Are video games really that bad for you And Kids?
The impact of video games on individuals, including children, can vary based on factors such as the content of the games, the amount of time spent playing, and individual differences. Here are some perspectives on the potential effects of video games:
Positive Aspects:
- Cognitive Skills: Certain video games can enhance cognitive skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and spatial awareness.
- Coordination: Action or simulation games may improve hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
- Social Interaction: Online multiplayer games can provide opportunities for social interaction and collaboration.
Negative Aspects:
- Violence and Aggression: Some studies suggest a link between exposure to violent video games and increased aggression, although the relationship is complex and not fully understood.
- Addiction and Excessive Screen Time: Excessive gaming can lead to sedentary behavior and a lack of physical activity. It may also contribute to sleep disturbances and issues related to excessive screen time.
- Impact on Academic Performance: Spending too much time on video games, especially during school hours, may negatively affect academic performance.
Moderation and Parental Guidance:
- Age-Appropriate Content: Parents should be aware of the content of the games their children are playing and ensure that they are age-appropriate.
- Setting Limits: Establishing limits on screen time and encouraging a balance between gaming, physical activity, and other activities is important.
- Parental Involvement: Parents can play an active role in understanding the games their children play, discussing content, and guiding them towards appropriate choices.
It’s crucial to recognize that not all video games are the same, and the impact can vary widely based on the specific game, the amount of time spent playing, and individual factors. The key is to approach video games with moderation and balance, ensuring that they are part of a well-rounded lifestyle.
As of my last knowledge update in January 2022, ongoing research continues to explore the effects of video games, and opinions on the subject may evolve over time. Parents, educators, and individuals are encouraged to stay informed about the latest research and to make informed decisions based on the unique needs and circumstances of each individual or family.
Are video games really that bad for you And Kids?
My family piled into the packed car… “Vacation! Yay!” says my five-year-old. I start the car, and away we go. Twenty minutes later, I’m preparing to nicely pull onto the highway on-ramp when someone zooms up on the left, cuts right, hits the brakes, gets into the on-ramp lane and accelerates faster than I’ve ever seen.
My wife screams.
I quickly swerve, brake, pull back into the lane, and keep driving like nothing happened.
She: “OH MY GOD! HE ALMOST HIT US!”
Me: “Yeah,” I huff, “that wasn’t too nice, was it?”
She looks at me.
Me: “What?”
“You’re just sitting there like nothing happened?!”
(Gaming reflexes: when you’re used to drifting a Toyota Supra around two cars on turn 3…)
An hour later:
“Jesus Christ, Chris, pull over. I can’t take this any more.”
“Why? What did…”
She laughs, “It’s not what you did, it’s what you’re not doing, you doofwad… We’re never going to get there. Get out.”
Oh. Driving 55 in a 65 mph zone. I missed the sign again.
She drove the rest of the way.
Just because I game doesn’t mean I go crazy. Regular driving is so boring I put it on cruise and zone out.
But too much video game playing may cause problems. Gettieasiernough active play and exercise is hard if you’re always inside playing video games. And without enough exercise, kids can become overweight. Overdoing video games also could affect other important stuff, like friendships and how well a kid does in school.
What does “play stupid games, win stupid prizes” mean?
Originally Answered: Are video games really that bad?
I grew up gaming, just as you did. I played computer games from the age of 3 or 4 years old. I started playing more complex PC games in 3rd grade, like Wizard 101 or Free Realms, and I also began calling a friend over the phone on speaker to communicate (before the new-fangled Skype or Discord).
I wasn’t technically allowed to play violent games. Still, when I finally got to playing Roblox, a game where anyone can create anything, I genuinely enjoyed more action-packed and violent games. I started sneaking violent games onto my PC, not because they were violent but fun until I eventually gave my mom’s PC a virus.
