The Effects of Video Games

A brief review and background on Video Games:

Video games go as far back as the 1940s, according to Wikipedia (2011), when Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr. and Estle Ray Mann invented the first video game described as a "cathode ray tube amusement device." Video games didn’t reach mainstream popularity until it was introduced to the public in 1970s and 80s. Since then, video games have become apart of the modern culture in the developing world.

Video games have become really popular over the last 30 years; so popular in fact that 65% of American households play video games and the number is increasing. It was assumed that the gaming population was people under 18, however today they only make up 25%, and what is more surprising is the fact that there are more people over 50 that play the game than children. It was also assumed that most gamers are from the male population when in fact 2 out of 5 gamers are female.

There are three kinds of console preferences the Nintendo’s Wii, the Microsoft’s Xbox360 and Sony’s playstation3. The Wii is most popular with the females with 80% saying it’s their primary console. Just 11% play the Xbox360 and 9% prefer the playstation3. Males, however; are more split up 41% still play the Wii primarily, but fully 38% prefer Xbox and 21% like the PlayStation.

The two largest markets for video gamers are japan and the US. So if you want to see how well consoles are doing, just compare the market in Japan and with the market in the US. The PlayStation3 has sold 12.35 million units; in comparison Japan has sold 4.58 million units, combined with the international market it has sold 31.59 million units in total. The Wii has met success in both the US and Japan selling around 30.56 million units and 9.67 million units, with a grand total of 65.32 million units sold worldwide.

Video Games:

Video games are popular all around the world. Video games are “An electronic or computerised game played by manipulating images on a video display or television screen” (video game 2009). My brother is one of those people who play video games on a regular basis. There are benefits and harmful affects of playing video games and that’s what I am going to talk about next.

There are many benefits to playing video game, one of them is perseverance; players usually fail the first time they play a level and they keep on trying until they succeed.  It also helps them learn how to work in team; many games are played online and require cooperation with other online players. Another advantage is having the ability to think quick and making fast decisions. Video games also develop the player’s reading skills; young gamers force themselves to read instructions, follow story-lines, and get information from the game texts.

            On the other hand, playing video games has its side effects. Playing too much video game makes the player socially isolated. They spend less time and energy on other activities like homework, sports, and interacting with family and friends. A study by the Minneapolis-based National Institute for Media and the Family suggests that video games can be addictive for kids, and a kids' addiction to video games increases their depression and anxiety levels.

            Many have debated whether video games induce violence or not. This topic has been on the minds of sociologist, researchers and so many other people ever since the first console was made.

            Can video games make kids more violent? A study done by the researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine might suggest that the answer is yes. The research included two groups of kids playing a violent and a non-violent game for about 30 minutes. The first game was the non-violent racing game “Need for Speed: Underground.” The other was the ultra-violent first-person shooter “Medal of Honor: Frontline.” Later the children were given an MRI of their brains.

            The scans showed a negative affect on the brains of the teens that played “Medal of Honor” for 30 minutes and that same result was not present on the other brain scan of the group who played “Need for Speed”. The only difference between them is the violent content. The fear here is how well the effect is on a child in the long run, as this study was only 30 minutes long.

Despite the facts and research done on this matter, there are speculations that the studies against video games might be biased. Patrick Kierkegaard of the University of Essex, England says that that there is no connection between real life violence and video games. “Violent crime, particularly among the young, has decreased dramatically since the early 1990s," says Kierkegaard, "while video games have steadily increased in popularity and use. For example, in 2005, there were 1,360,088 violent crimes reported in the USA compared with 1,423,677 the year before.”

Other studies showed not only that video games decrease crimes, but it also helps adolescent boys redirect their anger and aggression towards video games and not in real life. A 2007 study by the Journal of Adolescent Health reported that 45% of boys play games was because it “helps them get their anger out” and 62% played because it “helps them relax.”

Playing video games has its good sides and it has its bad sides. We can say that violent video games encourage violence and aggression, but we can also say that playing violent video games allows youth to learn how to control their emotions when faced with a difficult situation.

Video games don’t necessarily affect you psychologically, but it can stop you from carrying out your responsibilities in your own life. You have to learn how to divide your time equally and set boundaries between having too much fun and doing your responsibilities. I believe that you should have a balance in your life, even though am not a player, I can see the good and bad affects video games is having on people who play around me.

Sources

Does Game Violence keep teens Aggressive? (2006).

