Since the 1970’s people have been raving over video games. There are thousands of games and the craze for them is over the top. The average age of people who play video games is 31 years old. But, the amount of time teens spend playing video games is alarming. Teens shouldn’t play video games as excessively as they do. It’s understandable if they play it to relax or chill, but spending most of their time on it is not good for their health. Pew Research found that 72% of teens ages 13 to 17 play video games and many parents feel that they spend too much time doing it. The CS Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan said that 54% of parents reported their children doing extended gaming of 3 or more hours each day. They also found that nearly 90% of parents say that their kids spend too much time gaming.
Many people have discussed how parents should take a closer look at their teen’s gaming behavior and set reasonable limits on it to benefit their sleep, family and peer relationships, and school performance. If a teen plays a video game right when they get home from school, without any limitations, they most likely won’t notice the time go by. They can fall behind in their school work. Some teens could pull all-nighters to finish their homework because they spent their day playing games. It’s understandable to want to take short breaks from school work but they shouldn’t put their school life and personal life aside completely.

Playing video games for an hour can be beneficial because it allows people to relax, reducing stress and increasing their happiness. Many people use them as a coping mechanism for anxiety but doing this may increase risk for addiction. You can get really attached to a video game and if you don’t play it for a long period of time, you can get restless or irritated. There have been cases where teens start lying to their parents about how long they played for, or that the teens might be thinking about a previous match in the game or anticipation for the next time they play. Playing for over 3 hours can have negative impacts like computer eye syndrome which is a condition that occurs from focusing the eyes on a computer or other display device for prolonged, uninterrupted periods of time and the eye muscles being unable to recover from strain due to a lack of adequate sleep. It also can cause eye pain, issues with focusing, and even headaches. If you limit your time on the TV, laptop, desktop, and cellphone to a reasonable amount, you can avoid those damages to your body and focus on things that matter more like your family and school.