There are many advantages to online games. Although it may sound strange to you, yes, I can confirm that there are real advantages!
But like everything in life we have both positive and negative aspects of video games to consider. Did you know that polls reveal that 81% of parents have a bestial fear of the negative consequences that technology can have on their children? These fears often do not allow us, adults, to consider the real advantages of video games more objectively and instead lead us to consider the negative aspects of technology much more.
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In particular, the main fears that emerged are:
- The Fear of the child becoming addicted and unable to disconnect from monitors and the internet.
- Fear of accessing unsuitable content, pornography and pedophilia.
- They Fear that the child loses the sense of reality and that he can no longer distinguish the real world from the virtual world.
- Fear of losing interest in other healthier activities such as playing with other peers or outdoor activities.
- Fear of getting sick and that devices adversely affect his health, brain, creativity, and imagination.
The singular aspect is that despite these fears, 30% of children go online as early as 3-4 years old. Between the ages of 5 and 7, 87% of children surf the internet! And as you well know immediately they suffer a fatal attraction towards the screens.
Video Games pros and cons:
2 main reasons why we ignore the advantages related to video games and technology
We grew up with paper books, ink cans, bulky and heavy encyclopedias at times: it is obvious that keeping up with all the technological innovations of recent years has been a great effort. Until 1982, the word Internet did not exist. Facebook was born in 2004 and YouTube in 2005!
Also, see BL3 Save Editor.
Your brain is less flexible than your child’s.
Babies adapt very easily to changes and super-fast technology and can follow multiple things together, but we are sloths and hardly do one activity at a time.
Fear will not help you accompany your child in understanding how to use technology to their advantage and to avoid its social and health risks and dangers.
Instead, it would be useful to have a line of knowledge about the pros and cons of the technology. Just as your child needs you to transfer limits, rules, and healthy habits for life in general, you need to educate them in a CONSCIOUS USE of Computers, TV, the Internet, Social Networks, Video Games, Tablets, and Smartphones.
Here are the main difficulties parents face today when they have to manage technological devices:
- They tend to ban the use of video games and digital devices but… the prohibited things are what your child tends to do the most. Especially in secret. Just like you used to do sometimes as a kid.
- The fear of the unknown, the unknown, and the consequences on the health form armies of mothers who carry their furious battle anti-technology and anti-video games.
- And they are right! After all, no one has ever explained to them the true advantages and disadvantages of technology.
- They have a tremendous and justified fear that their children will become addicted to screens and do not know how to prevent or solve this danger.
- We are afraid of the internet and its unsuitable content, pornography, violence, and pedophilia.
- They do not know how to manage the time their children spend in front of the screens. If they forbid too much they start quarrels and tantrums. If they give more they feel guilty and fear health consequences.
- They worry about the amount of time spent on passive reception of images, especially TV, which is considered to be much more passive than computers and video games.
- We have no solution to avoid and prevent alienation, sociality, and lack of communication with their children.
- They fear learning disabilities and a decrease in curiosity, imagination, and creativity.
- We find it hard to remove or limit video games or the tablet if they then use it.
- They are concerned about the possibility that their children will lose the desire to learn through concrete and material books and activities.
Real Truth
The real truth that will help you better evaluate the positives and negatives of video games. The digital world is here to stay, it will be more and more present in our lives and you have to interact with it in some way. Your job as an adult is to understand the advantages and disadvantages and act accordingly.
Banning is not always right
Banning or strictly rejecting a situation is not always the most convenient approach and you risk not understanding how to take advantage of it, especially for your child who will grow up and work in an increasingly connected, digital, fast and interactive world! In fact, technology also has enormous advantages.
Top 5 benefits of video games for your child
I list the 5 MAIN ADVANTAGES of video games used in a CONSCIOUS way, with the right limits and the RIGHT KNOWLEDGE of the parent:
Digital Collaboration.
Children and teens tend to collaborate and cooperate through technology. While we fear sociality and the lack of interaction for them, communication is normal and it also takes place on the web and through social networks.
Exchange and Help.
Children and young people not only interact, but also help and collaborate: in the face of technology they support each other, exchange advice and experiences, and argue less!!
Games help (a lot) Learning.
Strategy and adventure video games are excellent and effective for learning at school and at home. More so than current rational teaching methods that do not consider the most physiological ways of learning for children. It is only necessary to remove the fear that they are harmful. To know how not to create addiction and to animate the group of students by alternating paper and books with multimedia and interactive supports. Like Borderlands 3 Save Editor is a game that helps in learning.
The Games sharpen the ability to Solve Problems.
The Minecraft video game and other similar strategy games stimulate digital intelligence (which children already have naturally). The ability to solve problems and formulate hypotheses. And they do it in the same way as the more classic ways of learning. But which are based on the true nature of the child and his / her innate ability to learn (today it does not happen). Yes, these skills are the same ones that kids will use in real life. And they will be much faster and more capable than us in finding alternative solutions. To the big problems of the world!!
For digital kids and teens, writing with a computer is much easier than writing by hand.
If properly guided, children alternate writing (and drawing) on the computer. To that on paper and with colors with fluidity and naturalness. And without judging one valid and the other less so as we adults do!.