The harms and benefits of video games
1) A recent article has re-opened the debate about the harms and benefits of young people playing
video games. As the article continues to circulate over email and appear on web sites and educator's
forums across the country, a good number of writers, bloggers and educational groups are coming
forward with their own versions of the truth.
2) The article calls gaming a kind of "sensory deprivation", stating that prolonged immersion in cyber
worlds interacting with fictional characters robs gamers of real-world, living, threedimensional experiences. It isn't a new claim, really, just an enhanced version of the age-old criticism
that gamers never learn to interact with anything but technology. The article tells us that, at least
until age 11, a child's brain must be programmed in 3-D, or "humanized", long before it becomes
"digitized" in 2-D using computers and other digital applications. Taking away a young child's
opportunity to develop in the living world means his brain will never fully develop as chemistry,
physiology and nature intended, it says.
3) Over the years, opponents of gaming have blamed the hobby on everything from attention-deficit
to aggression to muscular and skeletal problems, also claiming it both teaches and then allows players
to practise harmful behaviours that are eventually translated over to real life. Committed
gamers have been shown to face additional health risks, too, most notably childhood obesity and
diabetes, not present a generation ago when children actually ran around and played outside instead
of spending hours sitting in front of electronic devices.
4) Gaming opponents blame corporations for making parents and teachers believe that technology is
effective for increasing learning. How else could anyone be convinced to sit a baby down in front of a
television when common sense has always shown that infants learn entirely on their own with no
help from anyone but a good set of parents and interactions with the real world?
5) Supporters of gaming, on the other hand, contend that actually the opposite is true. While there
isn't a parent around who isn't concerned about the lack of physical activity and potential health risks
associated with prolonged periods of inactivity, there are many benefits to playing video games that
opponents sometimes seem to miss. Studies have shown that gamers, in fact, become highly skilled
social beings and meticulous planners and strategists, both valuable skills in the modern world of
work. Muscle and motor skills become enhanced, they say, and gamers become quick-acting, fastthinking problem-solvers, who are specially trained to pursue many of the modern and technical
career paths of today, including valuable participation in the military.
6) Young gamers derive many other benefits, too. From learning to read earlier on to soaking up
information in many subject areas (not just learning Japanese, either), computer and video games are
a fast and fun way of learning. Because young people like doing it, they learn at their own pace
and without boundaries. What they are learning depends on the game; but, with a parent's help
during the selection process, the results can be quite extraordinary. Although studies show that more
boys than girls are playing, girls play, too, thus these games can benefit both sexes.
7) Although psychologists and others who study behaviour aren't exactly sure if video game
behaviour carries over into the real world (until recently, research showed that it probably did not),
what they do know is that young people often play video games to act out experiences rather than
dealing with them in the real world. This, they say, can be very helpful in dealing with stress and
anger, as well as enabling young people to act out behaviours (for instance, violence) in a fictional
world rather than trying it out in real life. In addition, many young people report playing computer
and video games as a way to relax, and not as a means to role-play at all, therefore practising
behaviour is not what gamers intend when they play.
(Article adapted from The Examiner Education and Schools June 14 2010)