Cervantes Magazine Number 24: Videogames

Hello, Steemit community! Since this week the @Cervantes Magazine touches on the theme of childhood, this section wants to start this article with the following open question: Can videogames be an audiovisual and interactive source that helps to the formation of infants today ?

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I ask this question because there is a widespread taboo (especially in Latin America) about video games, since this hobby is related to "loss of time" and "distraction" for young people.

Who has not experience being scolded by a family member every time they are on a console or PC? Doing "unproductive things" and abandoning their "social life" by playing.

many generations of parents and grandparents were not immersed in the current digital technology; nowadays the panorama is different and by that same logic paradigms must change, among them, education.

children born today practically use some digital devices as an extension of their bodies, it is not surprising that a smartphone or a tablet causes headaches to many parents.

Children are digital natives capable of interacting and learning through these devices.

On the subject of education it has been noticed that young people want to be dared, want to have challenges and want digital interaction in their learning processes to feel comfortable. The fact that mobile devices are often forbidden in school environments generates a shock that can demotivate the child because he is deprived of something that is part of his everyday in an academic space, and that ends up becoming a martyrdom since what is learned is separated from what is lived in the real world.

Videogames are a very interactive way of exploring knowledge and topics that are often difficult to translate or teach in a traditional way. The fictitious environments that are created in the stories can help to understand problems such as spatial perception, mathematics, geometry, history, and if we focus on heavier topics; racism, xenophobia, humanitarian crises, economic crises or simply to understand the same problems that young people have today.

Although it may not seem like it, there are young people who learned about history and resource management by playing Age of Empires, or practice in competitive Pro - Player games trying to coordinate a series of plays in milliseconds, or mathematical calculations in games like "League of Legends" or "Hearthstone", or a young person learning about spatial perception and kinesthetic coordination, playing "Contra" or some other “Arcade” title .

The advantages that videogames can generate during childhood can be identified in:

1. Better handling of the spatial skill
2. Increased hand/eye coordination
3. Better reflexes
4. Empowering of logic reasoning
5. Enhanced memory

According to this portal: http://maternidadfacil.com

This is only fraction of what young people can take from it, BUT, not everything is peachy if you don’t deliver a proper guidance to a child who plays videogames, because, as all extremes are bad, in this case the following counter effects can be generated:

1. Ludopathy
2. Individualism
3. Loss of reality notion
4. Depression and anxiety
5. Violent behavior
6. Overweight
7. Other health problems

According to this portal: http://cnnespanol.cnn.com

This is where a committed educator or society learns to identify the best way to raise and train their children based on the needs and tastes of the generation that demands those services. Often this issue is treated as something separate or replicates old models without criteria or control, putting aside what young people want today and cutting the wings of creativity and curiosity, which only generates discontent and a lack of motivation to learn.

Videogames are a tool that in good hands allows the opening of a new plane of possibilities that can be exploited in the real world, BUT, they can also intentionally induce a new paradigm that can make the youth's mind get lost in the virtual, that is why this tool must be treated seriously and applied by people committed to make strong and accurate changes in the formation of the current generation and the next until a new paradigm generates a change to the style of teaching and the leisure of that generation.

Finally, i’ll leave you with this post: ¿Los videojuegos nos hacen más inteligentes? - Historia de los Videojuegos #49 - Retrospectiva, made by the user @gabox where he explains the changes that society has had thanks to videogames and how it has influenced the childhood of previous decades and nowadays.

The magazine thanks you for taking the time to read this Post, we hope that this information has been useful and we suggest you keep an eye out for the following publications, as there is still more material to be cut about the World of Videogames.