EF#15 – My View on Games

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim…

Humans play games, at least at their childhood. As humans grow and experience changes in their life, games also change. Gaming trend shifted from traditional games to modern games, from analogue games to digital games, from games which should be played mutually outside home to games which can be played alone at home.

Which one is better? (Taken from here and here)

When I was still a kid, I used to play hide and seek, rope jumping, congklak, bola bekel, alek-alek (playing to cook using stones, leaves, and red bricks) with my friends or my younger sister. Some of my friends knew how to play console games,  yet they also played traditional games outside. Since video games was luxurious at that time, not many kids could afford them. Nowadays, it is easy to find kids playing with gadgets. At very young age, they had know how to operate those gadgets, at least to find their favorite games. Running, catching insects, and rope jumping became nearly impossible due to limited open space, especially in urban areas.

Playing games outside home has several benefits. It involves pysical activities which can result in good health. Children’s bones, joints, and muscles will be trained well, so they will be possibly good in sports, too. If they play games mutually, they  can train their social skills. They will  learn about the importance of sportivity, teamwork, and competitiveness. Since every game has its own rule, they will get used to follow the rule in order to not be punished. However, without good role model at home, some children will get lost. They thought that speaking in foul language, hitting or kicking others are normal things to do because their friends often do such things. Parents may realize that their beloved kids showing bad attitude when it is already too late.

Considering limited playground for children and negative effects of playing outside, some parents nowadays do not allow their children to play outside. Instead, their children can play at home using gadgets, with or without parents’ supervision. Playing educational games is good to stimulate children’s ability to know colors, shapes, numbers, languages, and music, depend on the kind of games. Besides that, it will be easier for children to perform more difficult task using gadgets in the future because they had know those gadgets since young. However, children who only play with gadgets are not physically active, so they are prone to obesity and other diseases. Without parent’s supervision, children may play all the time. They forget to take a rest, to eat, to pray, or to finish their tasks. Their sights may be worsened, while their concentration span may be shortened. They may not enjoy socializing with their friends, as well. If parents do not watch their children properly and let them to play violent games,  they will possibly mimic those violence at home, school or their neighborhood.

Both kind of games, be it traditional or modern, mutual or solitary, with or without gadgets are potentially useful for children. Children can get some advantages of those games, as well as some disadvantages. To minimize the disadvantages, parents should act as good role models for their children. Besides that, they should help the children to choose the good games while giving guidance and advice to them.

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This post is written to fulfill the fifteenth challenge of English Friday.