Personal Essays

1. What was one idea that the writer gave in the Wide Range of Topics section that you can use as you start deciding on a topic?

2. What was one idea the writer gave in the Opinions Pieces section that you should remember as you are writing your piece?

3. List three suggestions the writer makes in the Personal Essays and Crafts section that you will use as you write.

1. One idea the writer gave me in the wide range of topics section is to choose something I'm passionate about.

2. One thing I should remember is to let readers empathize with the topic.

3. relate to others, be passionate, let readers be involved

Opinions story: Are video games addictive?

In 2007, an American teenager shot both of his parents after they confiscated his copy of Halo 3, a violent video game. This horrible crime is just one amongst hundreds of gruesome crimes revolving around video games. This brings us the question whether video games could be addictive for people today.

From the time that we're little in this generation, we've been put in front of a screen, loving the way it entertains us and gives us joy, and parents love how it keeps kids occupied. As kids get into teen years, violent video games have become a fun hobby for many teens all over the world. However, I don’t think that video games should be the primary pastime for kids in our generation because of its violent tendencies.

About 155 million Americans alone play video games at least three times a week. I personally think that this is too much, and many people play video games for hours on end instead of spending time with friends, family, and loved ones.

I've heard the phrase from my parents, "Get off Xbox!" so many times at my house, among other places, that I can't count. If kids have that much trouble staying away from the controller, it's hard to deny that something's wrong.

The most concerning aspect about this though is how violent the video games are, which has caused many people to show signs of aggression. A new report from American Psychological Association has shown that video games lead to a decrease in empathy and sensitivity to aggression.

I’ve even seen this in my life, when my brother and his friends would all come over to play video games together. They’d get so focused in on killing things, and fighting on the screen, that they’d become hostile and wouldn’t seem to care about anything else. After a few years of slowly stopping playing video games, my brother acts different and seems like he’s more invested in real-life relationships.

Of course, there are some beneficial factors to playing video games. Video games have been proven to increase hand eye coordination, and let’s face it, they can be fun. They can be compared to reading a book - you’re taken to a different world. Video games give us access to experiences that we can’t have in real life.

However, this isn’t worth throwing life away for virtual reality. By playing video games so much, we’re missing out on valuable experiences that could be occurring in our own lives.

One way we could limit this would be to have specific times that we can play video games, and leave the rest of the day for real life. By putting a limit on our gaming time, we can better control that aspect of our lives. At school, I’ve seen so many kids sneaking the new video game Fortnite on their chromebooks while in class. This could be a simple fix, and we can just save video games for home.

By limiting our time with video games and realizing video games can be addictive, we can be more invested in our lives and help more kids create a better foundation for a less aggressive future. Although video games can be fun, it’s important to realize that sometimes we need to put down the controller.