Cultural Stereotypes Limiting Video Game Acceptance in the United States Shin, Jeongwon

Cultural Stereotypes Limiting Video Game Acceptance in the United States

Author 1 Full Name

(Last Name, First Name) : Shin, Jeongwon

School Name : Korea International School Jeju

Introduction

The world is digitalizing rapidly, currently in a digital age1. This is proven by the vast increase in the percentage of U.S. citizens owning computers. Merely 60% of U.S. citizens owned computers in 2006 whilst nearly 89% owned a computer in 2016, showing a change of nearly 30% in just 10 years (Ryan, 2016). As such, technology is commonly used these days and has become a major part of humans’ lives as an influential field. In fact, along with various other job professions such as surgeons, judges, and medicine physicians, which have always been influential in human history, computer science is considered to be one of the most promising fields as computer and information system managers range in one of the top 20 occupations with the highest median annual pay with an approximate median annual wage of $150,000 (Publications, 2021). In order to become a competitive applicant for employment in computer science, there are specific requirements or skills required: collaborative working skills, computer and technology knowledge, the ability to analyze problems, and the ability to systematically approach work and problem-solving (Droste & Mayshak, n.d.). Surprisingly, these skills could be acquired through engaging in video games. As a rising field, computer science is providing more work opportunities for people and are needing a digitally literate workforce in order to continue technological development. Yet, acquiring a promising job in the field of computer science has become highly competitive. The most suitable people for the digitally literate workforce are current teens and people in their 20s, who have grown up closely with electronic

1 present time, in which many things are done by computer and large amounts of information are available because of computer technology

devices compared to the upper generations who haven’t been in a rather close contact with

electronic devices. Yet, outdated stereotypes surrounding video games in the United States restrain youth participation, making their opportunities more limited in the computer science industry. “There are fathers who remain baffled, some who told their kids video games would never pay the bills.” Jessica Ravitz, a professional esports player who has experienced the stereotypical thoughts of the public herself, pointed out that people tend to think playing video games are not going to be able to make their children have economic success. Considering such, should parents consider video games as a worthy use of time? This paper will answer this question by focusing on the controversies of the effects of video games on children playing them through the social, psychological, and economic perspective.

Psychological Benefits of Video Games

Parents advocate for what is considered “best” for their progeny and some parents, including Teddy Roosevelt, encourage engaging in beneficial activities as a leisure activity. Roosevelt stated in his letter to his first son that although sports is a good leisure activity, it should not be the major focus of a person’s life as there are more important things other than sports (Roosevelt, 1919). As such, parents are always seeking what is best for their progeny, wanting them to engage in what is beneficial for them. Sports has become the main target for this area of engagement that has benefits due to its psychological benefits. In fact, more than 50% of United States highs choolers engage in sports as a form of leisure activity (NFHS News, 2019).

According to Alicia Garcia-Falgueras, professor of the Official College of Psychologists in Madrid and a doctor in neuroscience, engagement in sports can lead to physical well-being as it stimulates the release of endorphins, ultimately reducing stress levels (Falgueras, 2015). As high stress levels can affect a person in various negative ways, including various physical and psychological illnesses, such effects of reduced stress levels is a crucial benefit of sports that has to be acknowledged. However, it is not a commonly shared perception that video games can also have benefits like sports, not only being a harmful activity as it is usually thought to be. As it has been briefly discussed previously, video games can help develop players to build skills that are prerequisites for jobs in the field of computer science. For example, the ability to problem solve is a skill that a player can develop by playing video games. Benjamin Emihovich, a technology professor at the California State University, conducted research on undergraduates’ problem-solving skills, collecting scores from before and after twenty hours of gameplay over the course of 8 weeks.

The tested sample was required to play a popular video game, Warcraft, a multiplayer online role-playing game released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment (Emihovich, 2018). Comparing the scores of the tested sample on the problem-solving skills test, the results indicated that there was a significant difference. The tested sample scored approximately 5.02 higher after playing video games than before playing video games (Emihovich, 2018). This experiment indicates that there was a significant difference between the ability to problem solve before and after playing video games. Another experiment conducted by Shute and Ke, both professors at the Florida State University also speaks for problem-

solving skills being able to be acquired through playing video games. They conducted research on problem-solving abilities before and after playing games, again recording results of brain solving abilities before and after the experimented sample has played games. Like Emohovich’s study, their results also showed that participants showed a significant improvement on problem-solving, spatial skill, and persistence (Shute & Ke, 2014). As such, it has been proved through professional experimentation that engaging in video games improves problem-solving skills, a requirement in a computer science job.