Since she works as a transcriptionist, she kicked me off the computer until we got another one several months later. I had played PC games almost every day, but I never really got sad about them being taken away after the first day or two. Several years passed, and eventually, I discovered the world of online console gaming.
I had an Xbox and an Xbox 360, but I had never played online games with anyone besides those on PC. I begged my mom to let me get an Xbox Live subscription (mind you, that’s 60 dollars for a year and 60 dollars for an internet adapter) at the start of 7th grade, and she let me have it. Next, I begged for my first truly M-rated game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
I paid for some of these items, but it took much convincing for this to work. I started playing with all kinds of people I had never really considered close friends before. Within months, my best friends had gotten Xbox Live, and we played Call of Duty: Black Ops II almost daily.
Sure, I got angry. Sure, losing pissed me off. My attitude towards my family and friends never changed. I still played sports, went over to people’s houses, went Ice Skating on Fridays, and kept up my grades. Eventually, I dove into video games and consider myself an advanced gamer.
Are video games really that bad for you And Kids?
Let me give you a little secret: Gaming has NEVER negatively affected my life. There are several instances where I’ve thought about life without a hobby to replace gaming, and I think I’d be a bit depressed. That’s not to say I don’t read books or do well in school (I’m in numerous clubs, including five different choirs, and ranked #1 in my class for GPA 3 years now), but video games have incredible benefits.
They hold unmatched storytelling, can teach all kinds of skills, are great for hand-eye coordination, and improve social interaction skills for introverted people tenfold.
Now, moderation is always healthy, and you should encourage yourself to go outside occasionally (I will ride my scooter around my neighbourhood playing Pokémon GO and picking up comic books from the library — what a nerd), but this is one hobby that you can gain something from as opposed to watching TV all day or playing sports that you’ll never use in your career life or anything like that which doesn’t give the benefits video games do.
Is playing video games a waste of time?
But consider the trade-offs of these activities, including gaming: you’re neglecting your friends, family, your mental and physical health, as well as your career. If that’s the case for you, gaming is a waste of time – just like any other activity with the same trade-offs would be to this extent.
It is quite a controversial answer, and I love video games.
More gaming is needed for you. Too much of anything creates the opposite effect it should have.
I played video games daily for 12+ hours a few years ago; I was happy then (or at least thought I was!). Today, I feel sick at how I could do that to myself. I never washed, brushed my teeth or came out of my room. It was my daily routine.
I still play games, maybe 30–60 minutes per day, and I feel a lot more confident than I used to. Treat yourself to a new outfit and get a haircut if you feel you’re in a downward spiral due to gaming. Gaming addiction is a real issue and is very hard to break.
How many hours of video games is healthy?
The number of healthy gaming hours for adults differs depending on the individual, and factors that affect it include a person’s lifestyle and the amount of free time they have in a day. However, as a general rule, adults should avoid gaming for more than five hours at a stretch.
What are the positive effects of gaming?
The benefits of playing videogames
- They speed up response times.
- They encourage teamwork.
- They stimulate creativity, focus and visual memory.
- They improve strategy and leadership.
- They teach languages.
- Critical thinking.
How long should a 12-year-old play video games per day?
Put clear limits on your child’s gaming. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests time allotted should be under 30 to 60 minutes per day on school days and 2 hours or less on non-school days.
Is 1 hour of video games OK?
It’s good to set video game time limits by age. For kids over 6, the American Academy of Pediatrics says no more than 60 minutes on school days and 2 hours on non-school days. Kids under six should spend closer to 30 minutes.
Is playing video games a waste of time?
Yes, it is.
So is,
- Watching movies
- Reading fiction
- Talking to people
- Sleeping a couple of hours extra on the weekend
- Going on a cruise
- Drinking at a pub
And almost everything else. You know what the number 2.5 billion represents. It is the approximate number of seconds you live (~80 years). This is it. There might be more or less seconds, but this is it—no second chances. You were born without your consent and any warning. Once you come into this world, you must decide what to do with your little time.
