply learning how to stretch eat healthier and rest better can address injuries early before they become serious. For the eyes, they can try the 20-20-20 rule where every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

I to paraphrase this as this is a really good piece of information to know. Learning to exercise can really help a person and the 20-20-20 rule is just really neat to learn too.

It looks like you are off to a good start. These two sources are clearly connected to your topic. Just make sure you start to think about how you are going to turn your topic into an argument-based essay. Are you going to take the stance that gaming does more harm than good? Or are you going to attempt to persuade your audience that there is much to be gain from playing games? We want to try to avoid an essay that simply presents two sides of the argument and/or your opinions about the issue.  

Jun Wei Zhen

Hi everyone,

I am Jun Wei Zhen. I am currently a Finance major and I really do not think I am gonna change anytime soon. I was born in China and spent around 6 years there which then I got sent to USA to start 1st grade. Currently I am living near Coney Island in Brooklyn right now and it is mediocre I guess.

If I want to talk about some of the interest I have it would be 100% video games and music. I play it video games a lot and usually always listening to music on the side. I mostly listen to Asian music ( Chinese, Korean, Japanese) and EDM which is like this music where its mostly just instrumental. For video games, I have currently having a lot of fun with League right now but I usually play a lot of different games and my preferred type of game is usually fps.  I also like Asian stuff in general like the TV Shows or Anime and stuff like those.

For those new that actually read this, this class year will be actually quite fun and nice. I usually enjoy working with others and I would like to imagine that I am friendly. This year will be interesting as I have never used this site to post stuff before and I look forward to working with you guys!