Effects of video games on children
Answers
The adverse effects of playing video games may include:-
(i) The violence they contain. Video games are generally violence-related, which may impact a child very much. Children may start being aggressive and violent in situations which can be solved easily with calm talks. Children will become more used to harsh violence and gradually grow immune to it, which may cause them to act less empathetic with others.
Also, kids are rewarded for the violence and destruction they cause, which may encourage them even more to this. They are in control of what they do, and the gaming system may impact them in a way that will cause them to encourage violence and get involved in it.
(ii) Less physical activeness. Video games are easily addicting, and will grab anyone's attention easily. They have never-ending illustrations and stories, joined with energizing battles and events. These deprive the children of their physical activities and cause them to be more homely. Less physical activity can also cause declining health, which is not good for growing children.
This can also cause the child to be less interactive with real-life people and be poor in sports and outdoor activities.
(iii) Games can have negative effects on children's health. Less physical activity, straining of eyes, skeletal and mental disorders, video-induced seizures, etc.
But even though games have so many disadvantages, they still have their own benefits.
(i) Improve the hand-eye coordination and fine motor.
(ii) Improve focus and concentration.
(iii) Improve problem-solving and logical thinking.
(iv) Multi-tasking
(v) Making decisions
(vi) Accuracy
(vii) Estimation skills
(viii) Leadership skills
(ix) Mapping and memorization
There are yet many more benefits to games than we think there are, and even though they carry adverse effects, they can be managed easily by controlling the addiction. Overall, games are very addictive and just an entertainment to our daily busy lives, which we need very much in today's fast moving world.
Effect of Video Games and Online Games
If we are talking about the games we play on our smartphones, computers or even online then we may define a game as a set of codes arranged in a systematic order in one or more computer languages with an objective to entertain the user running the program. Usually, the act of running such a program is known as playing games. Some of these games are designed in such a way that the person playing the game gets addicted to it. Usually, children upto 16 or 17 years are affected by it but in many cases it has an impact on adults too. In most cases it has a bad effect which is more often found in children.
The children playing such games are affected by it physically as well as mentally. The devices or handsets that facilitates execution of such games, of course, must have a screen for display of characters. These screens emit the waves of long as well as short wavelengths. The waves of short wavelengths does not affect the eyes to much extent but the ones with long wavelengths has a very bad impact on the eyes. Hence, anyone sitting in front of any type of monitor screen must wear proper spectacles to minimize the effect of harmful waves on their eyes. This leads to the deterioration of the eyes of the every person using it. This is a physical impact of playing such games on anyone, especially children.
Another most important physical effect on children is that it affects the handwriting of the children upto the age of 14 years. Sounds strange, isn't it? Actually, using phones deteriorates the practice of our muscles which are not well developed yet. But, in case of adults playing games on phone hardly affect their handwriting.
Apart from all the physical effects on children the most important is the following effect. The capacity of children to imagine i.e. their creativity does develop at all. Do you know why? The entertainment for children is just their games or their phones, hence their creativity is confined to just their games. If the children were made to read the books, then they would be reading new stories coming upon new characters which in turn, increases their creativity.
At last, I want to conclude that video or online games hardly have a good or constructive effect on children. Hence, they should be not allowed to play games. Instead, they should be made to read good books. In case, they excessively rigid then rather than playing digital games, make them read articles published online. Then, at least apart from affecting the eyes, the creativity of children will enhance.