Child of Our Time

I happened to stumble upon a documentary the other day about children and video games whilst trying to find something to do but the essay. The documentary is called Children of Our Time and this particular episode was about the common activities children engage in in their spare time. Video games was a considerable theme in that documentary and the thing that struck me the most what that the documentary framed video games in a positive light in relation to the mental development of children! Children as young as six were playing Grand Theft Auto and one girl went so far as to say “I love it”. But the documentary does not pass judgement on the children or parents, instead it focused on the effects these games are having on the children’s learning. To my surprise the studies they conducted showed that video games actually help with certain mental developments such as problem solving, memory skills, storytelling skills and computer skills.  

If we really think about this on a critical level, it makes much more sense that videogames builds certain skills rather than induce violent behaviours in users because a lot of cognitive functions are used when playing videogames. A videogame controller is not as intuitive as you think it is, a lot of mental processing and practice are needed to be avid users of the videogame controller. One also needs to be familiar with the conventions and narrative structures of games to understand what is expected of them in the game, and this also takes learning. Also a lot of videogames require players to solve problems the game has designed to advance to the next level, creativity and experience are needed for this and subsequently problem solving skills are developed further. Violence is such a minor part of the videogame experience but it is emphasised beyond proportion in videogame discourse that a lot of the benefits of playing videogames are often overlooked.

So prevalent is the notion that “videogames destroys young minds” that I myself am guilty of having this bias that when something comes along that says otherwise I was taken aback by such findings. But perhaps the discourse of videogames is changing now as the media form is being studied more at a critical level. Perhaps the wave of suspicion at a ‘new’ media form is dying down.