Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Playing games teaches us about life.
Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
Although it is a matter of personal choice, I strongly disagree with the statement. Video games are in no way capable of teaching us about life. Video games are an entertainment medium. Their primary purpose is to entertain, not to teach us any life lessons.
To state it plainly, video games are video games. While they may incorporate elements of a story, plot, and character development, they are ultimately mindless entertainment, and to be truthful, there is little educational value in them.
As children play their favorite video games, they may learn a thing or two about the enemy’s weaknesses and strengths, about weapons or items that may be of use in the game, and about a variety of strategies. However, these lessons are incidental to the main goal of video games, and they do not teach the player anything about life. Learning about life does not come from playing a video game, but from the interactions and experiences a person has with the outside world. The real world is full of challenges, and video games are not designed to be instructive or realistic. They are intended to be entertaining, and that entertainment involves the use of the gamer’s imagination. Children learn through play, and games provide children with opportunities to explore the world and test their limits. Video games, however, are carefully designed so that the child does not learn anything of real value. A video game will not challenge you physically, mentally, or emotionally. The games only offer tasks that are easy, so that the child is not challenged to grow and develop, and the games are designed in such a way that the player is guided by the game’s rules, and not by logic or reason, so that all the child’s actions are controlled by the game’s artificial intelligence.
The simple, repetitive tasks of video games teach children nothing about the world. They are merely entertainment, and the games do not challenge the player. The lessons that children learn from playing these games are often related to violence, such as shooting or killing. These games are designed to appeal to the baser instincts in humans, and the simple repetition and instantaneous gratification of killing or shooting a foe causes players to become desensitized to violence. A shooter video game can be addictive, and a child can spend hours upon hours playing it without realizing the negative impact of the action.
This desensitization to violence is a serious issue, as violence is rampant in the world at large. Children who play violent video games are more likely to use violence in their day-to-day lives. They are taught that violence is a means of solving problems, and they may decide to resort to violence when faced with a conflict with another person. Children who play video games that do not involve violence are less likely to engage in this behavior. This is not to say that all video games are violent, but the majority of games on the market are violent in nature. Children who are exposed to such games may be more likely to become desensitized to violence, which is a serious problem.
In addition, teaching children about violence through video games can be counterproductive. While violent video games are blamed for increasing violence in the world, they are only one of many causes of violence. The problems of war, terrorism, and poverty are serious, and these causes should be addressed in any serious attempt to fight violence. It would be unwise to place the blame on video games, when the real problems are much more complex.
The bottom line is that video games are for entertainment and do not teach children about life. However, this does not mean that they cannot teach children how to live. Video games offer children opportunities to explore the world and test the limits of their abilities. Video games do not teach children about life, but interact with the real world, and without video games, children may lack the experiences that teach them about life.