Does online gaming have a negative impact on teenagers in society? [ENDS 09/05/2010]

[alexxxxx]

in my opinion yeah it does. it turned one of my friends into a guy who just sat at his xbox all day and do nothing all summer holidays.

[Matthew]

I think it CAN have a negative effect.
My friend used to be a great all rounder at school; he was smart, funny, sporty... he had everything lol
then he started playing on COD ALL the time, and now hes... less smart (worse grades), less sporty (he cba to do it anymore) and hes not funny because all he talks about is COD.

I have to admit i had a serious addiction to habbo, and it stopped me doing the things ive done for my life up to that point. It stopped me from reading (i used to read till like 11 sometimes), and it made me spend less time on homework (i got the same grades but you could tell id spent a lot less time on it).

generally, as has been said, if you dont know your limits then games do have negative effect. If you know when to stop, then a bit of COD here and there cant hurt, can it?

[Adamm]

I wouldn't say I'm addicted to gaming but it's a daily thing. I'll go out if someone wants me to go out but if I'm at home I'm usually either on computer or XBOX. It's just what I do. Some people read books, I play games. I don't see a problem.

[Blinger$]

From a personal perspective my social life is limited. I stay up past 8pm maybe once a week, or twice a week IF I'm lucky. Since I'm a baker, I don't get to hang out with my mates much. I don't play online games often, only ever on my ps3 and that isn't frequant since nobody plays between 12-4pm on a Monday -> Wednesday. Thursday is my " going out night" and Friday is early sleeping again!
But in general, of course it has a negative factor. But you are socializing when you play online (if u talk/type) it's just a different type

[Barkseh]

Yes it 100% does. It used to be my life.. I'm so glad I got bored of Habbo/Habbox. My life is soooooooo much better now =)

[Gibs960]

My Xbox is who I am lol, :L but I still talk to friends at school and prefer to play football or netball and go out with mates, I'd give up my Xbox to go out with mates

[Neil]

It does effect people but it depends on the person whether it's negatively or not, I personally have no problem staying up until 5 in the morning playing a game then waking up at 8-9 to go to college or something, I don't fall asleep in classes or lose concentration, my sleeping pattern just doesn't require the full 8 hours most people need, of course it's nice to have good long sleeps but I can't say it effects me badly, personally I like being able to stay up and enjoy myself on a game, it's not "sad" or "pathetic", it's just what I enjoy, like some people enjoy movies, some enjoy playing guitar, some enjoy arts and crafts, all require a decent amount of time and are all equally enjoyable, all are hard but possible to earn livings from, so I'm not a "sad gaming loser" that sits in my room all day, I actually spend a good amount of time out with my girlfriend and the rest of the time is spent playing xbox or something, all of my friends have xboxs so it's not really a loss of a social life really.

So for me it hasn't negatively effected my life at all, but that's just me, of course others are badly effected, one of my friends is quite the WoW freak but yea.

[Jonster]

It does effect people but it depends on the person whether it's negatively or not, I personally have no problem staying up until 5 in the morning playing a game then waking up at 8-9 to go to college or something, I don't fall asleep in classes or lose concentration, my sleeping pattern just doesn't require the full 8 hours most people need, of course it's nice to have good long sleeps but I can't say it effects me badly, personally I like being able to stay up and enjoy myself on a game, it's not "sad" or "pathetic", it's just what I enjoy, like some people enjoy movies, some enjoy playing guitar, some enjoy arts and crafts, all require a decent amount of time and are all equally enjoyable, all are hard but possible to earn livings from, so I'm not a "sad gaming loser" that sits in my room all day, I actually spend a good amount of time out with my girlfriend and the rest of the time is spent playing xbox or something, all of my friends have xboxs so it's not really a loss of a social life really.

So for me it hasn't negatively effected my life at all, but that's just me, of course others are badly effected, one of my friends is quite the WoW freak but yea.

I don't quite believe you can stay up until 5 in the morning and the next day have full concentration. Humanely that just isn't possible - you will just act a sieve all day taking in only small bits of information - then again, it depends what your day involves. For me going to college each day involves an hour commute through slow moving traffic on a packed out bus, to then have 2 to 3 lessons each 1hr30mins long to then commute back home for an hour. Then sometimes its a case of going to work in the evenings and it has a major knock on effect. Change this to what I previously did, and replace it with a 10 minute walk to school to have a relatively easy 6 hour day to get home for half 3 I could quite easily stay up until 3/4am and feel absolutely fine the next day - now that is just physically impossible for me.

I know that with all of this going on I need to stop staying up until 1/2am playing games, but I still do it. As you quite rightfully said, its a form of enjoyment - I would rather spend my time playing a game than sit downstairs watching TV for 4 hours. I'm a PC gaming addict; I'll admit that and frankly I'm not ashamed of it. The problem I see is that you will get involved in a game, lets say COD4, and next thing you know its 3 hours on after having mixed with a few mates against other teams.

[Oleh]

i have to admit im addicted to all things technical (xbox and pc)( ps3 sucks)
But it is the only thing to do nowadays, 99 times out of 100 i get asked to go out all that will happen is we'll go for a walk around the village and thats it, not exactly fun, the other 1 time is to go play footy which is fun as its 30 mins of raw arse then walk everyone home whilst hedge jumping.

Most of the people i talk to (about half of my year) all understand me and dont care as half of them play games aswell

[Neil]

i have to admit im addicted to all things technical (xbox and pc)( ps3 sucks)
But it is the only thing to do nowadays, 99 times out of 100 i get asked to go out all that will happen is we'll go for a walk around the village and thats it, not exactly fun, the other 1 time is to go play footy which is fun as its 30 mins of raw arse then walk everyone home whilst hedge jumping.

Most of the people i talk to (about half of my year) all understand me and dont care as half of them play games aswell

Exactly, when I go out it's really just walking aimlessly around town, me and my friends will go to pizza hut sometimes but really the more enjoyable thing would be to go to someones house, bust out some beers and play halo on forge mode, mostly because that's a pretty decent party game.