How do video games effect your kids?
There's been a lot of debate about video games and what effect they have or may not have on kids. But what is your experience, with your kids?
It depends what video games you allow your kids to play. In 2013, when more adults play video games than children, this would be similar to asking how movies effect our kids. There are good ones, educational ones, bad ones and violent ones.
As long as a parent is responsible, why would a child be kept from video games? They are, in fact, nothing more than interactive movies and TV shows.
My kids have better problem solving skills, better manual dexterity and their creativity flourishes. I grew up playing video games, my kids do also, but their time on them is controlled, as is the content. I'm tired of video games being the whipping boy of politicians and ignorant people, most of which have probably never had a controller in their hand.
Kids that play video games, for the most part, know that what they're seeing and doing isn't real. I do not believe that playing video games leads to people being violent. There have always been crazy and violent people in our society, yes, even before video games.
Saying that video games cause people to be violent is the same thing as saying that playing with Matchbox cars and smashing them around when you're a kid makes you a bad driver later on in life. Sounds absurd, doesn't it?
How is anybody supposed to answer that question? (It's "affect" by the way)
So you have a kid, or kids. You give them some video games.
The following year, their behavior is different than it was the year prior to the video games.
Now let's take another scenario.
You have a kid, or kids. You don't give them any video games.
The following year, their behavior is different than it was the year prior to the video games.
Get my drift? The world is a HUGE environment, and every tiny thing in your kid's life affects how they react to the world around them. You CAN NOT single out one particular thing, whether it be games, caffeine, etc as a reason for any change in their behavior. It all comes down to your overall parenting, as well as their experiences in school.
There are multimillionaires all over the world that grew up on video games. There are also homeless people that grew up on video games. There are movie stars that play WoW and there are people living in the ghetto that make fun of people that play the same game.
You could just as easily be asking "How does having a microwave affect your kids"
Is it really that weird of a question? I know for myself video games give me fun, increase my creativity, my imagination, etc etc. Just because we get affected by a lot of things in life doesn't mean we can't talk about how some things affect us.
Good point. With so much stimulus it's difficult to answer something like this. However, if you pay close attention, there are ways. Some immediate changes do show up. And in the long run behaviors are traceable.
It feels like people think I'm talking about if your kids get more violent when they play video games or something like that. That wasn't what I was thinking. There's been a lot of talk that research say this and research say that when it comes to video games. All I wanted to know what real parents think, not some research.
Well it depends on which video games. I guess the question is quite general. Like "Do movies affect out kids".
Yes it's a general question. But what's wrong with that?
Nothing. I guess people make what they want of it. I guess I prefer when people respect computer games as more than just a single genre. These days its almost its own art form You know?
Well, I agreed with cfin because if you will allow your kids to play some violent type of games they will probably do the things that he play on the game. But if they play some educational video games they will learn from it.
When my kiddo plays PS2 games, he gets over excited and could not accept losing. So, he throws tantrum and whine all the time. Hence, i stopped him from playing and let him play educational games on certain websites. His temper is better now. Video games only suitable for adults, not kids.
When I was growing up I played a ton of video games. The only time I read anything was when it was the text in a video. that was primarily one of the reasons I wanted to read was to know what was going on in the video game before i knew how I would have to have my brother who was a year older and was in school read stuff for me then he got tired of it so videos games were the things to keep my interest in the subject. Not only that, but I actually did better in math, but then again it all depends on what type of video games that you let them play. Things with great stories tend to fuel imaginations. Things like fighting games might get your kid more active physically and don't think that just because they play some fighting game it's gonna make them into a bully or something. Some kids reenact those fighting games get hurt then do ever do it again some get hurt and continue with the punishment. Everyone is different. The best experience I've had with kids is they tend to like what you like so play video games with them.
I don't personally have children, but I did a research topic on video games and their effects on society in general, and my paper in particular was about video games and intelligence (which included school and grades).
Video games increase your visual dexterity, which can cause a bit of an imbalance in IQ testing, which is based on your visual intelligence (spotting patterns and things of that nature). Recently, there's been a really weird uptick in IQ scores, and we call that the Flynn Effect. Some scientists believe it's because we are living in a relatively better, more comfortable world in terms of living conditions. Neisser, a scientist in Cognitive Psychology, believed that television and video games attributed more to the cause; both subject the audience/player to visuals that the audience/player must interpret, video games more so because they require the player to interact with the game. Therefore, kids who play video games may become better problem solvers, especially in visual problems, like puzzles.
I also did a survey asking the rating (E, T, M) of the game, the hours per week spent playing video games, and the grades in each class for middle and high schoolers. What I found was that there's not a large discrepancy - most kids who played a lot got A's like those who didn't play at all, but there was a greater percent who were failing. Something I found interesting was that most grades were consistent, but as time playing video games increased, foreign language grades decreased. Video games can subconsciously teach your kid things like vocabulary or mathematics, but it generally doesn't teach foreign language, so that's what I think that discrepancy was.
As for violence, I think parents should know what they're giving their children; sometimes a parent will buy a kid a Halo or Call of Duty game without realizing the violence in it! However, I think it's important to let the kid play what he or she wants and to teach them the difference between fantasy and reality. Also, there's a study that showed people who already displayed violent tendencies experienced dramatic increases in aggresion after playing violent video games, while more laid-back people showed little to no increase in aggression. So really it's about knowing your kids.
Sorry for such a long response, but this is super interesting to me! Hope this helped.
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