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How Are Video Games Negatively Affecting College Students?Brady A. RodziczakOakland University, Rochester, MIAbstractIt is believed that video games can have negative effects on a person’s academic success, social behavior, and physical and mental health. This study searched for data to confirm these facts in the student body of Oakland University in Rochester, MI. Using an online survey, twenty-six students around campus were interviewed to help find correlations between increased video game usage and the negative effects caused by it. The research confirmed my hypotheses that video game usage can be very harmful and supported that what has been proven a few times in the past is accurate. Numerous correlations were found within the study, and they all supported one common fact. An increase in video game usage leads to a decrease in academic success, an increase in antisocial behavior, and negative effects on the physical and mental health of people.How are video game addictions affecting the average college student? In more ways than one actually. If playing video games turns into an addiction, many negative outcomes can occur. They can have inverse effects on the academic success, social behavior, and physical and mental health of those affected. College students such as the ones who attend Oakland University are most susceptible to these problems as well. Many of the students at Oakland University also live on campus. With this new freedom of living on their own, college students can spend their time how they like, which can lead to habits such as excessive video game usage. Without moderation, problems such as this one can soon spiral out of control.Numerous different studies and experiments were conducted on this topic in the past, some going as far back as ten years. Many pointed to the same conclusion as well: Video game addictions have a proven negative effect on a student’s academic standings, social behavior, and their overall health. There are some variations among the data depending on gender and age, but the conclusions stay the same.First, it has been made evident that the increased usage of video games in college students has a negative correlation to the academic success of those students. In a scholarly journal written by Vivek Anand, he stated that “The amount of time a student spends playing video games has a negative correlation with students' GPA and SAT scores. As video game usage increases, GPA and SAT scores decrease” (Anand, 2007). Anand also went on to say that using a student’s GPA to measure their academic standing is more reliable than using other performance gauges, such as ACT and SAT scores because it provides a continuously updated measurement instead of ones gathered in one day (Anand, 2007). In a study using the GPA’s of 252 college students compared to their gaming habits, it was shown that students who played video games for zero to one hour a week and students who played games for seven or more hours a week had a considerable difference in GPA’s (Ventura, Shute, & Kim, 2012, pp. 1262-1263). In fact, there was a decrease in the average GPA’s of the students who played games, about .18 points to be exact (Ventura, Shute, & Kim, 2012, pp. 1262-1263). In another test, it was found that males are more commonly affected by the effects of video game addictions as well, because male participants were found to play games more often than the female participants were (Burgess, S. R., Stermer, & Burgess, M. C. R., 2012, p. 380). There is significant data pointing to the conclusion that video games can have a negative effect on college student’s academic performance when not moderated.The effects of video games on college students are also evident when analyzing social behavior. As stated by Buelow, Okdie, and Cooper, “Video game play can have a negative effect on … behavior” (Buelow, Okdie, & Cooper, 2015, p. 228). An inverse trend exists between video game usage and social behavior as well. As the amount of time indulging in video games increases, the amount of social behavior exhibited by the college students in question decreases, leading to anti-social behaviors and other secluded behaviors. In fact, “studies suggest that a steady diet of violent games (and violent media in general) can lead to antisocial behavior” (Routledge, 2010). I have experienced this type of social behavior firsthand. As I started to play games more when I was younger, I started to spend less and less time with friends and in other social situations. I started to put video games before other things in my life. Stories of this behavior have also been seen numerous times in the news. The social behavior of college students is greatly affected by the usage of video games.Lastly, the physical and mental health of college students can be negatively affected by the over-use of video games. Many studies of the mental health of gamers have been conducted, mainly on the effects video games can have on how violent someone is. In fact, there is a significant correlation between aggressive thoughts and actions and violent video games, which make up a large portion of the video games played by college students (Craton, 2011). Another article also states this, saying that there are “negative consequences of violent video games, such as increased aggressive behaviors, negative affect, and negative cognitions” (Buelow, Okdie, & Cooper, 2015, p. 228). Also, there is evidence of the use of video games causing health