I know you all like video games. But is it okay if you play video games every day? Certainly video games can help with anxiety and depression. However we need to focus on BOTH sides. Today I want to talk about BOTH sides of video games.

Video games can improve people’s ability to make accurate decisions and respond quickly to the situation they are in. When people play video games, for some people the video games can actually help their learning (for example there are a lot of educational games). Minecraft, for example, can contribute to engineering. 

However, though video games can improve anxiety and depression, video games can also cause anxiety or depression if you overplay. Since many video games are addictive (meaning that it makes you want to play more), it is easy for your playing to get out of control and thus get anxiety/depression (for example if no one contacts your profile in a video game, you can get depressed and feel isolated.) Also when they get out of control they can cause vision problems and headaches, as there are many players who play video games and later get migraines, or intense headaches. Studies from the NCBI (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3253155/) show that 64.7% of people who have migraines are because they play video games. This means that video games are seriously connected with headaches.

There may be negative consequences when video games get out of control in school. If you play video games when your teacher is teaching, you may get a VOE. A VOE (Violation of Expectation) is a punishment that is given when you don’t follow the school rules, however a VOE is worse than a detention. A VOE means that your parents will be knowing about the situation. 

It is also in the tense situation of the upcoming Fun Night. If you get a VOE, you will not make it to the Fun Night. That’s a big boo-boo! Imagine what it would be like if your friends go to the Fun Night but you don’t!

If you want to go to a college, the college committee reviews your previous activities (and grades). If they see a VOE in the activity, they may not accept you into the school. So when you get a VOE, you may lose a big chance of going into a great college.

So to recap, video games are only helpful if you get in control. If you can get in control, that’s awesome. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than two hours per day. You also can be on both sides. There are times when you should play video games. There are times when you should not play video games, so you need to practice discerning when to play or when not to play. Ultimately, it is your decision and you should be able to decide when to play video games and when NOT to play video games.