Are Video Games Bad for you?

At what point are videos games “rotting your brain” and how does this effect social skills?

    I don’t think that they do either. As a social norm if there is A problem that requires actually effort and responsibilities of individuals the only way to make it go away of course is to blame someone, or something else. Video games have been this target for some time now and it does not look like it is going to let up.

    What is it that we get out of video games? Simulation? Relief from boredom and too much free time? I feel like it is more of a “Challenge accepted” then “I have nothing better to do”. Video games in my youth allowed me to not just live in a fantasy world but it is where I found a real challenge. School for me was not where I found where the limits of mind could be reached. As each year went by things just built a little more on themselves and nothing really new was added in a way to tie it all together. Each class was a snapshot of a subject or idea. These snapshots were then passed on as “all you need to know” and that always left questions for me. As I have always been a big picture kind of person I did not like knowing bits and piece and often what was left out of class was much more interesting.

    I was always playing video games throughout my younger years but it wasn’t until I received a computer at age 10 that I really started to get into them. The earlier games allows you to do things like editing maps and creating worlds that you and a friend could go in and play together. Without even knowing it I was creating simple computer programs and testing them. This kind of mental simulation was addicting, being able to take a little bit of information and create something using only codes and images. How could you not fall in love?

    Once I was hooked on the creating part of videos games I found playing them much more enjoyable and I even looked at them differently. I often wondered why I could do this, or that in the game or why this didn’t look right. This led me to having to dive into the hardware of my computer to figure out why my game looked differently and why it was not running very fast.

This lead into a whole world of math and hardware that I don’t think I fully understand to this day, but it allowed me to learn yet again. I was able to see the whole picture all the time, I did not have to wait after class to ask anyone to explain it or try to figure out what the books where trying to say. I was the creator of my own world and it used my hardware to do it.

    Once online gaming became very popular I was able to play other people from around the world. This soon sparked groups of people who would play the same game together and try and fight against one another or the computer. This fell down with my set of skills once again. Strategy, patients, and the willingness to be cut-throat when need be. I began to really get to know a few people on some of these online games and really started to developed and relationship. It was then I was asked to join my 1^st online gaming community. BloodLust Soldiers.

    It started out just a small 1^st-person-shooter gaming community that would love to go from game server to game server smashing the competition, but then it became more. I would spend so much time with these people I would know them by voice and even there playing style. I would know what is going on in their life to a degree and often times have long conversation about life, love, and among other topics. They started to become a family, of course helping with personal matters as well as issue with my computer.

    Whenever I was having an issue with my computer they were always there and at age 15 I was eager to learn. I was taught everything from how websites works and how to make them, to how hardware communicated and functioned inside of a computer with the software. I am not sure if it was because I was a teenager or what, but I thought I knew it all when it came to computers with their help.

    As my computer knowledge and my skill at video games grew I started to look into working on computers for a living. I started taking classes at local community college to see what it would be like. I dropped out of most of the classes as it was all just a bit to “text book” for me. After 2 years of messing around and just being in my 20s. I went back to school and started my bachelor’s degree in computer networking. I felt like I was learning everything all over it again, but in the end I was able to re-enforce my knowledge and add on it.

    As I would sit through each classes listening to the instructor go on about a piece of hardware I would think back to the first time I tried to work on that part and broke it and had to have my fellow gaming community mates assist me with putting it back together. They would laugh and poke fun at me because they knew I would be too hardheaded to ask for help until it was too late. That didn’t stop them from walking me through fixing it using a voice program.

    As my years in school went on I started to be able to help other younger members with their computer issues. I was able to even mentor some to a degree as I was in my youth. The gaming community has been a big part of life and now it is going on 14 years old. We have a yearly get-together so that we can see one another in person and just be a misfit family.

    Like all things in life, you need to take it in moderation and each individual needs to know their limits, but for me playing games and being a member for BloodLust Soldiers has been a life style choice and has been one of the biggest factors in my success in life and my career choices.

So if you are on the fence about letting your kids play games, show an interest and to use it to your advantage to expand their mind. 

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