Entry nº 32

Essay: Pros and Cons of video gaming

Video gaming is a wide spread form of entertainment which against popular belief, is used not only by children but in its vast majority by adults. The popularity of video games has been attributed to its well-designed graphical images, fast movements and special sound design that resemble the images and plot lines on a film. These characteristics give a realistic appearance to video games and their aim is to catch the player’s interest. Despite its popularity, video gaming has received tough criticism about its influence on children’s behaviour.
One of the main factors of criticism of video gaming is this effect of catching gamer’s attention that is believed to provoke a change in their behaviour. Some people blame video games for turning children into screen addicts with no social life and even becoming them more violent.
As video games are becoming more complex and challenging for players, they spend many hours practicing to get to the highest level, so they get obsessed about winning the game. Players are so absorbed by the game that they do not pay attention to what happens in the real world while they are playing, this makes them behave like zombies.
But such assumptions have not been proved yet. On the contrary, there is much more evidence of the good effects and uses that video games have. For example, video gamers develop motor skills related to the use of computer devices more easily and quickly than those who do not play.
Video games have a great potential to be used for educational purposes. The problem-solving activities of many games can be also used in education as a tool of motivation and learning. In fact, some off-the-shelf and role-playing games are actually used in some foreign schools.
Apart from its educational use, video games are also used as a tool of work training. New recruits are tested or taught through the use of elaborate systems of simulation.
For many parents video games have also a special purpose. Due to the increasing rate of violence, many parents are worried about their children’s safety when they are away from home, so they usually choose video games as a way to keep their children protected at home providing them with an entertaining indoor activity.
Taking into account all this information about the good aspects of video gaming, may be this wrong opinion about the social impact of video gaming that has been held will probably change in the next years. And perhaps if governments supported the use of video games on education and provided schools around the world with the necessary equipment, video gaming could be exploited as a good source of motivation and learning at school.