In writing my essay on representational versus real violence I stumbled across a few of Craig Anderson’s drastic accounts of the effects of violent media. Anderson has conducted many studies of these effects, from which he manages to procure frightening results alluding to the health of the player. This method is used, I believe, to shock his readers (and concerned parents) into accepting his farfetched views. According to Anderson, the increase in heart rate and blood pressure “clearly supports the hypothesis that exposure to violent video games poses a public-health threat to children and youths, including college-age individuals.” The prime danger of his claims is that they are presented as scientific fact, even given an equation (x2(2) = 0.31, p > .05.) which further instils the notion of truth within his absurd studies. To induce this shock factor Anderson has also been known to parallel the effects of violent media alongside health risks such as the severely adverse effects of smoking, (an analogy also broadcast as fact on an Australian news report in 2010).
“The 14-year-old boy arguing that he has played violent video games for years and has not ever killed anybody is absolutely correct in rejecting the extreme “necessary and sufficient” position, as is the 45-year-old two-pack-a-day cigarette smoker who notes that he still does not have lung cancer.”
Other health risks identified with non-violent gaming include obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis and a rare case known as ‘videogame epilepsy syndrome.’ In opposition to these ‘unhealthy risks’ of gaming, Nintendo cleverly released a console with claims to beneficial health factors, the Wii of 2006. By flipping off an array of active games such as Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus, these titles suggest that the gameplay, requiring similar action to sport and gym exercise, may lead to a healthier lifestyle. While the Wii indicates a gameplay more beneficial for weight management than other consoles, it is not exempt from the possible health concerns of gaming. The gameplay action using the Wiimote has been known to cases of Wii tennis elbow, also known as ‘Wiiitus’ a condition similar to the ‘space invaders wrist’ caused by a repeated button mashing action. This is in addition to the health risks involved in losing complete control of the Wiimote itself.
To conclude, gaming, like all good things, should be taken in moderation, and there is no alternative out for healthy outdoor exercise. When it comes to violent media I would like to recommend Richard Gallagher’s (Director of the Parenting Institute at the NYU Child Study Centre) analogy to the food pyramid. By this method, violent media should be placed at the top of the food pyramid as a guilty pleasure, where in a balanced media diet the violent video games may have useful purposes.
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