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