![]() Video games have been one of the fastest growing industries in the past five to ten years. Video games are no longer just for children and nerdy thirty year-olds in their parent's basement. Now they are something for all ages, races, genders and most socio-economic classes. You don't need a fancy, thousand dollar gaming PC or even an expensive gaming console anymore. We are all gaming on our cell phones now. From Candy Crush to words Words with Friends to more classic "games" like Infinity Blade, we are all playing games. Along with the expansion of the mobile gaming platform, the console gaming platform has blown up as well. When I was a kid, we all went over to the house of whoever had a gaming console, they were the cool kids (or just had rich parents). But as the technology advanced to make games better and appeal to a wider audience, more and more people bought a console. Now most houses have some sort of console. The industry is dominated by Sony and Microsoft with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, respectively. With this huge increase in gaming, we have to revisit an old question and stigma. Are video games bad for you? I'm consider myself a gamer and a pretty heavy gamer at that. I'm a student athlete so after I finish school and basketball, I spend a lot of my free time playing video games. I play a variety of games and I'm pretty interested in the industry as a whole. In my opinion, video games aren't bad at all. I think all the negative connotations behind video games are over exaggerated. In my interpersonal media class the past week we have been talking about community and if you can form a true community online and have the same effects as offline. Personally, I think gaming is one of the best ways to do that online. I'm a big NBA 2K player, and the 2K community is huge. We all have similar interests and band together and go through the same struggles as each other (glitches in the game). I think this can help create a sense of community for people who don't have that in their physical community. There have been numerous studies done in the past five years that show the positive effects of video games and why they are good for you. I read one article from Huffington Post, which I will link below, that highlighted nine different ways video games are good for you. The article talks about video games as actual pain relievers, how they can help slow mental deterioration and may even be able to improve eyesight. Video games may not be the absolute best way to spend your free time but, they certainly are not a bad way to spend your free time. I think it's time we change the rhetoric around video games from negative and harmful to entertainment and even positive effects... ...but I'm not a blogger. www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/07/video-games-good-for-us_n_4164723.html
4 Comments
Dejour Williams
2/25/2018 12:53:46 pm
Whats good Andrew, I agree with you completely about video games not being bad. I personally don't play video games as much as I used to but I never saw any negative side effects of playing when i did.
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Eli Sylla
2/25/2018 02:56:09 pm
Hey Andrew, I completely agree that video games don't do any harm on people. The only harm they can do is if someone who is prone to getting addicted to something gets addicted, but that thing can be anything really.
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Ann Kimberly Piquette
2/26/2018 08:04:22 am
I agree. The only time you really see video games harming anyone is when they become addicted and lose sight of the real world. In the end, everyone chooses how they want to spend their free time, and if some people find video games a worthwhile way to spend that time, I say let them.
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Kade McCoy
2/25/2018 03:05:36 pm
Andrew, I totally agree with your post, the rhetoric surrounding video games needs to change. As a gamer myself, gaming communities have had a profound impact on my life and I'm also willing to argue that it has on society as a whole. Where do you see us making the first step toward changing the negative stereotypes surrounding video games?
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