Evaluation Essay Sample on the Effect of Video Games on Youth
Posted on February 21, 2019
An evaluation essay is a type of work that implies assessing a particular subject of a social interest by establishing a list of criteria to illustrate the author’s objective attitude towards it. Among the main purposes of this genre, it is significant to distinguish such functions as argumentative judgment, critical evidence, and gathering of credible scholarly information to support the thesis statement. The latter has to be elaborated coherently and clearly so that a potential reader is likely to understand the author’s objective position regarding the selected evaluation essay topic without any efforts.
Furthermore, unlike many other similar work types, evaluation essay can be both academic and non-academic which makes this genre ambivalent. In particular, academic evaluation purports to provide objective and research-based assessment concerning a socially substantial topic, whereas non-academic style can appear in personal blogs, literature, and other sources that do not demand the necessity to present a scholarly point of view. Overall, the need to write an evaluation essay depends on the quantity and quality of topics of public concern as this genre is important for people to be aware of impartial viewpoints.
‘The Effect of Video Games on Youth’ Essay Sample
With the advent of the digital era, video games have become an inseparable part of children’s life. Before the revolution of computing technologies, youth were limited to playing in the yard and participating in various activities like sports or games that involve being a socially integrated person. Nonetheless, recent decades have entirely subverted the conventional paradigm due to the rapid progression of technologies. Having roots in World War II, computers had been seriously upgraded since the first example of digital machines, that allowed modern people to employ them with different purposes. Considering video games as an effective means of escapism, it is essential to underline that similar variants of addiction are controversial and do not enable scholars to attribute this category to either positive or negative aftermath of the digital epoch. On the one hand, some computer games are influencing youth in a negative perspective as they are promoting a violent, aggressive behavior, contribute to children’s antisocial attitude, and negatively affect human health, whereas on the other hand, many video games can be useful in terms of learning, relaxing, and developing online communication.
Firstly, the majority of video games can be dangerous regarding the message of violence they are conveying to still developing minds of youth. When in the late 1990s, society was evaluated on the subject of attitude towards the first popular computer games, governments were astonished that almost all people became fond of such a type of pastime. Nevertheless, scholars appeared to be confused by such unexpected statistics and were not certain how to react to the abrupt success of video games. The vast majority of laboratory-based experimental studies have revealed that violent media exposure causes increased aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiologic arousal, hostile appraisals, aggressive behavior, and desensitization to violence and decreases prosocial behavior and empathy (Anderson et al. 142).
Thus, if an unformed consciousness of a child is subject to violent actions and images on the screen, it is highly probable that they will be imprinted in subconsciousness and employed as a pattern for further behavior. Proceeding from the notion that children are absorbing everything that happens to appear in front of their eyes, if video games are marked with violence, they may cause deterioration of communication among peers, engender suicidal inclinations, and stimulate aggressive behavior.
Secondly, a lot of video games are harmful, seeing that they are creating an opportunity for children not to participate in social activities and spend too much time sitting in front of screens. It has a negative impact on social participation. Aside from violence aspect, computer games allow youth to lead a passive lifestyle since MMORPG, a genre of online games, provides users with a possibility to chat while playing, so there is no need in meeting with friends outdoors. Escapism is a form of denying the contemporary social means of existence by refusing to participate in common human activities that comprise cultural peculiarities and factors separating humans from animal species. Video games, as one of the most beneficial and simple methods of escapism, are widening the divide between the members of society. Youth should learn how to communicate with one another, but after years spent in the digital realm, adolescents are no longer able to cooperate in real life processes successfully enough to be left without adults’ assistance. Every factor which is participating in the functioning of a human organism, be it some organ or a muscle, can atrophy as a result of non-use. Language is not an exception, so the lack of communication may influence a child’s future in a negative way.
Thirdly, video games imply spending too much time leading a sedentary lifestyle that detrimentally influences a child’s unformed state of health. Without a doubt, computer technologies enable scientists to develop extremely valuable and useful aspects of human life, whereas video games, being an inseparable part of gadgets appear to be a bait for teenagers that they can not refuse to utilize. Owing to parents’ lack of reasonable care, teenagers are receiving as many gaming devices as they want which results in deterioration of vision, scoliosis, and nervous breakdowns. Besides, it is plausible that the absence of sports activities will eventually cause various severe diseases like obesity and diabetes. Due to investigations: “Physical activity reduces the risk of incident diabetes” (Zhu and Owen sect. 8). At this point, it is necessary to state that the abundance of comfort and simplification factors like devices that combine all functions in a single gadget, are significantly contributing to the deficiency of receiving enough fresh air and a shortage of regular strolls. Nonetheless, as the issue of video games can be envisioned as an ambivalent phenomenon, there is a need to examine the positive consequences of spending time on computers in general and video games in particular.