problems such as obesity in users. There is much evidence available to support the claim that video games can have undesirable effects on the mental and physical health of the people who use them, more specifically college students.The purpose of this research is to reinforce the hypotheses of previous studies and to uncover new correlations between the usage of video games and negative effects on the academic success, social behavior, and physical and mental health of college students, specifically those attending Oakland University. I predicted that of the students at Oakland University participating in the study, those who play video games often and for extended periods of time would have a lower GPA than those who play less or not at all. In addition, those who play games more often would exhibit more anti-social behaviors and have a less healthy lifestyle than those who do not play games.MethodThe participants in which the study was conducted on were all students at Oakland University. There were a total of twenty-six participants, with eleven being male and the other fifteen being female. Only people eighteen years or older were surveyed. The cultural and ethnical backgrounds of the participants was not recorded, as it was deemed unimportant due to the nature of the research (It would not have a significant effect on the outcome of the data).The statistics were calculated separately between gamer and non-gamer participants. An overall statistics set was also created. Beyond gamer classification, there were no other ways in which the data was separated. After separation, the data was analyzed for correlations between increased game usage and decreased GPA, decreased social behavior, and lowered overall health.The data was collected using an online survey distributed to my main writing class and passed around on a phone in areas of high foot-traffic. Once the survey was completed, it was collected back and sorted between gamer and non-gamer participants. The validity of the data should be considered accurate, as the survey was conducted with anonymity of participants to increase honesty and obtain a better overall evaluation. This helps to make the survey a much more reliable source of data for the study.The participants selected for the study were students gathered at random in areas of high foot-traffic, such as the student center and the library. By answering the survey, they have given their informed consent, as stated on the survey itself. If the subject was under eighteen years of age, the survey was not taken into the final data calculation. Students were asked to answer truthfully and were assured that the results would remain anonymous.ResultsAfter the collection of data from the surveys, my hypotheses that video games have negative effects on the academic success, social behavior, and overall health of college students has been proven true. Out of the people answering the survey, thirty-one percent classified themselves as gamers, while the other sixty-nine percent did not. Those who were not gamers were used as a base to compare the gamers to. The research was formatted in a way that would highlight correlations between the usage of video games and negative effects caused by them. Such correlations were found in numerous places.The first area of effect studied was academic success in accordance to video game usage. Of the gamer demographic, fifty percent admitted to having GPA’s between 2.0 to 3.0 and the other fifty percent had GPA’s between 3.0 and 4.0. The gamers also reported large amounts of video game usage, with some reaching eight hours or more a week. In the non-gamer population, eighty-eight percent of participants had GPA’s between 3.0 and 4.0, with only six percent having GPA’s between 2.0 and 3.0. The remaining six percent had GPA’s above 4.0. Eighty-nine percent of the non-gamers also reported their usage of video games to be very little, between zero and two hours a week.The second area of effect researched was the negative effects of games on social behavior. Twenty-five percent of research participants in the gamer group answered that they believed their use of video games has caused them to be less social overall. The survey also asked about roughly how much time each participant spends in social settings each week. The gamers answered with a variety of times. Twenty-five percent reported between four and eight hours of social interaction each week, twenty-five percent reported between eight and sixteen hours, and fifty percent reported sixteen or more hours. Of the non-gamers, thirty-three percent answered with zero to eight hours, and the other sixty-seven percent answered with eight or more hours of game time.The last area studied was the effects of video games on physical and mental health. The entire population of the study was used for this research because an overwhelming number of non-gamers reported effects, even with their smaller usage. Since this is a personal subject, I allowed respondents to skip this question. Respondents were also allowed to choose more than one effect. Out of the forty-two percent of participants that answered the question, eighty-two percent admitted that their video game usage has led to a decrease in physical activity, twenty-seven percent reported an increase in weight and exhaustion, and another nine percent responded with increased irritability and antisocial behavior.DiscussionThe findings gathered by using the survey support my hypothesis that video games can cause negative effects on