Do Video Games Really Cause Bad Behavior in Children?

 

 In many forums, the question of whether video games cause bad behaviour in children is prominent and is staple. Many say no, many say yes. Many say it depends. Yes, there are many factors that should be considered when answering the question. These factors are needed to be able to come up with answers and in defending such answer.

 

 

Allow me to give you my own answer to the question. This is my own simple way of joining in this relevant debate.

 

 

Tender Age

 

 

First, we have to put into consideration the age of our subjects, children. Age is a great factor especially considering being influenced. Let us not forget that children are in the tender years. Their minds, hearts and personalities are still very soft and are yet to be moulded. They are blank canvasses which receive anything that comes and adopt them. They should be guarded and guided. This is the responsibility of the parents. Too much time, attention and effort to playing video games can take away from more important activities especially studying and developing a strong body and morally upright personality. This is another aspect which needs to be looked into by parents.

 

 

Parental Guidance Overall

 

 

It is the duty of the parents to raise their children. One big part of that is monitoring and screening their activities from playing outside, to the TV shows they watch and to the video games they play. And a very big part of this is the one mentioned last, video games.

 

 

Parental Guidance in Gaming

 

 

Parents should do their duty of guiding their children to become good persons. With this responsibility comes a corresponding power. They can enforce rules on their children. They have the right to monitor what their children are doing. They are warranted to search and investigate them. They are vested with the authority to put in place rules that will ensure that inappropriate materials do not enter the house. Further, they can extend their powers outside this jurisdiction. They can track down what their children are doing outside the house. They should use this to prevent bad influence from video games to get into their children’s system.

 

 

Children’s Freewill and Intellect

 

 

Yes, parents have the right and responsibility of knowing what their children are doing even outside the house. They need to invoke this right because the kids can develop some curiosity of about the very violent video games which are banned in the house. They have intellect and freewill. The first causes them to be curious and the second enables them to act on this curiosity. Again, parents should come in. Even without them suspecting or being sure that their children are playing violent video games and influenced to develop violent tendencies, they should continually educate their children about this matter. They have to be creative and loving in finding ways to tell their children in the most effective way that they can.

 

 

The Gaming Industry and Society

 

 

Aside from the parents, the society and the gaming industry also has a certain degree of responsibility to children. The video game business sector should be conscientious enough in producing games and distributing them to the public. There are already policies regarding this legislated by the government. The video game sector should abide by the implementing rules and regulations of these laws. Also, the society should be vigilant in reporting violations that may be committed by the games business and in helping guard children outside their homes regarding the sale and play of violent video games.

 

 

My Conclusion

 

 

Video games can really cause bad behaviour in children. Although not generally, a few news reports and studies show this. Not all violent video games can cause bad behaviour and not all children who play violent games on arcades and personal and family computers display untoward tendencies. Still, this does not take away the fact that these games really do have the ability to stimulate violent actions in these younger players.

 

 

Children are still in the formative years of life. They are very susceptible to outside influences. Their minds and personality is yet to be formed and negative influence from video games can creep in and may cause them to develop the tendency to act in bad ways. Parents have the great responsibility to prevent this from happening to their children.

 

The Positive of Experiencing Pain

Pain is viewed by most people as a bad experience. We would like to avoid pain as much as we can but it is inevitable. Sometimes, it can come in volumes. We have to deal with it. When it happens, we should make the most of it. Knowing the positive aspects of experiencing pain will help us d this better.

1 Pain is a natural reaction that helps the body.

Pain leads us to think, act and solve our problems. Pain makes us creative, resourceful and courageous. But before all these, pain is a signal that there may be something wrong or that we are doing something wrong or bad, or we are doing something the wrong way. It is a natural reaction to stimulants which are harmful to our body, mind and morals.

It can be as simple as physical as having a stomach ache because you have eaten something bad for your stomach. You react by taking medicine that takes away the pain and the bad elements that has entered your digestive system. If it were not for the pain, you would have not known that there is something wrong in your stomach and not have taken medicine that took away the toxins.

Another example is when you do some carpentry and accidentally hit your thumb with the hammer. You scream. This is because of the pain. Feeling the pain leads you to respond in ways that will remedy it. In the process, you help your body heal. When you screamed and shake your hand, you are helping your thumb and your whole body defend against the possible bad effects of the injury.

