How do video games affect socialization skills in children Research Paper

How do video games affect socialization skills in children - Research Paper Example There are five major categories of video games – Sports, General entertainment, Fantasy violence, Human violence and Education. Medicine and psychological experts are divided adverse effects on video games on children especially with regard to their socialization skills. The major pros and cons of playing video games have been highlighted below. Positives Entertainment and Fun learning Promoted even by educational institutions Encourages problem solving skills Interactive Sense of achievement Improves perceptual, motor and cognitive skills Improves planning and handling of complex situations. Negatives Poor academics Addictive Highly aggressive Accepts violence as being normal Leads to health hazards like Obesity and other diseases Increases heart rate, sugar and blood pressure levels Empirical evidence suggests that, more often than not, the negatives outweigh the benefits. Social activists and health experts advise regular parental control over the amount of time the child s pends on playing video games and the nature of games being played. Children are strongly urged to keep away from games portraying too much violence. Review Of Literature A recent study conducted by Cheryl K. Olson, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital's Center for Mental Health and Media in Boston, indicated that fears on the adverse effect of video games on kids were unfounded. He highlighted that video game benefits can include nourishment of self esteem, pride and socialization skills. He concluded that kids can learn academics, social interaction and cooperation and even history from video games. He recommended that parental guidance and control were key to kids’ obtaining maximum benefits from video gaming. Dawar (2010) concedes that evidence exists that playing violent video games makes kids more aggressive and less sympathetic towards victims. But, he argues that video games feature characters helping each other and thereby makes the kids friendlier. He remar ks that international evidence from correlational, longitudinal and experimental studies indicate that kids playing prosocial games were definitely better skilled at socialization. The National Network for Child Care (NNCC) reports that children spending too much time on video games result in compromised social skills. Social skills like learning how to share with others, carry on a conversation etc. are imperative to juvenile development. It further states that social skills need to be modeled on parents not machines like video gaming consoles. Affonso (1999) found that teenagers are much heavier Internet users than their parents. Adults deployed the Interne to seek out job and employment-related information. The teenagers were more likely to play games, listen to music and meet new people. He voiced concern that Internet mirrored television and will intensify the negative effects on our social skills and that we are encouraging our children to become social nitwits! However, he wa s not all skeptical about the effect of video games on children. He also indicated that most children were quite capable of handling themselves and technology had proven to be a positive enhancement to growth. According to him, children used the technology to play, learn, communicate and form relationships as children always have. Development is enhanced in an interactive world." Johnson (2007) argued that gaming sharpened thinking, social skills and perception. It was fun and promoted