Effects of Computer Games on the Socialization Process and Inclination to Violence of Adolescent Students

Introduction

Computer games with their visual and aural features which teens spend most of their times with are one of the main complaints that both parents and educators have. Some parents state that their children never stop playing, that they worry about their children being addicted to these games while some teachers attribute the decreasing success of the students to this game industry.

The impact of these games on students that both parents and educators utter ever so often is also one the main points that social scientists think and survey about it. One of the topics that is important is that playing too much computer games affects teen’s social developement. It is obvious that spending too much time while playing games instead of spending that time with family and friends will not be beneficial at all. Besides adolescence is a period where teens socialize more, it is also known that it’s a autism period. Therefore it is so important that teens can get through this period in a healthy way. An unsuccesful socialization can lead to a search for satisfaction over computer games. Researchers are also of the same mind that computer games decreases the time that can be spent on activities such as reading.

Researches associate the computer games’ second important impact on teens with violence. As violence comes with humanity itself, it is inevitable that violence also has changed with current technical developments. In a period where emotional developtment occurs at its best such as adolescence, teenagers being too much involved in computer games even they are virtual, made the violence in these games questionable. Adelescence is an identification and emulation period. Through computer games, most teenagers identify themselves with the virtual characters and try to satisfy themselves this way. Surveys mostly state that these models contain extreme violence.

According to social scientists, the maintanence of appropriate and succesful socialization in puberty minimises the violence tendency for the youth. Socialization and violence, which are two dynamic and intricate concepts, are extremly related to each other. It should be stated that the socialization which is mentioned above, requires to produce the intended behaviors in terms of ethics and psycology. It is obvious that the socialization process which allows and encourages violence cannot have an ethical value. The socialization which is based on violence is extremely dangerous in adolescense period.

By all means, the factors that influence the socialization process of adolescences and their violence tendecy are plenty, and playing computer games is one of them. However, it is a significant parameter which affects the socialization process and violence tendencey of the adolescence. Parents may have a clue about their children’s socialization process via controlling the games that their children choose to play and the time they spend on playing. The way the children’s hanging out with his friends being quite few or not at all may be a significant hint for a problem in his socialization process. And again, the reasons of a child’s choosing violence games continously over others should be examined.

In the first chapter of the study, the conceptual frame of violence, violence with its psychosocial dimensions and the popularization of violence through media are handled. In the second chapter, adolescence, socialization and concept of games are explained. For the third chapter, the evolution of computer games and their effects on adolescents are mentioned. In the last chapter, based on the surveys in the paper; the effects of computer games on adolescent’s socialization process and their tendency to violence are interpreted and some suggestions are developed about the results of the study.