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16099971/ns/technology_and_science-games/t/does-game-violence-make-teens-aggressive/#.U2S-m62SzXg

Do violent video games contribute to youth violence? (2011). ProCon.org. 

http://videogames.procon.org/

The Good and Bad Effects of Video Games (n.d.) Raise Smart Kid. 

http://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/34-the-good-and-bad-effects-of-video-games

Video Games And Violence: Are Studies Biased? (2008). Scientific Blogging. 

http://www.science20.com/news_releases/video_games_and_violence_are_studies_biased

Videogame Statistics (2011). Educational Database Online. 

http://www.onlineeducation.net/videogame

Wikipedia (2011) History of games. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_history_of_video_games

            

Analysis - Ode Intimations of Immortality by William Wordsworth

Sundus Al Ghafri

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was one of the major English writers of the late 18^th and early 19^th Century. Along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge they lead English Literature into the Romantic Age with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads.  Ode: Intimations of Immortality From Records of Early Childhood (1807) –is one of Wordsworth’s greatest lyrical achievements. It opens with the saying: The Child is father of the Man; / And I could wish my days to be / Bound each to each by natural piety.

In the first stanza, the speaker reflects of a time when nature seemed unreal and bizarre to him, kind of like a dream, “apparelled in celestial light,” but its gone now and those times are not coming back “the things I have seen I can see no more.” In the second stanza he mentions the beauty of the roses, still admires the rainbow and the sun, though the speaker always felt like something was changed "But yet I know, where'er I go, / That there hath past away a glory from the earth."

He was filled with sorrow and misery when he heard the birds singing and saw the lambs jumping in the third stanza, but the nature of the waterfall and the mountain’s echoes brings him back to the essence of life and urges the young shepherds boy to shout and share his joy with him. In the fourth stanza, the speaker enjoys the nature’s festival and says while the children’s play, feeling unhappy at this time would be wrong. Still, when he sees a tree and a field it quickly reminds him that something is missing making him question the situation, "Whither is fled the visionary gleam? / Where is it now, the glory and the dream?"

The fifth stanza "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting." As children we experience all the joys of heaven and nature. Human beings begin their early life with a clearer vision of the magic of nature; it is not until we grow up that we loose that clarity and connection with the heavens. The speaker in the sixth stanza says when man arrives on earth it seems like everything around works against them to make them forget where they came from, the heavens. "Forget the glories he hath known, and that imperial palace whence he came."

He imagines a six year-old boy, in the seventh stanza, and predicts the boy’s future. From his parent’s love for him to the experiences in his life he’ll learn from. "And with new joy and pride / The little Actor cons another par," yet he will go on living a life that has already been lived, it’ll be an imitation of all human lives from attending a weddings, a funerals, festivals and so on.

In the eighth stanza he addresses the boy and calls him a philosopher.  The speaker is confused by the child’s choice to grow up so fast into adulthood. His youth allows him to be closer to the heavens, why want a life with endless imitations when he can have the heavens glories? The ninth stanza, the speaker is filled with joy at the thought of reconnecting to his young early life through his childhood memories.

“Hence is a season of calm weather

Though inland far we be,

Our souls have sight of that immortal sea

Which brought us hither,

Can in a moment travel thither,

And see the Children sport upon the shore,

And hear the might water rolling evermore.”

He calls to the creatures of nature that earlier made him sad, in the tenth stanza, to sing out their sounds to him "Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!" even though he acknowledges the loose of nature’s glory he is relieved by the fact that he can trust his memories. In the final stanza, the speaker says that his love of nature is the source of his memories of a life he longs for. Even the simplest blooming of a flower can spur up the deepest memories, "To me the meanest flower that blows can give / Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."

The whole poem is about guilt and wish fullness; Wordwoths is saddened by the fact that humanity has lost its connection to the youth. A child’s life is the closest thing to a heavens life, yet the child is eager to grow up and have a life of a grown up, which infuriates Wordworth. The nature of a May’s morning manages to relax him and let him enjoy a peace of heaven on earth, even though it comes and goes with the seasons.

Our memories are the only real link to the heaven’s beauty as we enter adulthood. When we are consumed in our life’s worries from thinking about our futures and how it’ll look like, we can fall back on the pieces of memories that we accumulated during our years of childhood.

Sources 

William Wordsworth. Wikipedia. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth#Autobiographical_work_and_Poems_in_Two_Volumes

 Wordsworth, W. (1804) ODE: INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD.

http://pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/odeioi.pdf

Wordsworth's Poetical Works Summary and Analysis. 

http://www.gradesaver.com/wordsworths-poetical-works/study-guide/section9/

Critical Analysis of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling

Sundus Al Ghafri

Rudyard Kipling as a part of the Jungle Book Collection wrote the short story of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. The story holds many meanings that we as readers could relate to and feel a certain emotion towards. Growing up and Bravery are the most important meanings. Growing up requires a certain level of bravery to be able to survive through. The point the author tried to make was that with bravery comes victory, good will always overcome evil. The mongoose and main character of the story, Rikki-tikki, is a fascinating creature.

