1. Introduction
The development of technology in the 21st century has been bringing to us many advantages. One of these is online games-a popular kind of game among teenagers. Online games can be simply defined as games which can be played online over the internet. Online games also can be played against different users in different locations. The trend of playing online games is getting more popular due to the different advantages they offer. Playing online games has a lot of benefits because it helps us to relax and entertain. However at the same time, online games also have disadvantages if we play too much and people should be careful. Therefore, there are many different views about online gaming. This paper, with the purpose of helping stop game addiction, will discuss the questions of what impacts do online games can bring and what should we do to avoid gaming addiction.
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2. Discussion of findings
2.1 Some statistic about playing online games in Vietnam
A survey done by Education and Training Department in 2010 in 1121 schools in Hanoi had shown that there were 12.724 students playing online games more than ten times a week and there were 626 students spending ten hours playing online games each time. Especially, 2920 students said that spent at least 20 VND each time. To get the money for playing, 121.365/370.387 students asked from parents, 65336 students asked sisters and brothers, and 35615 asked friends. Others sources were from their money for breakfast and tuition. That means teens were dependent on adults and they could not afford to play games.
There are many kinds of online games in Vietnam market. At 2010, there were 69 approved online games; however; there were actually 102 games already circulating for sale. Many games likes “Vo Lam Truyen Ky”, “Chinh Do” involve virtual fighting, destruction, killing, dying and many images of knifes, swords and some kind of weapons like that.
Most gamers have a desire to become the strongest. Therefore, they pays lots of money and effort to purchase weapons, spend plenty of time playing online games to increase their level and participate in individual or group no matter night or day.
2.2 The advantages and disadvantages of playing online games
2.2.1 The advantages of playing online games
The first benefit we can see is that online games are much more convenient than traditional games (Jim 2009). After a busy day from school, children can go home or go to the Internet shop to play games. Just by few clicks, they can play a lot of different games. Everything is done on computers so it is also easier for children. Moreover, the cost of online games is cheaper than other ones, so online players can enjoy free games and just need pay from five to ten VND to the shop (gamek.vn 2011).
According to some researches on the Internet, playing online games allows players to be more flexibility and variety, and can stimulate the players, even make the players become more resourceful and clever. As the network game, there are many and varied tasks or fight for gold to carry out, so it can train that players thinking and adaptability. When playing games, teens can make friends through the Internet and learn how to deal with relations and mutual respect. In addition, although the virtual world is a fictional world, the friends are still real so they can feel the friendship between players. By playing online games, teens can learn the spirit of unity, cooperation and teamwork such as how teams work together to deal with evil powerful enemies and do team tasks. When teens with their team join in the war, they need to find many ways to help and to save each other, so that they can beat the rivals and finish the game (itemah.com 2011).
2.2.2 The disadvantages of playing online games
Of course along with the advantages, there are a few disadvantages of playing online games but only if teenagers have no control over their actions. Online games can be very addictive, and the addiction can seriously have a negative influence on the younger in term of physical and mental health. Online game is an indoor and sedentary activity. Therefore, spending a lot of time playing games can lead to some health problem like headache, short-sightedness, stress, absent-mindedness and many more. The article “Online games ruin gamers’ lives” (Saigon-gp.com.vn 2009) has given an example of a gaming addict-a young girl who stayed at the shop for one week and barely left her computer for one minute or a boy played online games continuously for six days-smelt very bad and looked exhausted. This example indicates that teens now can spend most of their time sitting in front of the computer screens from early morning until midnight without eating anything or doing something else. Moreover, this can lead to lack of physical activities among teens and they will lose or gain weight quickly, become lazier, less active and communicative. Troubles with work, psychological and breakdowns in personal relationships are some consequences too. They also do not care about everything around or talk with no one else (John 2012). Furthermore, online games addiction was found to be associated with lower grade point average and school performance (Daria and Mark, 2012, p.10, cited in Chan and Rabinowitz, 2006; Gen-tile, 2009; Choo et al., 2010; Gen-tile et al., 2011)
Another obvious consequence of online game addiction is violence or crime. Tauqueer H (2011) stated:
“This will not only harm individuals and families but it will also have an extreme negative impact on the society. Most of the disasters that happen in families start from online gambling activities that encourage the players to attack their family members or steal their assets besides committing other offences.”
Also having the similar opinion, Prof Bushman also said: “Those who played violent online games always looked at the world through the aggressive eyes and that the world is a place of aggression and hostility. He concluded: “Gaming is not the only cause of aggression but it is a very important factor affecting to teens’ behavior which grows over time.” (C.Nguyen 2012). They emphasized the fact that violent can seriously affect children through online game and this can not be dismissed if we do not want bad things happen to our children.
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2.3 Solutions
It is has been suggested in the article “Toa thuoc nao khi con nghien game” (baomoi.com 2009) that there are four ways to prevent gaming addiction. The first way is letting teens play if his grade is good. That means if he did well at school like pass the exam with high scores or his grade is better than before, being allowed to play games can be considered as a reward. The second step is letting the child use computer if you sit next to him/her. Of course he can be uncomfortable but that is the only way you can watch him and tell him when to stop playing. The third important solution is encouraging teens to participate in outdoor activities like playing sports, camping, shopping. This action can help them more active, flexible and help them to forget about playing online games all day.
However, if teenagers have been addicted for playing online games for a long time, you may have to delete the software associated with the game or block the related websites. People can also go to the psychologists to ask for advices.
3. Conclusion:
From the findings above, it is clear that game online addiction in Vietnam is still a big issue. The number of teenager playing online games is increasing and adults somehow can not control their children. However, there are also reasons to believe addiction in online games will decrease in the following years if we know how to take advantages of online games and the solution to avoid addiction. Then, hopefully, no one will have to worry about letting their children play online games.
(Word count: 1334 words)
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