LET me continue with my son’s speech at school that I shared last week, where he wanted to defend why his playing online games was actually a good thing.
“Did you know when video games were created by William Higinbotham, there was no intention of it help[ing] kids in school? Studies have shown that video games can help kids in many ways…not just educationally but also in social skills, and make them interested in many occupations. One of the reasons gaming can help kids in school is that 70 percent of gamers play with other people and the other 30 percent play alone.
This can help kids have better social skills because gaming is a highly social activity. It can also help kids understand gadgets that we use now in quarantine. This is one of the reasons that younger generations are more interested and know how to work with gadgets better than other generations.
“Today, I want to tell all of you here that video games actually have value in the lives of the youth. To my fellow students here, video games can help you in school because these can help you relate with other people, boost your understanding of math and science as well as your memory, and help you become more interested in possible future jobs.
“First, video games can help kids improve their social skills. One reason according to videogames.ord.au is that a lot of video games are team-based which means that the video game can include other people or your friends. This can help you to experience things that you can’t learn in school. For example, if you are in a team there will be a person who can lead the team to victory. This can develop leadership skills outside of video games.
“Another reason is that if you play video games with other people, it can expand friendships and help you meet friends that you can trust in real life. Many of my very good friends came from playing video games with them. I also have made very good friends in other grades, such as the grade below and above me.
“Second, video games can help them study and memorize better in subjects, such as math and science. There are many examples of video games that can improve one’s study and memorization skills. One example is Minecraft. It is a very popular video game that allows you to build things using weapons, items and blocks, because there are many ways you can play, [and what you build and how you build it] can make school projects very unique. Video games could also [help improve memorization]. Many video games have a lot of cosmetics, items, weapons, etc., and you need to know [and remember] what each one does. One example is Fortnite—there are a lot of weapons and items that make the game fun but you need to know what item does what, so it makes you want to memorize these things so you can have even more fun, and with many updates there are more items that you need to memorize. This could be a very good habit that kids could adapt.
“Third, video games can make kids interested in a variety of jobs or occupations. Many parents think that video games cannot interest kids in jobs but there are multiple web sites and articles that say [otherwise]. One example is a career in music,
because the majority of gamers, [including] kids, know how to edit videos and many videos have music in them. This could inspire them to explore playing an instrument. Another example is for kids to be interested in becoming an animator or artist. Many gamers now also know how to design or make artworks online.
“In conclusion, video games can help kids in studies, social skills, and interest them in occupations in the future…. Thank you for listening to my talk and I hope that you now have a more positive view of video games and how they can affect kids in good ways.”
Now that my son is 12, I realize it was good that we had our consistent one-on-one times, and that I have continually been open to his thoughts to appreciate the upside of video games. Today, he would take time out to find YouTube videos so I can understand the rules of his latest game. He is able to organize his thoughts and tell me the story or origin of the characters.
In the end, it is enlightening to discover that screen time can actually be a great socio-emotional learning tool if we as parents become pro-active in using this to develop their communication skills—and appreciate how this provides opportunities to understand and bond with our children.