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Gabriela Leija-Hernandez

Professor Shielding

WRTC 103

2 October 2017

Unplug the Video Games and Understand What Theyre Doing to

Your Behavior

Video games are widely enjoyed all over the globe. The colorful and vivid

images from the game can appear on a television screen, a game console, or

computer. Video games are very enjoyable to the public. However, every time an

individual presses the pause button to cease the game momentarily, he or she is

not aware of the effects the game has caused on behavior. Science and

technology journalist, Jack Flanagan, effectively convinces his audience of the

negative effects a game has on a player who routinely play games with

digitalized violence through the use of experiments, research, and scientific

findings.

What is Flanagan presenting?

While some articles argue that playing video games can improve reaction

time and hand-eye coordination (Playing Video Games Is Good For Your Brain),

Flanagan makes the claim that we need to instead zoom in on the effects video

games have on other parts of your brain. Flanagan reasons with this claim from
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the start of the scholarly article, stating that his claim is often dismissed.

Throughout, he addresses that those who constantly surround themselves with

technology would oppose of behavioral changes due to playing certain video

games. Flanagans audience includes the parents who purchase these games for

their children, gamers who lack to see a behavioral change, and other

technology journalists who are known to scoff at these accusations made by him.

He chronologically informs the audience of the claim of the article and then goes

into depth about research and experiments done before concluding with

scientific evidence that his claim is true.

Analytic examples of Ethos in Flanagans Work

Throughout the piece, the author provides many strong sources that

strengthen his credibility that appeal to ethos, as well as builds the argument

that violence in video games do in fact lead to behavioral changes among

children. Before the article states his claim, Flanagans credentials are shown,

revealing that he is a science and technology journalist. As he transitions into

introducing who his possible audience is, he alludes to other technology

journalists who scoff at his claim. He uses the fact that he is a science journalist

and provides scientific applications of the brain to express his claim and boost his

credibility. After referring to a study (Powell, et al.) that video games are

constructed to change our state of mind Flanagan adds, They call this

managing our mood states, implying that aggressive actions make us feel short-
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tempered, slower-paced games will cause us to feel relaxed. (Flanagan) After

more evidence and research results are brought up to confirm his initial claim,

the author apprises to his audience that the psychology of the brain is nothing

unheard to him. He states, in terms of neurochemistry there is now research

that confirms that the brains of gamers change depending on what they do in-

game. Here, Flanagan makes the audience aware that he has done his research

and that he is capable to confidently argue his claim that there is a strong linkage

between the genre of video games and the behavior children will exhibit

moments after they press start.

Rough Draft Pt 2

Analytic examples of Pathos in Flanagans Work

While Flanagan does not provide a large appeal to pathos in his article, he

does use tone and emotion to convey to his audience why his claim is crucial.

The start of his piece does two things. The pieces first words are, Panic in the

media about the effects of violent video games on children is often dismissed.

This sentence supports his claim and it evokes emotion considering the word

Panic was chosen to appear before anything else in the article. Here it

establishes the argument and the mood the audience will encounter throughout

the piece. The author addresses those who feel his claim is not as severe as he

believes. He apprises, Media-driven panics about what video games are doing

to our children are scoffed at by gamers and most technology journalists. But
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are these haughty dismissals justified? Because studies are now coming thick and

fast that find the minds of young people playing video games are affected by

what they play. And not always for the best. Notice that once again the word

panic is used to indicate that those who disregard the negative effects video

games have on children are ignoring severity of the effects. This word is used so

the audience can be aware of how detrimental video games really are. His tone

proceeding the first sentence reflects how he desires his readers to feel similarly

to him about this topic. Flanagan uses the word panic and a strict tone to appeal

to pathos and reveal the ultimate concern he has for children who are routinely

exposed to video games by parents who are blinded by the truth in his claim.

Analytic examples of Logos in Flanagans Work

Along with strong pathos and ethos appeals, Flanagan makes appeals to

logos by offering research affiliated to his claim and results from experiments

done with children. The claim is strengthened by dominantly appealing to logos

throughout the article. After introducing his claim, he quickly resorts to using

research. A study is unraveled where participants involved played two types of

games: Nonviolent and violent games. He writes, In a study titles Remain Calm,

Be Kind, a quote from US general Colin Powell, researchers [Jodi L.] Whitaker and

[Brad J.] Bushman made the point that, of all media, video games are the most

perfectly architected to change our state of mind. The author uses this piece of

evidence to reveal to us that he is not the only individual who also believes this
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claim. Flanagan then discusses the results of several experiments that fall under

the study name Virtually Numbed. He describes, They had to pick up paperclips

out of a bucket of ice cold water either after reporting that they were avid

gamers or actually playing a video game. These results and the results from

other numerous studies and experiments revealed that players of the nonviolent

games picked up traits of helpfulness, and that the player of the violent games

appeared to be more competitive and even received a higher tolerance to pain.

Every piece of evidence appealed to his claim, compelling the audience to trust

Flanagan.

What has Flanagan Really Achieved?

All the appeals Flanagan provides within his article smoothly build his argument. He has

the correct credentials from being a scientists and technology journalist. He also uses a lot of

evidence and results from research, as well as tones to dwell emotion. There is enough evidence

and research to conclude that there is a linkage to a shift in behavior between nonviolent and

violent games. By using the appeals, Flanagan convinces those who refuse to see a linkage

between the violent games and behavior that playing violent video games can be detrimental to

childrens behavior. While there are endless opportunities that Flanagan can use to take the

article in another direction, such as explaining how the behaviors differ among gender, he does

an efficient job here.

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WORKS CITED

Andrew, Elise. Playing Video Games is Good For Your Brain Heres How. IFLScience,

IFLScience, 15 Aug. 2016, Accessed 05 October. 2017

Flanagan, Jack. Violent Video Games Promote Antisocial Behaviors Opposing Viewpoints,

2015, Accessed 22 Sept. 207