“Time wasted enjoying is not wasted.”
You are not alive only to ‘level up’. Personal and professional achievements are great, but only part of your life. Apart from the fact that no one can be 100% productive (everyone needs some downtime frequently), it is not even worth it. It would help if you made good friends. You should be part of half-drunk, midnight conversations in a bar.
You should be a crucial part of someone else’s story. It would help if you explored solitude. Spend some time in nature’s cradle. Help someone in need. Dance at a lover’s wedding. Collect nights whose memories are befuddled. Be passionate. Be patient.
Some people paint. Some write. Some effortlessly strike conversations. Some people read. Some sing. Some collect stamps. Some capture moments in photographic films. And then some play video games. Unless your hobby becomes detrimental to your personal, professional, and social life, you should not treat it as a waste of time but as time well spent.
Is the UK the only country that gets 12 days off school/college/work when the Queen dies?
Are video games really that bad?
Mmm. He was a person who played games illicitly for a couple of years when his parents continually told him how much they could ruin his life if he let them dominate his life, and then took some months living away from his parents to let video games dominate his life, it completely depends on your level of self-control.
When I was gaming in the middle of the night or during my time, I said I was doing homework or in the Internet cafe using my lunch money; it was always fun, and I became very good at some games (or so I thought). I played video games about 8–9 hours a day, four days a week, and 4–5 hours the rest for the past four months. That sounds like a lot – it is.
It was awesome for the first month – I loved having time to play all these games I’d bought and never got around to. However, after four months of this, several things have become apparent:
If you only play games, it is unsustainable. I had never been very fit, but I felt pretty sluggish after about two weeks of this low-exercise activity – my eyes were constantly sore, and I was always tired. My head hurt, my neck hurt, I had problems sleeping.
I needed help remembering things I needed to do and lost the motivation to do things other than game, eat and sleep. My legs always hurt, and my right wrist started seizing up.
That’s a bit of an extreme example I’m presenting to you, but I did this.
Are video games really that bad for you And Kids?
Two weeks ago, I said enough was enough. I developed a cough I couldn’t kick and felt like shit. I took a week off gaming entirely – went outside, swam, exercised, and started working out a bit. I started doing wrist exercises.
Boy, did I feel so much better almost instantly? Don’t get me wrong, my wrist still hurts, I have a dull ache in my head, and my eyes feel terrible when it’s sunny. But it is a world better than two weeks ago.
Lessons?
- Games are most fun (for me) when you play with friends. Friends who won’t get angry if you make a mistake. It enhances the experience tremendously. I have started playing games again, to a much lower extent, but I’ve played mostly with mates the whole time because, after a day of playing alone, I felt like crap.
- Play somewhere with air. Don’t close yourself up in a sealed room – have a window, use it whenever it’s practical.
- Play good posture and do wrist exercises – gaming with a mouse will destroy your wrist tendons if you don’t care for them. Sit straight, don’t slouch, and get up and walk around when possible. Have water with you.
- Have self-control. Limit your gaming. If you let it dominate your life, it will ruin the rest of your life. I didn’t talk to many of my friends for weeks on end. I stopped answering my phone – just left it on silent, with no vibration. Don’t shut yourself out; it will just make you feel depressed.
- If you have gamed too much, take a break. Go to a party, swim, jog, or do whatever – take breaks. If you do something long enough continuously, it becomes a chore, and if you’re addicted to something that makes you feel like it’s a struggle, it will make your life feel pretty crap.
Are video games really that bad for you And Kids?
So yeah. Gaming is certainly fun, depending on the game type; it can even be beneficial to reflexes, thinking skills, and communication. But have self-control, and be intelligent about your gaming. If it’s a hobby, keep it as a hobby. Don’t let it become an obsession. No matter how much you think playing games all the time would be awesome, it’s not.
Trust me. I’ve been there.
Good luck with your gaming!
