Kids & Videogames
The following are some great thoughts by Jane McGonigal, a PhD Game Designer who advocates for the use of video games to help people learn skills that transfer to the real world.
I always loved video games and board games. I genuinely think they can help kids with a lot of unique challenges, and I am happy to see scientists studying the positive effects of games for kids.
Building Confidence. I don’t care if it’s League of Legends, it’s Fortnite, it’s Candy Crush, whatever you feel drawn to, we know that there is a transferrable benefit, which is you get better at learning new things at dealing with systems that are frustrating and having to adapt. You’re learning new rules, you’re learning new interfaces. It’s designed to frustrate you and you have to adapt and get better. You build confidence in your ability to get better.
Self Esteem. Games are just a great way to tell each other what we’re good at and what we want to be appreciated for and what we value in each other.
Homework and Videogames. If you want kids to retain what they study better, you should have them play video games first and then do their homework and then study before they go to sleep. Because if you study first and then as your reward, you get to play games. When you go to sleep, your brain is going to focus on the most salient problem it was recently trying to solve.
Becoming a better thinker. In my professional as practice, what I’ve discovered is that people who spend a lot of time playing games are actually very effective at anticipating second, third, fourth order consequences of future events.
Being in control. Kids and teens are always told what to do; in videogames they experience freedom. Every time you play a game, you’re choosing how to spend your time and attention. That’s a decision we are constantly making that is often operating at a subconscious level and we don’t necessarily take ownership of it. If you can start to ask yourself, why am I playing this game? And why did I want to play it now and start to articulate why you’re making the choice to play? I think that, that actually can help you develop more clarity in all of the things you do.
