The dangers of gaming and the internet Research has shown that we spen 3 billion hours as a planet every week playing on video games, and even more on the internet. This often has serious ill effects on our health and wellbeing.

Young gamers There is proof that younger people are more likely to play games. This is because it is very easy for us to access all sorts of games, and we are part of a generation heavily influenced by video games since they are an aspect of our daily life.

Gaming: the good… Although we spend a lot of time gaming, many experts say that some video games can create better social skills if played together with friends or family, especially if they are cooperative, and some games can even improve probem solving abilities. Also, they are often a lot of fun.

…the bad… Video games can also create a detachment from reality, since gamers only interact with a virtual world and don’t learn any applicable skills and lose touch with what’s going on around them. They often don’t provide any mental stimulation but can still cause dependencies (like Mario kart).

…and the ugly Video games also cause a lack of exercise: sitting in front of a screen for hours doing almost nothing isn’t good for you. Your thumbs will become very powerful, but the chance of becoming obese will get higher and you won’t get the vitamin D you need from sunlight.

The internet The internet is one of the most useful things in the history of mankind. Its infinite source of knowledge (real or fake) has helped people discover more and create things like this powerpoint presentation for decades. Like all things though it’s far from perfect and has its faults.

Wish I had more time The internet is probably the thing which has wasted more of our time than anything else. It’s so easy to keep on clicking and clicking, making it even worse than gaming since it affects more of us and takes up just as much, if not more time.

Load of rubbish The reason why the internet takes up so much of our time is because there’s so much in it, but most people would say that at least 90% of what it contains is either pointless, false or just offensive, especially on social media sites. It’s easy to find yourself drawn into the endless nonsense of the web.

Conclusions To sum up, we should probably spend a lot less time gaming and surfing the web and more time doing something useful, such as exercising, reading a book, learning a new language, spending time with friends, or just watching TV.