Social SkillsAcquired from Video Games

It has also been proved that video games improve social skills. Przybylski (2014), a professor at Oxford University and an expert in various fields such as technology and health, reported that 54% of gamers say gaming helps them connect with friends. Although it is true that this speaks in the perspective of gamers and might include some biases, it is a proven fact that many video games are accompanied with characteristics that help stimulate social connection. A large number of video games are multiplayer games in which players often have to cooperate with each other in order to successfully achieve the goal of the game, resulting in training the players’ cooperation skills. An experiment conducted by Badatala, Leddo, Islam, Patel, and Supaneni, all authorized researchers registered in researchgate, showed that high school students who played multiplayer video games that required them to work together had the highest cooperation score as compared to those who played singleplayer video games (Badatala, 2017). This shows that video games can improve cooperation skills of the player. To address another social advantage, it has been discovered that video games are able to help individuals face social difficulties such as the lack of ability to engage in face-to-face communication (Kowert, et al., 2014). This is because the text-based communication systems are accompanied with the animosity of games. Games can reduce social inhibitions, removing social obstacles and allowing effective communication within these spaces for those with difficulty socializing. (Kowert, et al., 2014). However, one negative impact of this function is that anonymity can result in some people becoming impudent. This has been regarded as a huge problem in the United States, especially in regard to online predators. Online predators are classified as people approaching with impure intentions such as financial benefits and sexual activity (Zapal, 2019). Whilst the players themselves report that they have seen benefits from socializing in games, there have been players not agreeing with this. Instead, they warned the dangers of online socializing, insisting that there has to be further examination upon the online communication within video games.

Negative Consequences of Video Games

Although video games have positive effects, training players for skills needed in future job fields, the negative effects video games bring has to be acknowledged. In order to prove that there are negative effects of video games, three medical experts, Kühn, Gallinat,

and Mascherek conducted a study on the percentage of people addicted to video games among high school players, which showed that 17.2% of high school students were addicted to video games, playing more than 3 hours a day. Because there were negative effects observed, engagement in video games for more than 3 hours a day was made as the benchmark for addiction in this experiment. While adequate hours of video games of under 3 hours per day can result in strengthened skills of socializing and problem-solving, addiction can lead to various health problems and mental issues as well. In fact, according to Peter Grinspoon (2020), a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital, gaming addiction is associated with sleep deprivation, insomnia, circadian rhythm disorders, depression, aggression, and anxiety. These drawbacks that can result from extensive hours of video gaming can be destructive to the player. Additionally, there are some people who turn to video games because they have problems adjusting to society. The main reason for this is because the recognition they receive in a digital society is different from that of reality (King & Delfabbro, 2009). Although this might be beneficial to them in that it can provide benefits regarding socializing, this increases the possibility of getting addicted to video games. In fact, people who play video games to avoid stress factors in reality or escape from the problems they face in reality tend to have a high risk for problematic use because playing video games helps them cope with stress (Seay et al., 2007). This illustrates a social drawback that video gaming can lead to further isolation from the world. These negative effects stimulate stigma and stereotypes by parents of older generations, putting their progeny at at restriction from gaining opportunity to improve skill-building and therefore jeopardize the potential of children becoming a workforce in a high potential field, ironically contradicting the fact that they advocate for what is considered “best” for their progeny.

Conclusion

As parents advocate for the “best” for their progeny and video games do provide children with skills needed to succeed in the newly rising promising field of computer science, it can be concluded that yes, parents should consider video games as a worthy use of time. Yet, considering the potential consequences such as addiction and health issues, hours spent on gaming should be limited. According to a study conducted by Spanish investigators, benefits were seen when engaged in 8 hours of gaming a week while social and behavioral problems arose when engagement time went over the 8-hour mark (Mozes, 2016). Yet, because Mozes did not cite the credibility of these Spanish investigators nor did not classify who they are, conclusions cannot be derived only by examining this source. Therefore, along with such experiment results, referring back to the experiment conducted by Kühn, Mascherek, and Gallinat indicating that 3 hours of gaming time would result in addiction, However, considering the ability of parents to control their children and the childrens’ acceptance of limiting gaming hours, such a solution might not be successful at all times. Conducting further research is another plausible solution. There are countless forms of video games and because all these video games have different skills needed, benefits and drawbacks resulting from them won’t be identical. Alan Mozes (2016), a health reporter,

reported that previous research on the effects of violent video games showed that merely 10 to 20 minutes of violent gaming could increase activity in the brain regions associated with anxiety, and emotional reaction, while reducing activity in the frontal lobes associated with emotion regulation and executive control simultaneously. As such, although some games can result in benefits, some other games might not, only harming the psychological state of the player. As there are either positive or negative effects from different types of games, there needs to be further research done on which types of games will be actually beneficial. Once these solutions have been implemented to the United States society, there would be clear changes in the perception of video games and peoples’ attitudes towards the acceptance of video games. There would be a clear distinction between beneficial and harmful types of video games, indicating that a more healthier video gaming society would be made. Ultimately, people would no longer be held against acquiring skills needed for computer science jobs through engaging in video games. In conclusion, because of the outdated stereotypes usually existing within the older generation, young people are getting serious disadvantages from future economic success as they are getting restricted from one path of acquiring skills needed for such jobs in the computer science industry, a newly arising influential field. Therefore, the various psychological and social benefits of video games have to be acknowledged, moving people to the digital age, ultimately allowing people to play video games to the extent that they can acquire the associated benefits.

References

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