The major problem with this is that the incidence of childhood obesity in the U.S. is three times higher than it was 40 years ago. Research shows that the increased use of technology by children during leisure time has transformed play from what used to be more physically active to sedentary. Children are often engaged in an environment that exposes them to food advertisement that encourages even more caloric consumption. Despite the linkage between technology and sedentary behavior, no consistent policy exists at the federal level that articulates government's role to address this issue (Campbell, Gilmore, McGinty, Pickering and Ramos, 2009).
A new study shows that every hour that a child plays video games or watches television may double their risk of obesity. This is not the first study to associate childhood obesity with time spent in front of the television or playing video games, but researchers say this study offers new insight into the extent of the problem. Researchers have found that each hour the children played video games or watched television doubled the likelihood that the child was obese (Warner, 2004).
According to new research on video games and children, another downside of playing video games is that kids are spending less time reading or doing homework. The data for this study came from diaries that were completed by nearly 1,500 U.S. kids and teens who were 10 to 19 years of age during the 2002-2003 school year. In the diaries, these people accounted for how they spent their time. They kept two sets of diaries, one on a randomly chosen weekday and one on a randomly chosen Saturday or Sunday. More than a third of the group or 36%, reported playing video games. It was reported that compared with non-gamers, adolescent gamers spent 30% less time reading and 34% less time doing homework (Video Games May Divert Kids From Homework, 2007).
The data surrounding children's video game habits are correlated with risk factors for health and with poorer academic performance. When video game play is looked at in regards to violent content, additional risk factors are observed for aggressive behavior and desensitization to violence. It is not a far stretch from this to think that they also affect young adults in the workplace as well. Young children are found to spend the majority of their free time playing video...
And young adults have been known to either not be motivated enough to look for a job or not willing to stop playing video games long enough to go to work and be productive.
A pattern can be seen going from the children to the young adults. Letting children spend all of their free time playing video games is not a good thing. Not only are the levels of childhood obesity growing because the children are not getting enough physical activity in their lives they are not putting any effort into their homework. This is developing a generation of young adults who have this same behavior pattern when it comes to going to work. They don't seem to have the time for or interest in going to work. And once there they don't have the inclination to do a good job. These people are often poor performers. This phenomenon can be attributed to the fact that with most video games the players often have multiple lives or chances in which to succeed. Because of this young people often feel that like in the video game that they will be given multiple chances in the work place in order to be successful.
References
Campbell, Casie, Gilmore, William, McGinty, James, Pickering, Jennifer and Ramos, Joseph.
(2009). Minimizing Technologies' Contribution to Childhood Obesity. Retrieved March 2,
2010, from Web site: http://wmgilmore.iweb.bsu.edu/technology_assessment.html
Do violent video games contribute to youth violence? (2010). Retrieved March 2, 2010, from Pro
Con Web site: http://videogames.procon.org/
LaRue Huget, Jennifer. (2010). Study links violent video games to violent thought, action.
Retrieved March 2, 2010, from the Washington Post Web site:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2010/03/study_shows_violent_video_game.html
Video Games May Divert Kids From Homework. (2007). Retrieved March 2, 2010, from CBS
News Web site:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/02/health/webmd/main3009349.shtml
Warner, Jennifer. (2004). Video Games, TV Double Childhood Obesity Risk. Retrieved March 2,
2010 from Web MD Web site: http://children.webmd.com/news/20040702/video-games-
tv-double-childhood-obesity-risk
