This article is on a personal level for me as I have a son who loves video games. He is only 9 and he is really good at them, but it is a constant mental struggle for me, as I refuse to allow him to spend hour after hour in front of a video game, which is what he wants. I am one of the mom's who thinks they can be a waste of time. So reading this article makes me wonder if I am right, or if I need to back off.
I will begin with this thought however, I am not sure I will ever get on board with the idea that Grand Theft Auto has any redeeming quality or value and somehow is teaching people how to assess real life situations. We do not need to be "entertained" by that type of violence and I am appalled that education and GTA can be used in the same article. Ok, now I will step off of my soap box.
Some of the ideas that caught my attention and I agree with are first that we like control and we get that in gaming. I believe there is truth to that, having complete autonomy is a big deal for my son, and I know he feels that while gaming. I just hope that translates into other parts of his life. I am a runner, I am in total control when I am running and it gives me a high, so I keep doing it. When I am running, it's all about what I want, how fast, where I go, etc. So, I think needing control is part of who we are, but as long as there is balance in our lives, I can get on board with this, but it can't be exclusively through gaming.
I like the idea of constant challenges being presented, where we see progress but are allowed to have time to experiment and step by step learn as we go. That is how life works and those are important lessons.
And last of all, the idea that we need failure is true, we need to know that when we fail we can find a way to solve the issue and we can go back to the situation and find success by trying again, huge life lesson!
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