Guiding Teenagers to Use Video Games Properly

Abstract

With the increasing popularity of video games, some problems have arisen. For some people, video games can be said to be “destructive”, causing irreparable harm; For others, however, teenagers’ use of video games has produced some positive results. The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of video games on young people and how the community should guide young people to use video games to achieve positive effects and avoid negative effects. Through the analysis of literature and cases, this paper analyzes the positive and negative effects of electronic games on teenagers from the perspectives of society, psychology, and science, and studies the feasible ways for parents, schools, governments, and other groups to correctly guide teenagers to use electronic games. It is found that electronic games can have different effects on teenagers, both positive and negative, depending on the situation. Overall, the study reported more negative effects than positive ones. Among them, the negative aspects include addiction, affecting academic performance, causing psychological disorders, leading to suicide, affecting family relations, leading to social problems, leading to negative emotions, etc. The positive effects include cultivating prosocial behavior and satisfying psychological needs that are difficult to achieve in real life. To properly guide teenagers to use electronic games, all sectors of society, including parents, schools, and governments, can take some actions to achieve the goal.