Harmful Effects of Video Games on Consciousness

Many people believe that video games are good for kids, but this is far from the truth. There are several problems with video games which I will list below...

• Video games often induce a fight-or-flight reaction (which causes stress hormones to shoot through the roof). 
• Video games are often chaotic, encouraging a very short attention span (must switch attention from one thing to another very rapidly to get through the zones/levels)
• Video games discourage conscious awareness and encourage autopilot functioning
• Video games are often violent in nature (kill and/or avoid being killed).

Fight-or-flight

Those are just a few of the issues caused by video games. Anyone that has been a gamer or has been around a gamer knows that anger is a big part of video games. I remember when I was a child, I would get so angry at video games, and it was something about this anger that made the game even more addictive. When someone becomes enraged (which is very common for video game users), a fight-or-flight response comes about, and this not only causes stress hormones to be dumped into the blood stream, it also numbs awareness after enough time (like drinking too much coffee can cause brain fog, so can too much stress).

Short attention span/encourage autopilot

Ones ability to focus is shaped by how it is used. Parents are wrong to think that just because a kid looks focused on a television screen, that his/her brain is focused on one single thing. Consciousness when playing video games (unless it is a very slow paced game) needs to bounce from one thing to another very rapidly in order to keep up with the game play (this intensity is a big reason why the fight-or-flight response occurs). In a video games, a person's attention may need to shift from one thing to another dozens of times a minute, along with the sounds/music that go along with it, this is sensory overload. For the brain to meet the intense demands imposed by video games, it must switch off consciousness (or at least dim it down) and become reactionary (i.e. autopilot). If a person plays video games for 6 hours a day, the person will become scatterbrained, highly stressed, and be very reactionary (the recipe for ADD/ADHD). 

Violence

Essentially the brain is forced to process information about avoiding being killed and destroying others. This sort of programming can distort perceptions, causing cynicism and increased violent reactions when problems arise.