Does violent computer games influence teenagers’ health?

Julia Panfilova, Dasha Gladenko

Children are increasingly playing computer games these days. Video games and computer games have assumed prominent role in the culture of children especially in the developed countries. Depending on your natural temperament, certain things will have larger influence on your general mental state. If you have a higher tendency for murder in your genetic coding, then, playing violent video games may influence you to murder more people. In other words, the weak-minded and psychologically faulted teenagers will be influenced by many things; in particular those things that amplify their genetically coded nature.

Questions to the audience. 1. Do you enjoy playing violent games? 2. Approximately, how many hour do you play video games, per week? 3. What are your preferred genres? 4. Do you believe that computer games may influence their players? 5. Do you believe that video games may influence the development of your personality? If it is so, then how?

Surely, certain people are more susceptible to violent stimulus, and it’s really troublesome when video games become more realistic. The video game violence issue relates more to control: if you spend most of your life in a video game where you can, with practice, essentially control everything, you get used to it. Then when you have to leave your sad, cold basement for school or work and someone insults you, you've trained yourself to take control of the situation, and thus, you might react in a negative way. From my point of view, some measures should be taken to solve the problem of the influence of the computer games.

The first one is to let children know about the negative effect of violent computer games and films. When they know that it can cause harm, they will not play or see it anymore. However if we forbid them to do something it may have the opposite effect. The second solution is that the government should take some measures to limit the computer games industry to produce these violent games. For example, the government should encourage the industry to make more educational computer games and films. Furthermore, playing the educational games, children can gain more knowledge. As a result, it can develop the interest and aspiration of children to learning process.

7

Watching the video.

Inference. Violent games don’t have any effect on violent people, violent people influence what we put in our games nowadays. The matter is not that these “games” influence our children, but what is more important they are a result of what our world has become.

Cosmetic surgery among teens

Nepomnyashchaya Yevgeniya

Cosmetic surgery is now becoming a trend among teens all over the world. Adolescence is an awkward time. Teenagers often see their physical flaws as glaring and life-destroying. Interestingly, adults generally seek cosmetic surgery to make themselves stand out. Teenagers, on the other hand, desperately want to blend in with their peers.

Questions to the audience: Are you all satisfied with your appearance? If you have chance to change something in your appearance, will you use it?

The number of cosmetic operations has completely increased during the last decade. According to the American Society of Plastic surgeons in 1996 there were performed 14000 plastic surgery procedures among teens of 18 and under. In 2010 – already 229000 plastic surgery procedures among teens.

The most popular cosmetic surgeries among teens are the following:

1. Ear surgery (otoplasty) – 29% of teens (in USA)

2. Nose reshaping (rhinoplasty) – 14%

3. Chin augmentation – 9%

4. Breast augmentation – 3% (over 18 years)

5. Liposuction – 2% (over 21 years, if there is no acute necessity concerning problems of health)

The fact is that any surgery has risks, but a surgery on young, physically immature person has even more risks and complications. The body of teenagers is not fully developed and cosmetic surgery procedures may lead to:

• Blood clots

• Permanent scaring

• Rheumatoid arthritis

• Infection

Cosmetic surgeries can easily be abused. After one operation a desire may appear to improve appearance for many times.

Watching the video.

Questions to the audience: What were the reasons why these girls decided to undergo an operation? If you were in their shoes what would you do? If the main reason is low self-esteem, what are the ways to raise it?

Inference. We live in the world of fashion and it dictates strict rules. They press on our mind and make us do what the world wants. But we must not let them control us. Raise your self-esteem, surround yourself with people who really like you, be individual, be extraordinary. Love yourself.