Are Video Games Harming Our Kids?
If you knew for a fact that video games were detrimental to the growth and development of your children, would you take them away? Probably not.
Maybe you would limit access, but I think most people treat video games just like sugar. We know sugar is bad, yet very few people prevent their kids from celebrating Halloween, or eating ice cream, or getting candy at birthday parties.
There is research that shows video games cause harm just like sugar. Things like:
- Attention deficit
- Obesity
- Propensity for violence, less caring, are more hostility
- Disengagement from the real world
- Laziness
The fact is, people aren’t very good at limiting harmful activities that cause harm over the long term and pose little threat in the short term. I would argue that this is one of the biggest weakness of human kind.
Most of us won’t take action until it’s practically too late. It’s like the whole frog boiling in water analogy.
Just like we have an obesity epidemic in this country that the pundits saw coming 30 years ago, it appears that our country is heading towards something similar with a virtual reality crisis that will warp minds in the foreseeable future.
Just last month, the World Health Organization added “Gaming disorder” as an official mental health condition and is recognizing video-game addiction as a public health crisis .
So what do you do?
The first step is to set specific limits on the time you and/or your children spend gaming. The general guideline I found across several studies was between 45 minutes and 1 hour per day, max.
Next, I would suggest finding real world activities that fill the void of the stimulation provided by gaming. Replacing gaming time with television or social media time won’t help.
Try getting your children active in a sport like wrestling. This is a sport in which you can attain success with a wide range of athletic abilities. You don’t have to be the fastest or strongest or biggest to win. It’s similar to video games in that it has levels, and the more time you put in the more you get out of it.
Another idea is to get your kids involved with the various tech behind gaming. From music production, to producing and editing videos, to programming. There are a number of courses at libraries and local universities that are often free or very cheap. Just make sure it’s a face to face / in person course and not an online course. That will defeat the purpose if it’s an online course.
You have to make sure any activity you introduce provides real world socializing and involves the process of making new friends. This is one of the biggest reasons these new online games are taking over our culture. Gamers are now connecting with virtual friends more often than real world friends. So any attempt to replace gaming time with real world activities must include socializing with real world friends and making new friends.