people, such as lowered academic performance, increased antisocial behavior, and problems with physical and mental health. Much of what I found in the research was to be expected. The data also matches up with the conclusions brought up in previous studies. There were also some slight differences though.The first part of the research was designed to show a correlation between the usage of video games and a student’s GPA. By analyzing the data, it is apparent that there is a strong correlation between the two. For those who classified themselves as gamers and admitted to playing video games for longer periods of time, there is a negative correlation between the overall game time and GPA compared to those who would not classify themselves as gamers and played games less often. A large majority of the non-gamer group had GPA’s between 3.0 and 4.0 while the gamer group was split down the middle, with half of the group having GPA’s between 2.0 and 3.0 and the other half between 3.0 and 4.0. This shows that as game time increases, the average GPA of students tends to decrease, proving that the usage of video games has a negative effect on the academic success of those using them.Next, the effects of video games on social behavior was analyzed. There was an odd trend with the data retrieved from the survey in this area though. Only twenty five percent of the total research group believed that video games caused them to be less social, and most of the people who reported this were non-gamers. Also, the amount of time spent in social situations by gamers versus non-gamers is nearly even. This made it impossible to find a correlation between the usage of video games. This outcome is most likely due to the small number of participants used in the study. No conclusion can be drawn from this set of data.Lastly, the results of the questions concerning physical and mental health were analyzed. Many people skipped this question because they have either not had any effects or did not want to talk about them because they are personal. This led to a much smaller group of responses. Of those who responded though, eighty-two percent responded that their usage of video games has caused them to experience a decrease in the amount of physical activity they participate in. Another twenty-seven percent also reported that they experienced increased weight and increased exhaustion when using video games. The data shows that overall, when video game usage is increased, a person’s physical and mental health suffer. With more time being devoted to video games, people are spending less time getting the exercise and sleep they require to stay healthy and function properly, causing these effects to occur. This research corresponds with previous studies on the subject as well. The data gathered in the study proves that video games can have a huge effect on the physical and mental health of the user.There are a few limitations on this study that should also be considered. First, the study may not serve well as an example of the entire student body of Oakland University because of how small the group of participants was. It would be much more effective to interview a larger group of students in the next study so there is more diversity among the responses. Also, in the next study, surveying a group of people made up of primarily gamers would be much more effective. This would assist in getting a more focused look into the topic. It would also help to fix the bias in the current study, because the research group is made up of primarily non-gamers.By looking at the study, it is easy to draw connections between video games and the negative effects they cause. This piece can serve as a great example of a way to find those connections. It can also serve as an example of how to setup your research collection methods. In future studies though, a few things should change. A larger research population should be used for data collection and it should be made up of primarily gamers to get the most focused view on the topic as possible.Overall, my hypotheses that video games negatively affect college student’s academic success, social behavior, and physical and mental health was proven true, but there was one outlier, that being the lack of a correlation for antisocial behavior. Other than that, the study proves that the research done before it is valid. In the future, the correlations between antisocial behavior and video games should be more thoroughly analyzed to find a trend between the two.ReferencesAnand, V. (2007, August). A study of time management: The correlation between video game usage and academic performance markers.?CyberPsychology & Behavior,?10, 552-559.doi:10.1089/cpb.2007.9991Buelow, M. T., Okdie, B. M., & Cooper, A. B. (2015, April 1). The influence of video games on executive functions in college students.?Computers in Human Behavior,?45, 228–234. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.029Burgess, S. R., Stermer, S. P., & Burgess, M. C. R. (2012, June). Video game playing and academic performance in college students. College Student Journal, 46(2), 376-387. Retrieved from , J. (2011, April 6). The effect of videogames on student achievement. Retrieved from , C. (2010, June 7). The social benefits of video gaming. Psychology Today. Retrieved from , M., Shute, V., & Kim, Y. J. (2012, May). Video gameplay, personality and academic performance.?Computers & Education,?58, 1260–1266. doi:10.1016/pedu.2011.11.022 ................
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