Why You Should Let Your Kids Play Video Games

by Emerald Chuesh, Reporter

Culture/Opinion

“Video games fry your brain.” “Stop staring at the screen!” “Get outside and touch some grass!”

The common narrative with video games from a parental perspective is generally cynical. They claim that video games are unproductive, that kids should spend more time on their studies and busying their hands with a pencil and math homework, not an Xbox controller. However, despite their lack of popularity amongst parents, video games prove to have mental, social, and ultimately educational benefits.

Of course, it is no secret that video games have negative effects. Decades of research relates unhealthy gaming practices to addiction, depression, aggression, and other negative emotions. It is common to find individuals swallowed up in gameplay, staring at a screen for hours on end, intaking seemingly useless information. However, discerning the full impact of video games on developing children requires a more balanced perspective.

Playing video games strengthens cognitive skills, including spatial awareness, reasoning, memory, and perception. These skills are exemplified and crucial in many shooter games. “Playing shooter games improves a player’s capacity to think about objects in three dimensions, just as academic courses enhance the same skills,” says the Honor Society Magazine, a community that showcases academic excellence.

While shooter games are often viewed as extremely violent, these games provide an outlet for healthy competitiveness and leadership skills. Sure, students can learn these skills through sports, but parents can be reluctant in letting their child out to participate in certain activities that can cause physical injuries. Plus, the ongoing pandemic certainly does not help. Video games are played indoors, often in isolated spaces, minimizing the risk of exposure. Video game skills are used in conjunction with extracurricular athletics rather than in place of them; teamwork and leadership skills developed in the digital world translate to teamwork and leadership skills on the field.

This boosts a positive connotation for shooter games, since other game genres like puzzle, sandbox, or role-play games do not consistently exhibit the same enhancement of cognitive skills.

However, such games do enhance problem solving and creativity, which are crucial in the early stages of development. Such skills can greatly impact how adolescent students perform in social and academic situations during their teenage, young adult, and adult years. The Honor Society Magazine states that games requiring players to search, negotiate, plan various approaches to advance to a new level, and implement different strategies help improve a child’s brain development. The process of understanding game rules and “learning by doing” provides children with essential decision-making skills.

Games like Fireboy and Watergirl and Farafalla are perfect examples of engaging video games that require analytical skills. The roleplay game Dungeons and Dragons, set in the players’ own imagination, challenges problem-solving skills in the most extravagant and creative ways possible. Perhaps one of the most educationally impactful video games is Minecraft. This and other sandbox games allow for unlimited creativity and ways to play the game, from assorted minigames specialized to improve motor skills like precision and reflex time, to an endless, flat plane ready for countless creative new builds and art projects.

Video games also improve resilience in children and inspire them to learn from failures. “By learning to cope with ongoing failures in games, [we] suggest that children build emotional resilience they can rely upon in their everyday lives,” (American Psychological Association). And yes, you can learn these skills elsewhere. But video games provide a digital landscape, a simulation, detached from reality and therefore detached from tangible problems, thereby allowing players to make mistakes and learn from them without any reality-grounding consequences.

In fact, many use video games to escape from reality. Video games act as an outlet for many individuals, where they can let out their frustration or relieve stress by doing something they enjoy, similar to any other hobby. The American Psychological Association recognizes how video games can improve academic performance indirectly through psychological benefits. Even simple mobile games or a relaxing Minecraft singleplayer world can provide a well-deserved distraction from the troubles of reality, leading to improved mental health and in-turn improved academic performance.

Video games also improve academic performance indirectly through online social experiences. The American Psychological Association challenges the stereotype of the “socially isolated gamer.” More than 70% of gamers play with friends and millions connect through massive virtual worlds on games such as World of Warcraft. Multiplayer games create social groups that naturally encourage sportsmanship and community building, similar to sports. “People who play video games”—regardless of violence rating—“that encourage cooperation are more likely to be helpful to others while gaming than those who play the same games competitively, a 2011 study found,” (American Psychological Association). People who game are also likely to gain friends across the world through many virtual mediums. There are thousands of communities who connect online, whether it be through Discord groups or fandom pages. It is entirely incorrect to assume that gamers are “loners staring at a screen.”

The negative effects of video games are still real, valid, and should not be ignored. However, video games are not all bad, and examining the benefits proves that video games can actually improve academic performance. So, next time the parents reject a new game or say that video games are a waste of time, send them this article and prove how video games are extraordinary educational tools.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the various authors in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Kamiak High School or The Gauntlet.

Sources

Affairs, Public. “Video Games Play May Provide Learning, Health, Social Benefits.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, 2013, www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2013/11/video-games.

Griffiths, Mark. “The Educational Benefits of Videogames.” Sheu.org.uk, 2002, sheu.org.uk/sheux/EH/eh203mg.pdf.

Hobbs, Lyndsay. “The Benefits of Video Games for Students.” Honor Society, 29 Dec. 2015, www.honorsociety.org/articles/benefits-video- games-students.