Is playing computer/video games that bad?
August 27th, 2008 / 6 Comments
Is playing computer/video games any worst than wasting time watching TV?
Yeah, we agree it’s a waste of time, but is that bad?
Do parents need be so concern about their kids playing computer/video games?
In Playstation Nation, Olivia and Kurt Bruner explain that watching TV is a passive activity. It serves as a distraction from real life.
Playing computer/video games, however, requires full participation. It becomes a replacement for real life.
Instead of observing characters, as in watching TV or reading books, the player becomes the character.
This realism makes game playing more engaging, and perhaps we might even say more “educational” because of it’s interactive nature. However, you can see how one can lose oneself completely in the game.
Our fear is not that computer/video games makes our kids evil (but can anyone play hours of violent games and not be effected by it?), but the concern is that they lose out on living a real productive life. They lose motivation to live in the real world, because the games replaces real life.
Can that really happen?
I have talked to several parents whose teenagers play many hours of computer/video games. When their kids are not playing games, they are agitated and discontent. They are thinking about the games, talking about the games, planning their next moves on the games. They show little interest in other things, anxiously waiting to get back to their world of computer/video reality.
When our teens are hooked in the virtual world instead of planning their future, working towards their life goals, developing healthy relationships, contributing towards society, they’ve missed out on the best years of their lives that they cannot get back.
Read other posts in this series -
Enforcing Computer/Video Game Limits
Comments
Oh yeah. I’m in complete agreement - we have a limit of 2 hours/day - MAX.
They argue with me, telling me about friends and classmates that don’t have ANY limits on video games.
“Well, that’s fine because that’s what they do in THEIR family. This is what we do in OUR family.”
(sigh) I guess I could soften that a bit.
MammaDawg: Their friends have NO limit??? I hope they read the book Playstation Nation.
[...] Is Playing Computer/Video Games That Bad? [...]
We’ve had times when we wound it back to 2 hours a week. During another period, oldest son had to EARN computer time like he does his allowance (& one of the ways of earning it was doing physical or artistic activity).
The video games can become a problem, depending on the age of the child you might want to steer them in the direction of learning games that you can control. You can assign them a ‘game’ to play and see how well they did. Check out http://www.k5stars.com/parents1.php and see how playing games can be a learning tool.
[...] The younger the child starts playing hours of computer games, the more likely he will get addicted to games as he gets [...]
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