Are video games bad for kids?
Video games are a type of leisure that brings many benefits to boys and girls, from improving their cognitive skills to their habits.
Today children, also adolescents, have, if not one console, several consoles at home, and there is not one that today goes without a computer or without a smartphone. And it is that, be they consoles, mobiles or PC’s, all of them are susceptible to become gaming platforms that support all kinds of content and entertainment mechanisms. Video games and consoles, which are even taken outside the home, are the order of the day.
And it is clear that new technologies are causing a generational break between parents and children, and that today the little ones make great use of them. We are talking about video games, those that parents and educators consider a waste of time. Playing video games is a hobby that is widely criticized by the media , especially since many of them consider themselves violent and the press turns to them when it comes to blaming young people for less peaceful or social behavior. However, many scientists and psychologists defendthat in video games you can find many benefits, including the most important: they make children smarter. Video games, as many advocate, can even teach today’s kids great reasoning and information processing skills that they may need in the future.
“Video games change your brain” say some psychologists. And it is true that they can change the physical structure of it as well as learning to read or write, play the piano or navigate using a map. Just as exercise can build muscle, the combination of concentration and use of neurotransmitters such as dopamine helps to strengthen the neural circuits that make up and build the brain.
So are console games bad? Obviously nothing in excess is good , but to a reasonable extent, letting children play video games can be a positive experience for them.
Index
WHAT IS POSITIVE ABOUT IT?
1. They will learn to follow directions without getting lost and they will become more critical.
2. They will improve their ability to solve problems and exercise logic: When a child plays things like The Angry Birds, they are training their brain, inventing creative ways to solve the problem that is posed to them in very short periods of time.
3. Improved hand-eye coordination and motor skills development: In typical shooting games, such as the highly acclaimed Call of Duty or Battlefield , the character will find himself running and shooting at the same time. This requires great skill in real life, as the player has to be aware of his position, the placement of his rifle, where his teammates are, and whether he is aiming well at the enemy. All these factors, which need to be taken into account when playing games of this style, cause the player’s coordination and reaction capacity to increase exponentially. Therefore, it has been shown that this type of game increases physical coordination. of the player and their ability to react quickly and satisfactorily to situations that require it.
<4. Increase their ability to draw plans, distribution of resources and logistics : The player learns that resources are limited and, if they mismanage them, they run out, so it is best to use them wisely. In the same way that it happens in real life.
5. Multifunctionality, simultaneous management and processing of many possible variables and management of multiple objectives: In strategy games, for example, when building a city, you can receive an unexpected surprise from the enemy, which forces the player to be flexible and change tactics quickly and efficiently.
6. Development of quick thinking, decision making and analysis.
7. Improved Accuracy: You have to be very fast and very accurate to play certain games, which undoubtedly improves accuracy in real life.
8. Improved strategy creation and anticipation.
9. Awareness of the situation: It was recently reported that the armed forces had included training with video games to improve the control of the situation of their soldiers in combat. Many strategy games also require the player to become aware of sudden changes in the situation and to adapt quickly.
10. Educate perseverance : At higher levels of play, it is usual for the player to fail or lose against other players who exceed their level. However, you learn to collect the data of the defeat and overcome them to go to the next level. Insistence and perseverance are fundamental parts of any game, as well as of any discipline in any field of life.
11. They help pattern recognition.
12. They exercise memory : many games require levels of memorization that many could not approach, and these games, therefore, exercise memory and the ability to assimilate and store information quickly , a skill that will be, of course, very useful at the time of study or even future work life.
In addition to all these benefits that video games can have for children, we must consider that they are essentially a leisure tool, and that we must let them be the ones who manage their leisure time using the consoles or devices that they want ( if we can acquire them) and not stigmatize it just because in the past children did not have access to so much technology. We must not be afraid of video games, but rather we must learn to appreciate their advantages and educate our children to see them for what they are: games that cannot be applied in real life.
The only thing we have to do is put a limit on the time they spend with them (within logical limits, of course) , but without a doubt trying to really use that leisure time for what they find fun. And if in this case it is video games, much better!
Dr. Tabriella Perivolaris, Sara's mother and fan of fashion, beauty, motherhood, among others, about the female universe. Since 2018 she has been working as a copywriter, always bringing to her articles a little of her experience and experience as a mother and woman.