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Video games have come a long way since the days of Pong from Atari. During the beginning days of video games everyone was excited just to be playing a game on the TV. Not much thought was given to what types of games were being playing; it was new and exciting so we were addicted. We thought Atari had the market on fun, but not anymore! When playing video games such as Grand Theft Auto and Halo the graphics are so real you seem to be absorbed into the action and lose your sense of time and reality. When we were playing Pong we didn’t have the impulse to blur our reality and our fictional game world.
One question on so many parents minds today, “Is that game hurting my child in anyway?”
As parents we worry about everything including the ramifications from friends to video games, that’s our job. There are two things that some parents forget to discuss with their children:
Reality – video games seem so real, we tend to lose our sense of reality.
Time Limits - It is so easy to become enthralled into playing video games and forgets about reality, play, play, play, that is all that some (most) teens do these days.
Reality and video games, it is so ironic how times have changed the vision of games since the early years of Pong. Today the “life-like” graphics make it feel as though you are “in” the video game, which is what the developers of video games want. Sometimes I have a hard time deliberating between real life and video games, and I am an adult. I have never shot a real gun, but when I play the game Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2009, I am a hunter and I love it. I get upset if I can’t kill the bear or if I get attacked by a tiger; and as an adult I understand the difference between reality and the fictional world of video games. So if I can become enthralled in a video game, then think about our children.
As parents, we need to sit down with our children and explain to them that these are video games and when someone dies in a game they are not really dead, but if we die, it is forever. It may sound stupid, but there have been instances where children cannot differentiate between real life and video games. If parents would periodically sit down with their children and discuss the importance of keeping the two identities separate, then our children may have a better understanding and control their sense of reality; our children our worth it!
Video game developers (and video gamers) want graphics to be as real as possible, in order to make it feel as though you “are” there and not just playing a video game. With this great aspect, we have children who really think that video games are “life” and that is all they do… play video games. Children need a variety of activities and time limits to allow them to participate in “their” life, and not let it pass them by. Too many times, as parents, we want our children to be happy, so we let them play as much as they want but in reality we are hurting our children tremendously. As parents, we need to set a realistic time limit to allow our children time to spend with family and friends, time outdoors, and time for school work. A balance is important and without that balance life is out of whack and our children are out of focus with reality. Setting limits may be hard, okay it will be extremely hard and your child may kick and scream all the way, but you are enabling your child to be a part of their life. Your child is worth the time and heartache, keep the game time to a limit and talk about reality within and video games.
Video games are a great time filler…. as long as it does not fill most of your day.
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