The same are true with pain felt by the mind, heart and spirit.

2 Pain teaches us lessons.

When we have experienced pain, we remember the things that happened that lead to the painful experience. We learn what are the things that caused them and remember them. We take with us these lessons to help us deal with coming events in our lives. With this knowledge, we know what to avoid. And if they happen again, we know what to do or at least have ideas on what to do when similar or not so similar things happen. We apply what we have learned.

3 Painful lessons make us stronger.

The lessons we learned in painful ways help shape us into better persons. We develop better character. We become stronger in character. If we have endured the painful events that happened in our past, there is a great possibility that we will be able to endure any future event that may be more painful.

4 The strength helps us succeed.

Pain makes us strong and this strength will contribute to help us succeed. Success is the achievement of goals. Along the way towards our goals, we will encounter challenges, difficulties and setbacks. We will be able to overcome them and finally reach our aims if we are strong. The strength that we have is developed by many factors and a big one among them is pain.

5 Pain tests our character.

Experiencing pain is a test of character. It is not only about developing our character. We already have one. It can be less developed yet or already developed and any pain that comes in our way is a test of what character we already have. Pain is an opportunity to show what character you have. Still, if you fail the test, you can still win by continuing to develop your character by learning from the failure.

6 We can help others better.

The pain and suffering that we have gotten through make us a source of better advice for others who are experiencing the same kind of pain now. We have been there and done that. We have experienced it. Generally, people should not say to those who have problems “I understand you” or “I know how you feel” or anything to that effect. This is because you do not. There is an exception to this general rule and they are the people who actually experienced the same thing or similar ones themselves. People who have experienced the same kind of pain give better advice because they have been there and done that.

7 Pain helps us to be humble and prevent us from being dangerously proud.

The painful experiences in the past and the lessons we learned from them can constantly remind us of how ugly things can get. If we only pay attention to these reminders, we can stay humble. At the same time, we can avoid putting ourselves in the dangerous situation where we become proud. We already how pride have put us in problems that caused us pain and we do not want to go back there again.

Why is Food so Comforting?

 There are times when we long to eat particular foods. Sometimes, you just feel you want to eat fish and chips. Then another time, maybe brown Windsor soup. There are times when we just long to do so without us knowing the exact specific reason. There are also times when we do so because we just had a bad day or we feel sick. Whatever the reason, they fall into comforting ourselves. The foods we eat during these times are called comfort foods.

Comfort foods are not only being craved for when we feel depressed. There are times when we look for them even though we are not feeling low, stressed, tired or had a bad experience. This is because, our bodies can also be depressed by itself even without the mind or heart starting the feeling. The body naturally misses the food themselves.

Cravings and Comfort

Of course, first, comfort foods are so comforting because they remedy the cravings we have for them. Most of the time, we resort to eating comfort foods because a sad or ugly experience just happened to us and we want to do something that will entertain us and satisfy us. Eating is one activity which can fail us the least with this purpose.

Company

As mentioned, eating is an activity that can help us remedy any stress or depression that we experience. With it, we already have an instant friend to accompany us. That is the food itself. Further, you can choose the “friend” that will keep you company. The ones you choose are the comfort foods. Comfort foods are one best companion during low times.

Memories

When talking about comfort foods, memories are the first that come to mind. During discussions about this topic, our favourite foods during our childhood or later but already in the past are the ones that we can think of first. We talk about how our parents, grandparents, elder siblings, relatives or guardians would prepare the foods and serve them to us. These are also one of the foods that we turn to during bad or sad times. Why? Because they comfort us. They comfort us because they bring to mind better days and happy memories. Because of this, they help remedy the current misery we are in.

Energising

And of course, eating is not only an activity or a social one. It is a nourishing deed, in the first place. Food gives us energy. All the more our favourite comfort foods. Any or plain food gives us calories and carbohydrates to energise us. Much more for our pet foods; they taste very good to us. Food has substance and form. The weight of the food gives us nutrition and makes us full. Further, its taste gives us another level of being satisfied. The better the food tastes, the better we are filled.