My son has been trying to convince me for years that video games and computers, which he has an innate love of since the age of 1 1/2 (yes, I let my toddler play on computers...naughty mom!!). He recently wrote an articulate and thoughtful essay for his 7th grade language arts class on how video games can change the world. It included his belief that playing games online or on consoles helps him to meet kids all around the world, learn new languages like Chinese and Japanese, read faster, think better, learn how to solve puzzles, plan and strategize, and the list went on and on...I have spent years yelling at him to turn off the computer, obsessing about how much I suck as a mom because my kid sits sometimes for hours staring at a screen and worried about what he will do as an adult if all he can do is click the mouse really fast.
But my eyes have been opened since I have started to think about what it really means to reach a level of optimized human performance. My husband, who is a big my husband, who is a big proponent of virtual worlds and MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) including WOW (World of Warcraft for those of you non-gamers out there), told me to check out Jane McGonigal's TED video on how video games can change the world...I was impressed with her narrative (it helps that she talks in PhD-speak which I have learned to love)...and maybe I can be convinced that video games can save the world!
1 comment:
Yes video games are really good. There are several benefits of playing video games. Hand and eye coordination gets improved and even so many skills got improved and developed by playing games.
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