Except for negative aftermaths, video games are allowing youth to educate themselves by means of broadening their horizons, widening the vocabulary, learning foreign languages, or developing logical reasoning. Moreover, computer games can be based either on a violent background that entails an increase in aggressive ideas or relaxing atmosphere. The latter can be comprised of games centered on logic, analysis, cognitive skills, and many other aspects of learning. In contrast to shooters, horrors, fighters, and detective games demanding careful attention and reaction, there are video games that teach how to undertake an architectural project, play a musical instrument, and even create a family. Additionally, there is a considerable lack of evidence proving video games to be completely harmful to a teenager’s consciousness. As recent studies affirm: “None of the studies provided evidence for concerns linking video game violence to aggressive behaviors or reduced empathy in youth” (Ferguson et al. 399). Therefore, this subject has to be thoroughly examined and investigated in the future because the contemporary scientific discoveries on this matter are not sufficient to prohibit children from playing video games.
Another advantageous aspect regarding modern pastime in the digital realm is the concept of relaxation. Proceeding from the information that the twenty-first century has inaugurated the exuberance of information, a modern person requires more time to relax and relieve oneself of a load of work or study. Even though there is plenty of other means of entertainment including sports, meeting with friends in real life, or reading books, today people may not have either enough free time or energy after a long work day to spend the rest of leisure hours outside. The digital epoch implicates that a modern human is absorbing too many pieces of information on a daily basis in comparison to people from the previous century. Thus, adolescents, who are expected to study in educational institutions, require enough free time to forget the reality and relax the brain. In addition, the process of video gaming is often accompanied by musical compositions, which have a soothing effect on a child’s tired mind. When a teenager’s consciousness is busy with processing the relieving information that is issuing from a video game, his or her nervous system is resting, in case the game is not violent.
Communication skills are the most important factors of a child’s intellectual advancement as without the ability to share thoughts properly a person is unable to negotiate, understand other people, and convey messages to the audience. In particular, modern types of online video games enable young users to share opinions in live chats and communicate with other players in different foreign languages without exiting a game. Typing is a cognitive element of learning that amplifies the ability to produce coherent and clear messages. Also, there are multitudes of video games with the main purpose to evolve logical functions of the brain and thus help a player to answer questions quicker than before playing the game. The gist of many language-based computer games is to guess words, reply to logical questions and puzzles. In recent experiments, scholars determine that “playing commercial video games can have a positive effect on communication ability, adaptability, and resourcefulness in adult learners, suggesting that video games may have a role to play in higher education” (Barr 95). It has been proved that in the case of educationally focused computer programs, video games can indeed be a perfect instrument in helping students to learn in a relaxing form.
In conclusion, the phenomenon of video games may be considered a double-natured problem since, from one perspective, some exemplars are likely to develop a violent inclination in adolescents’ minds, while from another perspective, numerous video games are demonstrating the opportunity to teach. Ultimately, it depends on a specific type of video game, whether it is harmful to a child or it has positive consequences on children’s behavior and health. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that everything has to be strictly limited even for adults, let alone children. Video games are no exception because, if played too much, any game can be dangerous at least regarding health. Thus, despite that they are marked with many negative aspects, video games have occupied a certain niche in the modern life of every generation. If limited to an adequate amount of time for playing, video games can be not only beneficial regarding education and relaxing but also cause no harm to the nervous system.
The prepared material and the accompanying sample are useful sources to get acquainted with the Evaluation Essay type of work. To conclude, it is necessary to resume that it is a significant academic work type which allows potential readers to derive the needed pieces of information to conclude whether a certain issue is worth paying attention to or not. In contrast to many other similar variants of essays, evaluation essay should be conducted by an academically prepared person, who is able to tell the difference between a credible and an unreliable source; who can construct a syntactic structure coherently, so that readers are capable of finding answers to their questions without putting extra efforts.
One of the purposes of an evaluation essay is to provide readers with an opportunity to define whether a particular subject has more positive or negative consequences. This genre of an academic essay is helpful whenever there is a need to study and scrutinize a single issue without appealing to other additional or secondary problems concerning the key one. Evaluation essay sample provides an assessment in terms of which the author assembles different arguments and thoughts on a strictly limited subject that allows estimating its value. This type of work can be useful for both readers and writers, seeing that the author has a possibility to investigate a specific issue and a reader to find solutions to a problem of concern. Precisely this sample of an evaluation essay has been written with the purpose of demonstrating the structure of similar work types, content, and an appropriate linguistic style.
Works Cited
Anderson, Craig, et al. “Screen Violence and Youth Behavior.” Pediatrics, vol. 140, no. 2, 19 Apr. 2017, pp. 142–149. AAP News & Journals Gateway.
Barr, Matthew. “Video Games Can Develop Graduate Skills in Higher Education Students: A Randomised Trial.” Computers & Education, vol. 113, Oct. 2017, pp. 86–97. Elsevier.
Ferguson, Christopher, et al. “Digital Poison? Three Studies Examining the Influence of Violent Video Games on Youth.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 50, Sept. 2015, pp. 399–410. Elsevier.
Zhu, Weimo, and Neville Owen, editors. Sedentary Behavior and Health: Concepts, Assessments, and Interventions. Library of Congress, 2017.
