Video games are truly incredible and an underestimated game changing innovation of the modern age. Human beings can pick up a controller, turn on a television, and turn their attention and mind to an entirely new reality. Suddenly Joe Smith can become Harry Potter, Batman, or an American soldier fighting for the greater good of his respective world. Rather than being one of thousands of college freshman studying for tests, doing homework, and attending the same classes every week, Joe Smith becomes one of a kind. He becomes a hero, at least in his own mind.

I must admit it sounds pretty amazing, but my amazement with video games is far outweighed by my resentment of them as I am too familiar with their damaging psychological effects.

Video games can be psychologically dangerous for many reasons, many of which we will explore in this column. Video games offer a false sense of accomplishment and cause gamers to become accustomed to an oversimplified version of reality.

Video games can no doubt offer a player a feeling of accomplishment. I’ve seen it and felt it myself when spending too much time playing them. When you level up or achieve a new high score, you somehow feel good about yourself. I remember getting the highest score in my fraternity on Flappy Bird and really feeling like a big shot because of it.

The feeling of accomplishment is an emotion that is supposed to be felt after putting forth real work to achieve your goals. Real work is not required in video games. For the most part, all you need to put forth to achieve anything in a video game is your time. Basically, you are using huge amounts of your time to cultivate a false sense of accomplishment rather than spend that time bettering yourself through real world endeavors.

To be fair, there are many players who don’t take video game accomplishments too seriously and only play them moderately.

Popular video games are ones that are able to most effectively trick your brain into believing that the events in the game are real and are actually happening to you. For example, let’s say you’re playing a video game in which something jumps out and surprises you. If you flinch and your heart skips a beat while you’re sitting on your couch the designer of said game would have accomplished what he or she set out to do: get you ingrained in the game. It means they designed the game so well that your brain is no longer thinking of it as just a game but something of a second reality.

Although a video game’s ability to deceive your mind in such a way is incredible and extremely interesting to think about, I still believe it to be potentially psychologically damaging. 

The reality your mind enters into when you play a video game is simpler than everyday reality. For example, when you play Call of Duty, you choose your weapons, run, shoot enemies, and try to avoid getting shot. There are some other controls and goals of the game that make it slightly more complicated, but not nearly as complicated as real life.

In real life, you must balance many different and complex relationships, plan for the future, rectify the past, keep your body running like you want it to, survive financially and physically, constantly try to develop an understanding of how the world works and that’s just scratching the surface. These are complicated burdens that every human must bear, and they require considerably more effort and brain power than beating Call of Duty or any other video game out there.

The more you play video games, the more accustomed you and your brain get to these simpler realities and the less fit you become to perform in your more complicated, everyday life. This is likely why playing too many video games leads to reduced social skills, but that is a topic for another time.

If you use video games to give you the occasional break from the complicated and often stressful world that we live in, I don’t see a problem with that. On the other hand, if you use them as an easier alternative to the real world, then you’re treading in dangerous waters and I suggest that you start making the swim back to land to rejoin the rest of us.

Now I’d like to point out that all my opinions and theories about the psychological effects of video games are strictly opinions. As far as I know they are not backed by any research, and I’ve only formed them through personal experience and observation of others’ video game playing experiences. Regardless, I believe they should be taken seriously.

I would encourage all gamers to take a step back and analyze their video game playing habits to be sure they are not having any negative effects on your life. Also, although it may sounds crazy, I would love to see video game developers to put a “Please Use Responsibly” label on every game they distribute.