Are video games good or bad for children?

I’m assuming you have wondered if video games are good or bad for children. If not, that’s alright. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind me going on a rant on why video games are good, right? Just Kidding! Anyways, if you have ever wondered whether or not video games are good, I’ll tell you right now.

Video games are good in my opinion! In video games, there are many genres. If you don’t know what a genre is, it is just another word for categories of video games or movies. There are many genres of video games. I will name the most common or popular ones. The main genres are violent, horror, strategy, adventure, roleplay, fantasy, simulators, learning, and much more! I will be talking about the learning genre of video games, and why it's good. I will also talk about how video games can improve someone's critical thinking. Lastly, I'll be talking about how video games can help people with disabilities.

There is learning video games, which can help you learn.

Let’s take a look at the last genre I mentioned, the learning genre. The learning genre is probably the most interesting and diverse genre of video games. More than 150 million people alone play Prodigy, so it's a very popular learning game. Imagine how many learning games there are out there and how much people play those games.

Learning games usually teach stuff like math and English, which are the most important subjects to learn. Learning games can also teach coding! Many say coding is necessary. Coding became a math unit in the Canadian, Ontario Curriculum in 2020. As technology grows, coding will become more and more relevant, so it will probably become a major subject, just like math, and English.

Games like Prodigy teach English and math while games like Minecraft Education Edition teach coding languages like Java and Python. Learning games could teach many other subjects as well, and if you know someone who loves to play video games and gets good grades, they probably play learning games online, or some other games I’m about to mention.

Video games can improve your critical thinking.

The strategy genre is probably the most unique genre. A strategy game is a video game genre that emphasises thinking and planning over direct instant action in order to achieve victory. Strategy games can improve critical thinking. Video games can improve critical thinking by confronting the player with complex problems. They have to create solutions and then take action. As the player progresses through the game, the player will be faced with other problems that they will have to solve, usually forcing the player to make quick choices. This sharpens the players vital critical thinking skills.

In Minecraft, people like speedrunning the game, or in other words, they beat the game as fast as possible. When speedrunning in Minecraft, they will face multiple problems, like "How do I get to the nether dimension as fast as possible?” or “How do I get to the end dimension as fast as possible?”.

Minecraft Speedrunners will use different strategies. The speedrunner will have to choose and analyse the situation they are in and then choose a strategy that he or she knows be the most effective to get to the nether or end dimension, or whatever problem they are facing. The speedrunner can also make their own strategies or use a strategy that is most comfortable for them, and get the fastest time possible for them.

Strategy games can also improve teamwork and decision making skills. Strategy games can improve decision making skills because the strategy games usually often require the players to make decisions similar to the decisions made in a business. Some strategy games require multiple players to solve a problem, so the player and his or her teammates can strategize and co-operate with each other to solve the problem. That process can improve someone’s teamwork or collaboration skills and improve socialisation at the same time.

Critical thinking is important because it is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe. It also includes the ability to engage in reflective, and independent thinking. Since there are video games out there that can help us humans improve our critical thinking skills, that is a reason why I think video games are good.

Video games can help people with disabilities.

Did you know that video games can help people with disabilities? If not, that's alright. Video games can help people with disabilities by making realistic and interactive environments. A recent study from the University of Toronto found that people who play video games like Call of Duty do better in sensorimotor tasks and also improve hand-eye coordination compared to people who don’t like or play video games at all. If you don’t know what sensorimotor means, it means when your sensory functions and motor functions are working at the same time. The results say that playing video games could be a treatment in the near future, which someone probably wouldn’t expect.

Video games can also help people with dyslexia by improving the extraction of information from the environment, and video games can also improve their reaction times. Action video games make children with dyslexia read better.

Not only that, but video games can also help people with ADHD. If you don’t know what ADHD is or what it stands for, it means attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Games like Roblox and Minecraft can help kids with ADHD to improve focus, concentration, and planning skills. Just make sure that if you have ADHD, don’t play for too long or there will be lower chances of developing other interests. People with ADHD will most likely like Minecraft as soon as they play it because there is a shortage of specific rules, the chance to try things without fearing that you will make a mistake, and that players can either switch activities as they choose or remain focused on the one thing in particular.

What are some cons of video games?

As we all know, the world isn’t rainbows and unicorns. Everything has a con to it. There are some people out there in this world who might say, “Oh, video games can give you blurry vision.” That may be true, but it's not always the case. First, the player has to be very irresponsible to excessively play video games. Second, there's only a small chance this might happen. If the player is eating healthy, like carrots, which are good for your eyes, they will be perfectly fine. It’s up to the player's parent’s parenting, or up to the player to make those choices.

Video games can also improve eyesight by making gamers be able to perceive fine differences in contrast between colours, or in other words be able to technically see more shades of colours, or at least identify them. This can be useful or useless depending on what kind of person you are.

So, are video games good or bad?

Are video games good or bad for children? I think they are good because video games can help someone learn math, English and coding. Video games can help someone improve their vital critical thinking skills, which will probably be important throughout their life. Also, video games can help people that have disabilities like dyslexia and ADHD. Video games can also help someone improve their hand-eye coordination. What do you think about video games now? Are they good, or are they bad? If you still think video games are bad, then why?

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