Essay: Positive Effects of Playing Video Games

Sample Essay

While there is certainly a negative side to video games, they are positively contributing as well. Video games have found their use in schools as well as medical professionals and the effects that they have made in these are certainly significant.

Shortening the Learning Curve

Since video games are known for their appeal to children, they can be naturally used for teaching, due to their interactive nature. They provide an effective teaching tool for schools. These schools use video games to engage children in an activity which requires them to perform a task repeated for their learning and are rewarded for their skills. This concept is gaining a lot of popularity and Wall Street Journal has recently reported that several companies are now venturing into the field of pre-schools gaming,i.e., designing gaming consoles for pre-schoolers which are then used by schools to aide in learning and development of children (Gentile, 2004).

Skills Development

Recent Studies at Fordham University has revealed that video games can play an effective role in the development of cognitive and perceptual skills. By rewarding children for performing a function correctly, the computers games can make the children remember and recognize objects in a much more effective and fun way. Requiring to think about how to perform a task correctly and how to deal with a situation which is about to occur (Such as thinking about killing a daemon on next stage of the game) also improves their ability to percept a situation early and solve the problem at hand more accurately. Learning to solve the problem this way, improve children ability to think and plan quickly as well as help in building their hand-eye coordination, which according to Connect with Kids, could make them safer drivers. By playing against or with each other, they are also able to build skills like coordination and teamwork from an early stage (Hacker, 2009).

Learning about Direction

Another advantage of the use of video games in pre-schools is the learning they provide about following directions. Video games require the player to perform the various task in a particular manner for which directions are provided to the user. By doing exactly what the game is asking for, pre-school children learn how to follow direction. This method is much more effective and interesting to children as compared to the traditional way of teaching (Raise Smart Kids, 2009).

Building Self Esteem

Video games have also been seen as a great help for children who are suffering from psychological problems such as inferiority complex and lack of self-confidence. Psychological therapists have used video games as part of their treatment for children with such psychological problems. By playing video games, these children get a sense of participation and achieving something which helps them in building their self-confidence. They start to feel positive and enthusiastic about their lives which support them in overcoming their psychological problems to a certain extent. Also, mastering a video game helps them in acquiring a social presence and gaining the companionship of peers (Oak, 2008).

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