Group Topic: The effects of screen time use on humans.
My Topic: The positive effects of playing video games on mental health.
Question:
- How have video games improved mental health for gamers?
- How has playing video games had an impact on psychological development in children and teens?
- Do internet games and video games vary in the ability to improve the mental health of its players?
- Does the advancement in gaming change the effects gaming has on their mental health?
Dear Professor Beecher,
Throughout the research process, I encounter many different types of sources related to my topic the positive effect of playing video games on mental health. Out of the sources I found, I pick four to analyze more deeply. My sources all have their different views on how playing video games are beneficial, but in some ways, things interconnect with each other. All my sources focus on the benefits people can obtain from playing video games for their mental development and health. After analyzing these four sources, I am more educated in how video games can improve one’s mental ability.
According to (Granic et al, 2014) research article, claimed that playing video games has emotional benefits as it makes the gamer experience positive emotions, which is really just happiness. (Hern, November 2020) wrote a news article to support this claim because according to an Oxford study, it found that people who played video games for four hours a day, were more happy when they did. Both sources show how playing video games allowed the player to experience happiness, which is a key in maintaining good mental health. The Oxford study provided relevant scientific backing to the claim playing video games allows gamers to be happy. (Granic et al, 2014) explains people gain social benefits from playing video games and they learn to cooperate with others around them. In source three, a study done on children explains how children who play video games had better relationships with their peers around them(Anonymous, March 2016). It proves that gamers are able to maintain social relationships with others around them and are able to cooperate with each other. These three sources came from different sources of information, which provided different details and tones for my topic.
Source four a video source stated, gamers had cognitive improvements when they played games like being able to develop spatial skills ( Bavelier, June 2012). It provided extra details to explain cognitive skills like spatial skills improved and are supported by source one (Granic et al, 2014). Source four, provided experimental evidence to support the idea gamers are able to develop spatial skills, which is a very important skill to learn to be able to analyze things better. Source four, provided a lot of information and scientific data to support my research. Since source four was a ted-talk it provided visuals and interactions between the audience, which allowed me to have a better understanding of the information being presented. All four sources revolve around action games or video games, since not every type of game has the same benefits as video games can have for the human brain. Also, all four sources wanted to explain scientific data and research done on the benefits of video games.
These four sources have allowed me to understand the mental benefits of playing video games better. Each source provides a different perspective on video games and how it benefits us. The source covers topics from social, emotional, to cognitive abilities of people, allowing me to analyze my topic through different factors affected by playing video games. All the sources were written to inform people about the benefits of playing video games. Since a majority of studies and research papers are written about the negative effects video games have on people. Through my research, I want to bring more awareness to people that video games are not really that bad. I want people to realize video games will only become more popular, so we should be educated and understand their effects on us. To achieve this goal, I needed to analyze and make strong connections between my sources to create a strong argument for my claim.
Sincerely,
Sally Chen
Your letters is clear. I could tell based on the first paragraph that you will explain how each source emphasis the benefits of video game as well as how the sources connect with each other. Your explanation on the sources are clear and I’m able to see how it connects with how gaming affects mental health and cognitive skills. I only have a couple of questions regarding spatial skills. Do all video games improve spatial skills, or is there specific genres of video games that really emphasis that? Also is there any numbers stating how much improvement one can get since I understand that non-video games also improves spatial skills.
The main idea was properly introduced in the first paragraph and I like how you wrote about what you learned from the four articles. The sources were explained briefly and connected back to the overall topic. There weren’t much overlaps so they were able to cover several topics. However, does this happen to all gamers or does age/gender matter? This can help you narrow it down more. Overall, it was really good; there was just a few grammar mistakes like “encountered” in the first sentence and spelling Beacher wrong.