The Question:
Video games are a complicated topic. Do they make children violent? Do they develop social skills in children? Do they help develop critical thinking skills?
My Opinion:
For me, I think video games can make children violent. I do not think that video games develop social skills in children, but I do think that video games give children strong critical thinking skills.
Where This Came From In My Personal Life:
The idea that violent video games make kids violent comes from being raised with the idea. My grandparents strongly believe this. However, I have developed my own sense of this, because I watch a lot of television shows about real crimes, and I feel like I see a lot of teens that commit murder played violent video games or watched violent T.V. This is a broad assumption of course because there are other factors that go into making a murderer. I also have a problem with video games creating good social skills, that's just my own personal idea of a gamer, that the game becomes their life (don't hate me, I know that is horrible). And lastly, I totally believe that video games promote critical thinking, and develop and facilitate those skills. This comes from the fact that my little brother learned how to read from playing video games, and he also has a much greater affinity for thinking out side the box.
My Support:
Violent video games have been largely blamed for kids becoming violent and/or committing crimes. According to an Iowa State University study concludes after, "analyzing 130 research reports
on more than 130,000 subjects worldwide, proves conclusively
that exposure to violent video games makes more aggressive,
less caring kids -- regardless of their age, sex or culture." So my initial opinion about violent video games having a negative effect on kids, was right.
Prosocial, Antisocial, and Other Effects of Recreational Video Games, talks about the social side of video games. This covers several aspects of video games and how it effects the player, and it raises the a couple of hypothesis's on the topic, "If the in-game context requires players to cooperate to achieve goals, this might also teach teamwork and social coordination skills...the social context outside of the game may matter. Playing a violent game in a room with other friends (virtual or real) might increase the aggression effect because players are giving each other social support for aggression"(254). Unfortunately this topic has not been studied. So the answer to the question is a mystery.
The last topic of discussion is about critical thinking being developed by video games for kids. It is how I had originally thought, "schools such as Quest to Learn, which is based in New York City and Chicago, employ video games to engage students in the education process. Its curriculum uses games to teach critical thinking and problem-solving skills"(9). And there are further leaps towards this kind of teaching. For more information check out, How Blogs, Social Media, and Video Games Improve Education.
As A Group:
We did some common ground with our original thought, and with our final conclusions. First in the area of violent video games causing violence in kids, we all pretty much agreed that it has a lot to do with it, however we all felt that it is not up to the video game developers to make sure their content is suitable for children. It is also up to the parents to check out what their kids are doing, and being aware of what ratings the games have that they are buying. As for the social part of video gaming, Jason and I agreed that there is no way that video games develop social skills. Austyn did not agree with us at all. Unfortunately because of the lack of evidence, we did come to a happy medium. We all agreed on that some games can give you a common interest and help you bond with friends and give you something to talk about. That can develop social skill. Jason and I had to really understand where Austyn was coming from, and after a little while we got there. Critical thinking was something we had all agreed on from the beginning. This class, and things in our lives that we have really shown us that video games can have a very positive effect of children, the information we found was just icing on the cake.