Quick Note: Even as I write this, every minute or so, I have to stretch my wrist and neck because using my right hand to type or click has become painful, and keeping my neck still for more than a minute makes it ache. Yeah. I hope it goes away eventually.
It’s entirely up to how you want to view this.
Illustration only. Cases for individuals can vary. But I am of the view that it’s the same as the things you eat or use in life. If you eat too much, you might get overweight and eventually get a heart attack and die.
You decide to one day smoke a cigarette for whatever reason only you would make up. It might not happen now, but eventually, you may develop cancer or other bad effects of cigarette usage.
So I think video games are only “bad” if you let them. You decide here. Not the merchandise. You are the one in control.
Why do people enjoy playing video games? How is it fun? It is a waste of time.
You know what else is a waste of time? Watching TV. People sat for hours on end in front of a screen, doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. They have no impact on the story unfolding and can do nothing but watch it happen.
How do people stay awake through all that? I have no idea whatsoever.
With video games, you have a sense of ACCOMPLISHING something. YOU saved the princess/found out she was in another castle. YOU avenged Zero, and YOU 1v1′d the Black Knight. YOU caught Arceus. For absolute victory, YOU saved your E-cans for as long as possible to finally beat Air Man. You can become more invested with the characters you see throughout the game because YOU meet them, using your player character as a vessel.
You get a deeper experience through video games than movies or TV because you accomplish something. Even if nobody else acknowledges it, you CAN accomplish something by staring at that screen and fiddling with a joystick. It’s up to YOU to believe that you can.
Should I stop gaming and start programming? I am a teenager and feel useless for gaming a lot. My grades are dropping. Programming can help me feel accomplished, and it would help me get better grades. What should I do?
Originally Answered: Should I stop gaming and start programming?
I knew a kid in high school who was brilliant. He is top of his class calibre.
In his sophomore year, he discovered League of Legends, and by his senior year, I only saw him skipping class to play more games. He became a case example of “wasted potential.”
A joke started in our class that League of Legends ruined his life. But that’s not true. Video games didn’t destroy his life; he did.
Programming won’t save your life or your grades. That decision is up to you. And yes, you can still play plenty of video games while learning to program, but the desire to change your life can only come from you.
Edit:
I mistakenly came across as condemning his life decision when I never intended to do so. I’m not here to tell people what choices they should make in life. I’m an avid gamer myself (over five years of League of Legends, over 4000 games in it, 30 days of playtime in MW2, etc.), and it’s how I got my start in computer science.
My answer here can be distilled down to: Take responsibility and agency for your life.
Why are video games so bad nowadays?
OUCH! As a game dev, that hurts to hear. I don’t know that game quality is worse, but the shift in business strategy for today’s games industry will leave many older gamers unsatisfied.
There are three core factors why this has happened.
The need to satisfy Wall Street and market demands on creative products (something that affects film, too).
Wall Street has been a part of the game industry for a while, and many of the CEOs of game companies are deeply vested in franchises’ success and games as service investments.
In truth, the highest earnings games are no longer the single-player, single-purchase offline adventures of our pasts; mind you, those games still make money, but those games don’t make Fortnite or PUBG money, and for Wall Street, that’s a problem. Why invest in pushing the creative medium forward when you can create content bogged down with loot crates and microtransactions that make much more?
Minimizing development costs for something players may not even like and maximizing what works, getting them to compete with their friends and others online gives them an ecosystem to pour their money into. Make a game that makes money for YEARS, with much of the cost being maintenance and support after release.
Studios and Wall Street want their games to be a part of your life for the long term, which means not giving you everything you want in a single experience immediately.
The appreciation of the Chinese and Asian gaming market in general
I should have paid more attention because it’s only become clear how massive the Chinese gaming market is in the last year or two. Constantly battling the US for the number one spot in consumer spending, the Chinese game market is thriving and is very appealing to Western studios who want to increase their profitability.
