Intense Video Games Teach Kids Important Life Skills

Video games are enjoyable for people and have good benefits for children who use their multiple skills to play and interact with others. In many parts of the world, the common video game is often seen by parents as something that is wasting their child's time or “rotting their brain”. It is a popular misconception that video games are bad for children. What parents do not know is the positive things about video games. Video games have a positive impact on people and help them learn things for experiences to come. People often do not understand that violent video games are not harmful to people because video games allow people to release their anger, video games decrease crime in youth, and because they allow people to be creative and test their

“Firstly, video games can serve as a central activity for interpersonal interaction, providing an activity for friends to participate together (like playing cards or engaging in physical recreation). Secondly, online video gamers can promote interaction with others across the game network and establish new friendships and thirdly, video games and their characters can provide a source of pseudo-social relationships for the game player” (cited in Barenthin and Van Puymbroeck, 2006).

As stated earlier, there are several good learning principles that video games teach, which in turn complements learning. Video games allow students to explore roles and environments that would be otherwise impossible in a real-world setting. This principle is identity. Students learn a new domain by first experiencing/playing a new identity (Gee, 2005). In this identity, whether it is one created by students or a pre-created one that they take on, students observe value and work in the world, the way that their new identity does. In these games, students have the freedom to make alterations to the environments that they are in. Also, there are exposures to different time periods and extraordinary events. Reflection based on this data, reveals significant usage opportunities in subjects like social studies; timelines, time periods,

Cerangolu (2010) found that video games could enhance the therapeutic experience. They could help facilitate the therapeutic relationship as young people may be more willing to relate to a therapist that is ready to engage and understand their normal way of playing. Also sitting side by side rather than at the conventional “ten to two” setting also may make the young person relax. How the game is played can also reveal the young person cognitive style.

For many people around the world, role playing games is national reality. Others think its time wasting and pointless. Research has shown that playing games such as, video games, board games and violent human games can help with creativity, multitasking and responsibility in the real world and in tough situations.

At a glance, video games may seem to serve the simple purpose of mindless entertainment with no relevance beyond that. In truth, video games are actually able to explain several sociological concepts. Video games are a massively shared hobby to the point where its own culture exists. Social integration is another key aspect of gaming. Many choose to play role-playing in games in which they essentially live another life outside of the real world. Lastly, there is no denying the impacts video games have on society as a whole.

Being the first of my family to be born in the United States, I had a number of things that my parents did not have growing up. I went to nice schools, I had a cell phone, and I had a nice car growing up. One thing my cousins and I did in our time together would be playing video games. Video games were not just a way for us to relax, but to socialize with the person sitting next to me, and prepare me for real- life activities.

Cooper tells us of an individual named Rebecca Glasure and how she created her avatar to be “Big, Black, and male.” Because she wanted to be treated differently. Cooper also states that she was treated differently by others because of the image she had created, leading others for to be seen as normal. The video game world creates a social divide as players cannot be themselves while playing their favorite video game. This causes people to be socially awkward because after the game is over and the person has to come into the real world they aren’t who they seemed to be. Another example is in the article The Social Psychology of the Selfie by Christine Erickson tells readers of the importance of the selfie and how it affects a person’s social and psychical appearance, Erickson says that one selfie could change the way one person sees another individual. This affects video gamers because gamers could alter their own selfies of how they want the whole world to see them, when in reality it ruins their overall self-esteem. Because Gamers are not out meeting new people and socializing, their relationship building skills are severely damaged which can have big consequences when they become adults. An array of problems like meeting a future love, to even having problems developing a group of friends to talk too, and playing many games as a youth can affect your social life when you become an adult. Also, because games are so addicting they often bring people in to their virtual world and individuals often start revolving their life around gaming. Children are the most gullible to this and it can keep them away from other activities like sports, reading, and even knowledge, and this repeated game play tells them. As an adult it’s very useful to be

I am a part of the generation that only knows games that are played on home consoles. I grew up on games such as Halo, Call of Duty, and other big titles. Throughout the years, I have developed an appreciation for the form of entertainment. Where as some would have you to believe that games promote antisocial behavior. One would counter this by arguing for games, they bring people together. I have expansive, fond memories of playing Halo with my friends online. We developed a bond by playing together forming a “single mind” we could work together and know what the other people in the group were thinking. You could find this same bond among sports teams that have been playing with each other for a long time. Its these bonds that have made me firmly believe in the power of games to bring people

Video games exercise academic skills and logical thinking (creativeteachingsite.com). Most games have you read text to complete a task and that forces you to read carefully. Not only does it work on reading text but you also read maps. If learning how to carefully read a map and text by gaming, then you could gain better reading skills and also learn new vocabulary (creativeteachingsite.com). Logical thinking skills are also exercised by gaming (creativeteachingsite.com). For example, you need to get into a building, but its locked, what do you do? If you can improve logical thinking through gaming then if can make people think for themselves a little more. Another thing that a lot of people use to train pilots and soldiers, is stimulations. Simulations involve screens. They experience what it's like to actually do their job and for other video gamers it's like getting experience with things you normally wouldn't be associated with in your daily life (creativeteachingsite.com). If through videogames and other screen related technology, you can gain experience with various sorts of things, then people will be more familiar with the things they encounter and will more likely be able to handle them. This is a big advantage of gaming. Because of this we should encourage

As a result of sophisticated games such as these, the pupils make less mistakes and are more prepared when they begin their high-risk careers. Aside from these rigid settings, other casual games are developing the skills of teenagers and adults in a more subtle way. Cooperative games such as World of Warcraft require teams of players to work together to reach a common goal. Each individual is given responsibilities and specific roles, and a few people are even selected to lead the group and provide direction and structure. Hundreds of similar games also teach the same teamwork, leadership, and responsibility to their players, which are all vital qualities to have in order to be successful in society.

Transition to Second Main Point: Video games can be used as a tool in schools, to help build teamwork, social skills, and critical thinking skills.

Many young children and teenagers have heard their mother’s incessant plead to get away from the screen and to go outside or pick up a book for once instead. The urge to play “just one more level” before starting that homework or doing those chores can be quite distracting. But are video games really as awful as Mom exclaims or as brutal as those TV ads depict? It turns out that video games can have a strong impact on participants’ lives in both positive as well as negative ways.

Since the Early 70’s video games have been giving a bad name. Parents state that video games rot the minds of children and are influencing them do be violent. These accusations are far from the truth. In my research I found that there are many positive effects of gaming. Some of these effects are increased skills, creativity, general knowledge, and also help those in need. Parents can also take proper precautions and look into a game before buying it to see if it meets the criteria discussed in this paper.

People choose many ways to learn how to deal with life. Life can be either difficult at times or easy. The same idea can be applied to video games. Playing online games taught me patience, how to interact with other people around the world and how to manage my stress.