How do video games affect kids?

By: Chase M.

       How often do you play video games? If not, how often do you see people play video games? Video games are very common in today's world with all of our technology, so how do these games affect the 3.32 billion active gamers that play and pass the time with them?

       Video games always have some sort of topic or idea in them. For example, there are video games representing sports, life scenarios, etc. When Robert A. was young, he played baseball and soccer. He tried his best at both sports and, “earned one year on a select soccer team,” as he said. But when middle school hit, his athletic career ended as he was no longer able to make any teams on baseball or soccer. He then developed a passion for Madden and loved to play Madden with his step dad. Sometime during middle school Robert decided that he, “was a football video game fan,” but still did not like football. As he grew up through school and became a college student, he would play in the school's Madden tournaments, and he “had no choice but to learn the ins and outs of the game.” He soon developed a passion for watching Baylor’s football games. Robert ended up loving the sport of football and became a super fan of the NFL. After all, he easily was able to develop a new passion for football from scratch by just playing Madden.

       More than you can tell, all of these video games that kids are playing affect them. Friendship between kids is really important in their lives as studies show that kids bond together as they play together, get to communicate, and use teamwork skills. Kids' communication is salient because they could become socially anxious or nervous to talk to others. “Parents should know what their kids are playing, and who they’re playing with. Parents can play, too. It’s a chance for you to have conversations and to think together. It can be a bonding time,” says Dr. Bilge-Johnson of the division of Pediatric Psychiatry at Akron’s children. One way that communication and teamwork will help is by getting to know each other and the other person's personality. Another way is by the kids getting to teach each other, and they get to cooperate to help one another.

       One of the biggest problems is, “It’s not as simple as it’s good or it’s bad,” said child psychiatrist Dr. Sumru Bilge-Johnson.  They can’t tell whether or not the good of video games outweighs the bad of video games. One of the many repeated good things about video games is that it helps with cognitive (knowledge) skills such as when you have cognitive tests. As studies show, the kids that played video games had a better score on a CogAT(Cognitive Ability Test) than kids that didn’t play video games. One of these factors could have been kids able to learn history through games. For example, a game that uses you as a real person's point of view would help teach history.  “Overall, neither duration of play nor choice of video game genres had significant correlations with the CogAT measures. That result shows no direct linkage between video game playing and cognitive performance, despite what had been assumed,” said May Jadalla, professor in the School of Teaching and Learning at Illinois State University.

       Video games increase hand eye coordination and reduce stress. Kids can also become more creative by playing video games, for they get to imagine and come up with more ideas. An active video game would really help kids because it can be really significant to exercise and stay active. “Games like Minecraft can benefit kids in several ways. Through these brain games they learn problem solving, strategizing, flexibility and also social skills,” said Dr. Bilge-Johnson.

       One of the biggest benefits of video games is that kids can learn to handle how to lose, yet they can also learn how to compete and try to beat other people. As if they play games online that have only one winner, kids would automatically become competitive and understand why you want to compete. Leadership skills can also be very apparent when competing against others, and when you are struggling in a game one person may take leadership and try to help another. Another example of a game giving a really immense effect on kids is games with memorization skills. Various tests and studies of kids' capability of memory ended up proving that kids could as well do better at memorizing different patterns and shapes after playing video games.

       With video games having over 3.3 billion players, all of the people who play video games get affected in some way. No matter what games they play there can be an impact. As long as you're able to manage yourself,  you can become a healthier person overall.