All students face the compulsory requirement of any educational institution to write different kinds of academic writings. Due to different reasons, some students cannot cope with all or most of their assignments. Amongst the common factors are the inappropriate time management, lack of writing skills, poor command of some disciplines, health problems, and some others reasons. In the meanwhile, there are some uncommon reasons, which steadily become widely spread amongst students from all parts of the world. One of such is the influence of gaming in academic writing.
There are two points of view concerning gaming in the life of people. In particular, we are talking about kids and teenagers. On one hand, we have various benefits from gaming. It develops attention, makes people more determined, enhances concentration, sustains memory, etc. On the other hand, there is much harm to health, social development, and learning abilities. Therefore, it is of great importance to mention the negative consequences for students and their academic writing abilities.
There are the following drawbacks:
• Lowered productivity at classes.
• The damage to the brain.
• Social isolation.
• Inappropriate behavior.
• Confusion between reality and fantasy.
• Problems with concentration.
• Strong addiction.
These aspects are crucial, and their sum induces great problems for all students who actively play video games. Their academic progress hugely suffers, and they cannot reach the appointed objectives. There are many cases when students were excluded from colleges and universities because they could not match up with academic standards of the educational programs. This is a huge problem, which requires special attention of society.
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Gaming Consequences in Details
Almost all participants of various psychological studies confirm the fact that gaming lowers the productivity of students in different learning aspects. Definitely, academic writing is one of them. What are the main manifestations?
Firstly, we should pay attention to our brain. This is the working force, which triggers a tremendous variety of reactions that affect our lives in different ways. Undoubtedly, the work of our brain and the central nervous system has the direct relation to learning processes. The level of cognitive functions determines the success in studies. The concentration of neurotransmitters (also called natural chemicals) regulates our behavior, mood, and perception. This is the starting point, which leads to the root of all problems.
Due to constant playing video games, students forget about their academic duties and tasks. They stop fulfilling most of them. In most cases, they simply cannot understand what they are to perform because they fall behind the curriculum. As a result, their productivity greatly decreases.
Multiple studies prove that games, similar to Call of Duty, bring harm to our brain and cognitive functions. Almost all gamers actively use an area of the human brain known as the caudate nucleus. Players get used to navigating themselves using the inbuilt navigation system.
This develops into a strong habit, which negatively reflects on our cognition. People stop using other areas of the brain that are responsible for learning processes.
The amounts of gray matter enhance in the caudate nucleus. In the meanwhile, it decreases in the hippocampus. The scientists claim that such process leads to the occurrence of multiple brain ailments. There may take place all types of depression, and similar severe ailments, and psychological deviations. Undoubtedly, all these illnesses make proper studying impossible for anyone, and students cannot manage their homework assignments.
Social isolation also lowers the academic progress. Students get torn off from the society. It is known that social development and active participation in the life of society positively affects writing skills as well as other ones. Socially undeveloped people cannot succeed in their studying due to the lack of communicative abilities.
As you remember, the levels of neurotransmitters directly influence learning skills. Once these levels are violated, various deviations in behavior start developing. People become more aggressive and act strangely. This is the direct path to self-distraction. As a result, students experience problems with memory capacity, correct language choice, attention, and similar cognitive functions essential for writing skills. Some researches proved that there develops a “consistent correlation”. Violent games induce violent behavior. This disables the process of learning.
This also leads to a dangerous confusion between fantasy and real life. People simply get lost in the world of virtual reality. They lose the possibility to distinguish between what is real and what is the game. This lowers the ability of comprehension of the studied material. Students cannot perceive even the plainest instructions on how to compose an essay. They cannot remember all the rules, don’t follow an assigned writing format, and so on.
It goes without saying that the ability to gain a strong focus gets violated as well. Video games can stimulate a strong concentration but for brief periods of time. Simultaneously, it damages the long-term concentration. Students cannot focus on the appointed tasks for long and fail to complete their assignments.
In the end, they get addicted to gaming. They can hardly live an hour without playing a game. This is a serious disease which can be compared with alcoholism or drug addiction.
The issue of gaming is utterly important. The proven facts show that it has negative consequences for all aspects of learning. Therefore, parents should restrict the access of their children to video games. Of course, students should realize this crucial problem too. They should be self-conscious and stop this destructive process.