The story begins with a song sung by Darzee the conflict between Red-Eye and Nag. Later Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (Mongoose) is introduced and described how he ended up with a human family. While the Mongoose is introduced to Darzee and his wife, he meets Nag and Nagina (Antagonist) and almost gets into a fight but Rikki-Tikki-Tavi manages to escape. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi over hears Nag and Nagina are planning to kill The Big Man, Alice and Teddy. He doesn’t accept that, so he comes up with a plan to stop them. The Mongoose defeats Nag and Nagina as well as removing any danger, like the snake eggs. The story ends with an announcement made by the coppersmith that the snakes are dead. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is proud of him self and sleeps next to teddy in his bed, while the parents watch over them now.

Rikki-tikki-tavi knew he had to stop the evil cobra.

©2007 Publications International, Ltd.

The short story has many literary elements from the themes and conflicts, to the characters and settings. When we look at the characters we notice the personification of how the animal characters have human like traits. Example, the animals in the story are given human names, such as Nag, Nagina, Darzee and so on. Also, just like humans receive news through a source like TV and newspapers the animals of that garden receive their news through CopperSmith. The conflicts can be a physical one, man vs. man and in this case animal vs. animal, where Rikki-Tikki-Tavi has to fight with his natural enemies, the snakes. As well as, man vs. circumstances, the mongoose struggles with his fate, as a snake killer, and realizes what he is meant to do.

Although he is brave, he is also immensely clever. Rikki won the fight with it and he maintained his self-dignity using it. “Rikki-tikki had a right to be proud of himself; but he did not grow too proud, and he kept that garden as a mongoose should keep it, with tooth and jump and spring and bite, till never a cobra dared show its head inside the walls.” Rikki-Tikki does not let this victory change him into a smug mongoose that see’s himself worthy and more deserving for killing the snake. He manages to stay humble and prove his maturity with his modesty.

Rikki’s curiosity helps him in achieving more than what is expected of a young mongoose. “[…], and as [Nagaina] plunged into the rat-hole where she and Nag used to live, [Rikki-tikki's] little white teeth were clenched on her tail, and he went down with her—and very few mongooses, however wise and old they may be, care to follow a cobra into its hole.” Rikki’s bravery allows him to see past the fear and terror of a cobra’s den.  

The short story promotes bravery and maturity, a lesson in which we as humans need to observe and understand. Kipling gives out small life lessons through characters that are natural enemies and applies human traits to connect and remind us of how to handle tough situations. No matter how small and weak you think you are, victory is not based on physical strength but relay’s also on mental and emotional strength. There is always another element that helps in defeating the enemy; the weak that fights for his family will always win the strong who fights for him self, that extra incentive works a long way.

To conclude, whether it is fighting a war or fighting your inner demons we can always apply the same principle to the both situations. We need not seek for the complicated solutions but for the courage and clear purpose of what we might gain out of it. Good will always overcome evil, it might not win the battle but it certainty will win over the war.

Sources
http://www.shmoop.com/rikki-tikki-tavi/
http://www.howstuffworks.com/rikki-tikki-tavi-story1.htm

Quick Facts!!

Facts On Social Media:

Twitter:

•     Twitter gets more than 300,000 new users every day.
• ·      There are currently 110 million users of Twitter’s services.
• ·      Twitter started as a simple SMS-text service.
• ·      More than a third of users access Twitter via their mobile phone.

Facebook:

• ·      The average Facebook user has 130 friends.
• ·      People that access Facebook via mobile are twice as active than non-mobile users.
• ·      The average Facebook user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events.
• ·      People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook.

YouTube:

• ·      The very first video uploaded was called “Me at the Zoo”, on 23rd April 2005.
• ·      YouTube receives more than 2 billion viewers per day.
• ·      Every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.
• ·      Over half of YouTube’s users are under 20 years old.
• ·      You would need to live for around 1,000 years to watch all the videos currently on YouTube.

·    

And since I am an English literature major here are some

interesting facts about the English language:

• ·      The most common letter in English is "e".
• ·      More English words begin with the letter "s" than with any other letter.
• ·      The word "triskaidekaphobia" means, "fear of Friday the 13th". It also means "superstition about the number thirteen" in general.
• ·      The word "alphabet" comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha, bēta.
• ·      We can find 10 words in the 7-letter word "therein" without rearranging any of its letters: the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.
• ·      The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis.     

Sources

http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t80.htm

http://www.englishclub.com/interesting-facts/index.htm

  http://dannybrown.me/2010/07/03/cool-facts-about-social-media