Friday, February 1, 2013

Week 3—Effects of Gaming on Young People’s Intellectual and Social Lives


In Your Brain on Video Games, I loved how she used the demonstrations of the yellow and blue smiley faces to show the skill levels of video gamers compared to the non-gamer. I definitely believe that video games help students be able to focus on multiple things at once. In most games, if you can’t multi-task, then your character will die often. With the growing technological field, kids have to learn to be multi-taskers, especially when it comes to the work force. I know that in my job, I have to be able to teach, discipline, observe behavior, and answer questions. I have often had to talk to one student, while listening to another student. Classroom management is all about multi-tasking.  I also agree that anything in excess is bad for your health. Everything in moderation

In Are Video Games Making Kids Smarter?, I learned a lot about video gaming. I really liked this video and the only thing I disagreed with was the idea that the world is “too slow” for our kids, which is why they are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. I don’t believe that it is bad for kids to slow down and read a book, or go outside and play flashlight tag with friends, rather than playing a multi-player game inside. However, I do agree that learning should be fun and interactive.

In the article Teens, Games and Civics, I disagreed with the result they found that daily gamers are just as likely to spend time face-to-face and communicating with friends as those who don’t game daily. I would like to see the specific data, because I find it very hard to believe. When I was younger, we spent maybe an 5 hours a week on a video game and the rest was spent outside playing with friends. I have seen the effects on most daily gamers with my job. The students practically sleep through all their classes because they stay up all night playing video games. So, I don’t know how these addicted gamers could possibly fit friends into their schedule if they can’t even stay awake for school, where most of their friends are anyway. I also believe it’s sad that only 31% of parents say that they always or sometimes play games with their children. I believe that definitely affects a child’s social life.

1 comment:

  1. The big take away for me was the idea that parents should relax an play video games with their kids. In moderation of course. I also believe that kids need to learn to slow down and engage in the natural world as well as read books!

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