A good friend of mine works at one of the top two Chinese game publishers, and to put it bluntly, Chinese gamers aren’t as annoyed at microtransactions and vanity items as Western gamers tend to be (skins, special armours, etc.).
For Chinese games, social currency is a HUGE deal with HUGE financial potential, and they are much more content with games that exhibit that software as a service model.
(Some of the skins of Raid: Shadow Legends)
It’s much easier to put out battle passes, new skins for old weapons and characters, and create new content that is essentially palette swaps versus creating a whole new DLC campaign. I bet good money that the return on those is better, too.
The rise of importance in the mobile game market and Microtransaction’s extreme profitability
Gamers can look down upon and criticize the mobile games market, but it’s not going away anytime soon.
From a business perspective, why would they? You can expand the number of gamers who can access your games (are there more phones or PS4s / Switches/ and Xbox in the world?).
You can offer those players the games for free for much smaller, interesting financial incentives (are casual gamers more likely to spend $60 on the Last of Us or more likely to spend $1 on a Pokeball pack for Pokemon Go?).
Mobile games are tremendously profitable, and In retrospect, we talk about the death of the arcade when the arcades really just made the transition to being in your pocket. An endless selection of games that don’t even cost you the obligatory quarter and still allow you to compete with friends and strangers worldwide.
In conclusion:
I don’t know if games are worse. Still, the focus on the game experience has shifted vastly in terms of what a successful games business can and does look like and has left older gamers (even me at times) feeling unsatisfied with the current industry offerings.
The perfect storm of all these things occurred when Blizzard disappointed fans by pitching a new business strategy that embraced all of these concepts using the shell of one of their most popular franchises, Diablo Immortal, which was not announced with Western hardcore gamers in mind.
These factors together mean that the focus of the games market and businesses has been shifting. The optimal game (from a business perspective) is a mobile experience with a lasting ecosystem that is popular globally and has massive returns on investment.
Does that sound familiar?
No.
Video games are not at all bad for anybody. Some things are intrinsically bad just by watching TV instead of playing sports. Blue light isn’t great for your eyes, and you aren’t being physically active, but the same thing is an issue for 40-year-old men who come home from work and fall asleep watching ESPN.
Similarly, you aren’t getting concussions and fractures like you would be playing football or soccer. But, unlike watching TV, you are stimulating your mind. People have this absolutely silly idea that all video games are meaningless and require no thought or energy. Video games can be hard. Many seem impossible to play to the people claiming video games require no effort.
Some games are just mindless fun, like DOOM, Risk of Rain 1/2, Devil May Cry, etc. But even with those, you can crank the difficulty to Ultra-Nightmare, Monsoon, and Dante Must Die. They will require strategy, planning, and coordination. And, while you still need to play sports or jog with a Wii remote, you should be going to the gym in the first place, even if your main hobby is throwing hoops with your friends.
Are video games really that bad for you And Kids?
Some people don’t agree, but playing video games as your main hobby doesn’t mean you can’t have some form of physical activity. If someone is inactive, doesn’t care for themselves physically, and plays video games, that’s a separate problem.
Which brings me to the thing that everybody brings up. Mental health. Video games do not “cause violence” to any meaningful extent. Let’s say a school shooter decides to do their thing; then it comes out that they play Call of Duty regularly. People will put it all on that, even if that kid is on the basketball team.
On top of that, some shooters have never touched a keyboard and controller in their lives.
Correlation does not equal causation. But that’s the thing: there’s no correlation either! Of all the millions of people who play video games, why aren’t we all violent criminals? Only the people who are already unhealthy are the ones that are brought under a microscope. Those who are bullied, abused, taken advantage of, and much of that is even the parent’s fault.
TL;DR: No. Some things are unhealthy about playing video games, but nothing that isn’t caused by something else. Everything has benefits and drawbacks, and video games have very few drawbacks for the average person.
Are video games really that bad for you And Kids?