Gaming

Gaming is a form of entertainment that many children love. Because of improvements in technology, video games, online, and mobile gaming has been well known and well loved.

                   When you ask parents or any adults, they frown upon hearing the word gaming. As a parent, they would usually say that these are basically time-wasters and that games corrupt the brain. In reality, of course gaming has good and bad effects, but as a gamer myself, I’ll say the good ones first.

                   First and foremost, not all games corrupt the brain. Some games involve high level of abstract thinking and reasoning in order to win. Because of this, you can say that gaming is actually a real brain workout. The fact that it exercises your brain while it gives you happiness in playing is also another thing. This is better than sitting down and juicing your brain with crossword puzzles and sudokus and other brain things. A good example is problem solving and logic, when games have problems that require solutions, the player trains his brain in order to come up with a creative solution. This improves strategy in children!!

                   Second, games allow body coordination. Some games that have a virtual reality feature requires movement of the whole body, usually, these types of games are shooting ones. These games make use of the body to kill and shoot. Managing to use different body parts one at a time takes practice and gaming trains the body to do so.

                   Games train us to plan and manage resources. Some video games need on the spot planning in order to win, because you don’t pause games and think of a strategy, right? Gaming makes us think quicker and helps us make decisions faster. In order to do so, we analyze first our situation in the game, thus, it also improves our situational analysis.

                   Memory and concentration also improves when gaming. This is why when you look at children playing video games, you’d really see their focus. This is actually a good thing because you’ll see improvement in them.

                   The last thing I’d like to mention, if you’re worrying that your child is missing out on socialization, some games have multiplayer features that allows them to communicate and interact with other children as well.

                   These are just some of the many good effects of video gaming. Now let’s go on to the bad. Even though I’m a gamer, I still admit that there are negative effects, but, these negative effects can be prevented with the help of adult supervision.

                   Number one, gaming has a negative effect especially if the game you are playing involves violence. Study shows that children who play more violent games tend to become more aggressive because their thoughts and behaviors copy the ones they are playing. Those children who watch video games that simulate violence can become immune to them and may be inclined to act violently themselves. They become less empathetic and they become a callous person. This effect is highly debated in research though, because video games don’t really lead a long-term damage to a person’s feelings and behavior. In my opinion, this negative effect may be prevented by guardians of the children for they are responsible for what a child plays. They may guide their children in order for them to know the difference between right and wrong.

                   A child playing video games too much may confuse reality and fantasy. Well this is not a very common effect especially if the child is in his/her teens. Children who confuse reality and fantasy are maybe from children from 4-10 years old since they still need guidance about the real world.

                 Other bad effects of playing video games in children include isolation, obesity, and school problems. As a guardian, make sure that your child does not isolate him/herself when playing. Make sure he still has time to socialize with other people. Proper diet and exercise must not be neglected for the sake of games. Make sure to guide your child to be balanced. Also, you must allot time for gaming and time for studying as excessive gaming really has an effect on your child’s academics.