Pros and Cons of Video Gaming


When faced with some new and possibly bewildering technological changes, as new generation console, most people react in one of two ways. On the other hand, they learn to adapt to the new inventions and eventually wonder how they could possibly have lived without it. On the other hand, people recoil from anything new, claiming that it is unnecessary or too complicated or that it somehow provides children with negative aspects ranging from inadequate vocabulary to explicit scene of sex and increasing violence.
To start with, much has been written about the dangers of computers games to young and impressionable children. As parents’ lives become busier and as an increasing number of parents seem willing to allow their children to spend hours in front of a computer screen zapping aliens. Some people often ask themselves whether these games are, in fact, a harmless past time, or a danger to society and to generations to come.
The first dangers are physical. Clearly, a child who spends who spends hours in front of a screen is putting their eyes under considerable strain. Furthermore, this is time which might otherwise be spent running around, playing outside, and the increase in child obesity may, at least in part, be attributed to the decrease in healthy physical exercise.
There also seems to be a number of drawbacks with regard to the child’s education.
We now have a generation of people who have grown up deprived of doing mental arithmetic. However, the greatest criticism that is levelled at this form of entertainment is moral. What of adults will these children grow up to be, if they think that killing is fun and that guns are toys?
It is striking that the criticism of computer games is usually made by people who are not computer literate (digital immigrants).Games are condemned as immoral or violent. Yet the critics have rarely played them themselves. In fact, many games are highly educational, that is to say, problem-solving puzzles that encourage children to develop their thinking skills or strategy games through which we can learn about ancient civilizations or space exploration. What is more, in playing these games, children acquire basic computer skills with file management systems, cursors and mouse.
As regard to violence, it could be argued that there is nothing new here. Children, boys especially, have always played violent games and they will happily make use of a wooden sword or some toys soldiers if deprived of their disk of “Command and Conquer”.
Taking everything into consideration, I would say that although video gaming has made our lives easier as a way of entertainment, it has also created new problems for people. But while it has created problems we should think carefully before dismissing its many benefits.