Like other products of information technologies, video games penetrate modern reality and influence the behavior of the various groups that embrace them. Among the gaming community, children participate vigorously in absorbing the plethora of entertaining content, including age-restricted ones where the scenes of violence are abundant. Although some people claim that such depictions might provoke aggressive behavior, the evidence does not support it. Moreover, video games could be a useful device for drawing children’s attention to educational texts if presented properly.
First of all, a misconception concerning the ability of children to discern the reality and gaming world is often promoted by their disturbed parents. However, multiple experiments have been conducted on kindergarten children that attest their capacity to determine electronic devices’ video content on the subject of actuality (Li & et al., 2019). Therefore, children have cognitive abilities to exclude gaming experience from real-life occurring.
In the same manner, researchers might disprove the involvement of video games in increasing destructiveness. As observed in the research of Dowsett and Jackson (2019), “competition rather than violence within video games impacts aggression” (para. 1). More precisely, the rivalrous gameplay usually suggests defeat, which inflames the gamer in its turn. In brief, the tournament structure of a game could be the source of discontent and further aggression, not violence.
Above all, a video game might be an activity that instigates interests in various subjects of knowledge. The authors of narrative and concepts in the gaming industry aim to work on their products thoroughly, inserting in their ideas and facts from history, philosophy, linguistics, and natural science. Subsequently, such plentitude of connected conceits invites a gamer to begin an extra investigation that can lead to genuine engagement with an educational field. Thus, gaming is probably a presentable novelty of entertainment that contains information beneficial for children.
As has been stated, diverse views surround the gaming process, many of which are presumably misleading. One of these is consistent belief in children’s inability to perceive games as fantasy; nevertheless, children are apt to this from an early age. Also, a competitive attitude while gaming results in aggressive behavior, whereas violence does not produce such an effect. Finally, the gaming industry has the potential to educate children, which could be seen as its positive influence.
References
Dowsett, A., & Jackson, M. (2019). The Effect of violence and competition within video games on aggression. Computers in Human Behavior, 99, 22–27. Web.
Li, H., Liu, T., Woolley, J. D., & Zhang, P. (2019). Reality status judgments of real and fantastical events in children’s prefrontal cortex: An fNIRS study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 13(444). Web.