Video games and gaming, in general, have a pretty bad reputation outside of their own people, especially among the older generation. But why are games so infamous, and what can you say to the ones who think so?
I will bring up these excuses people make and the reasons for their bad reputation, as well my opinion for each. Without further ado:
Table of Contents
Age
Video games are among the youngest forms of entertainment in the world. Unlike things like television, movies, radio or sports, video games aren’t even a century old. Not only that, they weren’t even a global phenomenon when they first came out.
Furthermore, video games at the time were addressed almost exclusively to teenage or younger audiences. All the above did not create the best impressions to the adults of those times, and they passed their rationale to their children, who are probably our parents and grandparents now.
Another problem is that the younger adults of those times were actually trying to make a living in those times, and they didn’t have time to “play games”. That is why video games boomed in popularity around the 80s.
The fact that video games are relatively young is what is the main problem here. When there is something new happening in the world, the older generation will always view it as weird, unnatural, bad even.
The best thing to do here is to just wait them out. Our generation knows very well what video games are about, and how they work, and in all honesty, it’s this generation that will pass down their better thoughts about gaming to the next.
So, all that is required here is patience.
Waste of Time
The main argument against video games: they are a waste of time. There are two sides to this argument, but they are the exact same thing.
The first is that they are counter-productive; all young people focus on playing games more and studying/worrying about their future less.
The second one is that they are a useless activity; the time spent on video games could better be spent on more physical activities like sports, or for going out and socializing.
I can’t even fathom the ignorance of these people, but, having them in my family really helps so I will try to explain.
The first argument is used mainly by parents and maybe some of your brothers, depending on their lifestyle. I get where they’re coming from, they’re your family and of course, they care about you. Seeing you “waste your time” on video games instead of studying for a better future really stresses them out.
And I will say that video game addiction is a serious problem that is very real. But most parents will call just about anyone who games on a daily basis an addict.
I can agree that a lot of slackness is very bad, but I have some things to say about that. Firstly, almost everyone from the age of 25 and younger is, at least to some degree, a slacker.
And it’s much better to slack off playing video games than going to drink alcohol all day, or even worse, do drugs, which is another serious issue of today’s generation.
Secondly, our parents do not fully understand what’s happening. Video games are fun; heck, they were created to be fun. We have already analyzed why video games are fun, you can see for yourself here.
Anyway, we play video games, because we want to be entertained, otherwise, we are bored. That is because the educational system is mostly a pile of garbage, teaching you useless things that you will probably never need at all.
Especially in high school, you are forced to study some necessarily courses no matter what you want to be in the future.
Another reason for this ignorance is social media. The social media have a purpose, which is to make money.
Right now, television is dying, as entertainment shows and gossip channels don’t hold much appeal to the younger audiences.
Thus, they will address the ones actively watching TV instead of trying to figure out ways to improve. Who is watching these kinds of shows? Mostly our parents and grandparents.
Therefore, they present video games as a hellhole. The gamers are all addicts who need help, and the video games are being used by pedophiles to lure in children.
And the parents actually believe this! It’s definitely not their fault that their child has unsupervised access to the world wide web, or that they are stupid enough to actually meet up with a complete stranger whom they’ve never seen.
Again, online seduction is a serious problem. But in all honesty, I highly doubt that in a case of a kid being seduced by an adult through the video game, the media is to be blamed. As if no one is seduced through Facebook, Tinder, etc. It’s just that video games, as always, are the easy victim.
The second branch of the argument is that we are wasting our chances enforce help us see their point of view.
The first sub-branch is that we could instead do a physical activity. What you say here is simple; video games help in other useful parts of our bodies. Research shows that gamers tend to have better concentration levels and a better focus that non-gamers, as well as being able to solve a problem much easier.
They also help us keep our brains sharp if they require any strategizing. There are benefits to either physical activities or gaming, so just tell them to live their lives as they want, and we will do the same.
The second sub-branch is about socializing. The funny thing is that they don’t believe that going to forums and chatting or playing with friends and other people is socializing. They have this twisted version of socializing in their minds where you must physically see the person and do… stuff with them in order to socialize.
This behavior was formed by peer pressure, as most gamers would be called geeks and other related nicknames by non-gamers, and most succumb to this pressure due to the human’s innate need to be socially acceptable.
The bullying probably comes from the envy that bullies have for various things; most bullies have unstable parents anyway. Once more, tell them to live their lives how they want, and we will live our own how we want. Besides, they are extroverts, which means they like going out and socializing.
We are (mostly) introverts, we like the comfort of a home.
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PG 13
An argument to be used by older people (again), video games may contain graphical violence, sexual scenes or inappropriate language. They think that these are extreme, and because video games are interactive, this whole thing is a bad influence on kids and teenagers who play these games.
Again, some thoughts. Firstly, if violent video games did affect the children who played them, then that means that most of those thousands of people who played the first shooter games back in the 90s should be serial killers by now or at least petty criminals.
Instead, we have lower than ever crime rates. Besides, thinking that their kid will just go around shooting people because he did it in a video game is belittling to the kid, and shows no trust in the kid’s intelligence. And to further continue this thought process, parents should be extremely happy if their kids play a cooking game, or a sports simulation, as they will become a master of that respective industry.
Secondly, have they even watched any of today’s other entertainment media? I mean, have you seen today’s over-sexualization of songs and movies? Seriously, there are hit songs about drugs and others about sex!
They are just ranting about video games because that’s where the media focuses as usual. And their focus is mostly undeserving, as they have problems with just the smallest amount of nudity, while female singers can literally show all but their genitals. Not only that, but parents seem to ignore how easy it is these days to access actual pornographic material.
Finally, something smaller: THERE ARE AGE RATINGS FOR EACH GAME. Every game is addressed on a specific age group, and that is always mentioned for every game. It’s your fault as a parent if your 12-year-old son plays a game that was rated as unsuitable for adolescents.
Final Thoughts
Video games were created to entertain, but that is something that older people (mostly) don’t understand. Gaming really helps gamers get through with their days and lives and it does so in a good way, games provide stimulation and socialization.
Like all media, games can be educational, whether intentionally, or unintentionally, by giving you small pieces of information that you might be interested in and end up searching all about it.
Gaming becomes more and more popular and accepted as a form of entertainment by the year, but there are always going to be those stuck-up people who think they are bad, or simply, a child’s engagement.
I have told you how they think, and what you can say about them to sound reasonable and maybe convince them to get off your back. Have you heard any of the things I mentioned?
Have you heard something I didn’t mention and need advice? Let me know in the comments and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
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