In contemporary society many children watch television for extended periods of time. Furthermore, they also spend a lot of time playing video games. As far as I am concerned, I agree that this has a profound impact on the child’s mental health as this does not help them develop their social skills, leading to a lack of self-confidence in future, and certain video games are violent and could lead to many negative effects on the child’s mental state.
A significant number of adolescents spend a considerable portion of their time watching TV or playing games. This could lead to a deterioration of their social and interpersonal skills. When a child spends countless hours in front of a television screen they lose the ability to communicate with other people. Moreover, in future when they grow up to become adults, their lack of communication skills may cause a lapse in conversation during crucial times, such as during a job interview. This could cause them to lose self-confidence, ultimately affecting their mental health. For instance, research carried out in Australia found that 3 in 10 adults who spent their childhood watching television or playing games reported a lack of morale and self esteem, as they had not spent time engaging with other people, and as a result did not know how to effectively communicate their needs and requirements to people whom they met in their daily life.
Nowadays, the latest video games that are released have large amounts of gore and violence attributed to them. Furthermore, when school-going children are exposed to these harmful stimuli, this can cause them to either develop negative traits, or cause them to develop emotional trauma. Consequently, the children could harm their peers in school by trying to emulate these obscene acts without them realising that their actions are morally unacceptable. If these children are not dealt with effectively, they could potentially become murderers or serial killers in the future. To epitome, studies conducted in the USA revealed around 35% of people who committed heinous crimes admitted to playing violent computer games during their childhood, and further stated it gave them a sense of power and satisfaction, thus leading them to taking the lives of many innocent people.
In conclusion, lots of children in modern times spend a majority of their time in front of a digital screen. The ramifications of this can cause them to lose their conversational skills, and could also lead to a drop in their morale and self-esteem. In addition, if children are left unsupervised with violent computer games, this could cause a lot of problems down the line, such as them becoming criminals or conducting activities which society condemns.