Video Games are Beneficial to Youth
It has become commonplace in recent years for major media outlets to decry video games as “wasteful”, “detrimental to youth”, “harmful to society”, and “factors in the increase of teen violence”. They cite damning “evidence” such as the Columbine school shootings as fact in their goal of removing video games from the impressionable hands of youth. With all the negative images coming from the mass media, it has been difficult for video games to receive a fair shake in society, being lumped into a category alongside nicotine and alcohol. But do these outlets look at the effect video games really have upon youth in society, and how video games prepare them for life later on? Video games are beneficial to youth because they are educational, they are a social activity and because they increase hand-eye coordination.
With all the emphasis laid upon teaching kids critical thinking and technical skills from a young age, video games provide an excellent outlet for such learning to occur. Video games such as Brain Age increase mental acuity by training the brain to react quickly to situations, and by building upon the basic foundations of math, language and other facets of education. Furthermore, with music often cited as the key to creative expression, games such as Guitar Hero open the door to an appreciation of music in youth, as well as the artistic endeavours that accompany that field. Not only that, but video games provide a crucial means of teaching strategic thinking, with almost every video having some form of a strategy base programmed into it. Whether the strategy involves managing supplies correctly, defeating a particular boss or remembering specific sequences in order to advance the critical thinking skills taught by video games are both vast and incredibly varied.
Not only are video games excellent instructional tools, they are also and important social activity that can both improve interactions among peers, and provide simulations on important moral and ethical issues. With the advent of the Wii console by Nintendo, communal games reached a new peak in the public eye, providing physically active games that could easily be shared among several friends. With games like Wii Sports accompanying the console, competition among friends naturally arose, and a good majority of games began to follow this trend of social interaction among players. Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games also benefitted the increase in social interaction, with their entire premise being players interacting and playing against each other. Additionally, video games can be used to convey messages about political, ethical and moral issues. Games such as Bioshock can illustrate the dangers of such content as nuclear fallout through their graphical imagery, and the accompanying storyline. With these messages being portrayed, the impact that the messages can have behind the games is immense.
Perhaps the greatest positive impact video games can have on youth is the increase in hand-eye coordination that accompanies the playing of video games. As in the previous example, the release of Wii Sports and related video games are directly related to the increase in physical activity among youth, their entire premise being “you are the controller”. With youth experiencing traditional sports designed to improve hand eye coordination, including baseball and tennis, these games directly contribute to improvements in the physical condition and hand eye coordination among youth. This holds true even for games in a more traditional vein. First person shooters, often debased for their naturally violent connotations, require the player to recognize when an enemy pops on screen and immediately react by shooting the character with their controller. Video games can therefore clearly be thought of as beneficial to the development of fine motor skills, including hand-eye coordination.
In conclusion, video games are beneficial to youth because of their educational benefit, the impact they have from being a social activity, and the direct improvement they foist upon a players hand-eye coordination.