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Welcome back everyone, a lot of parents worry about all the time their kids spend playing video games.
Indeed they do, but our next guest says gaming can actually be very good for your child.
Which is good news for my boys. Well, here to tell us how is Marc Prensky. He is the author of "Don't Bother Me Mom, I'm Learning!" I got to tell you I couldn't wait for the segment because my sons are addicted to the Game Boys, addicted to the X-Box, and I have to admit that sometimes when I need a break I'm like, you know, "play the X-Box, fine! See if I care, burn your brain out!" But you're saying, you're saying it's not that bad?
I think it prepares kids for the 21st century, (also), I think that they learn to make good decisions under pressure. I even think that they learn cooperative and team behavior, they learn to plan, they learn to take prudent risks.
And some of these are not so bad 'cause I told you when I sat down and, and my husband even plays them. We got all the sports ones. And there's a lot of strategy in picking the players and the teams. And it's really not killing, at least the games that we have in our house.
No, it puts you in the role of the coach, it puts you in the role of the owner. Things that kids in the past never got to experience at the age that they play these games. So there's a lot of learning that goes on in the games. And that's really what most parents don't understand.
But conventional wisdom says that if you're inside playing video games, you are a kind of a couch-potato; you are foregoing exercise; you are not outdoors where you should be running around. Isn't all that true?
Well, of course, if you are a parent you have to balance your kids' life, and you have to help them do that. But it's not just people playing alone in an isolated way, because almost all the games are networked. See your kids sitting there in front of the computer could be playing with people from all around the world. And often is.
I think there's no doubt that some of these games are, are actually very good intellectually for kids. But on the other hand, I'm hearing from other people even parents and educators are that a lot of kids now are lacking social skills because they are spending so much time in front of a screen than they would interacting, er, with other humans.
Well, I don't think that's true, the social skills that they are learning are in some sense the social skills of the future of managing people in an online environment and we know that's what's gonna be happening in the future. Er, many kids find they're taking leadership positions, because they say: I've just gotta herd these 14-year-olds to get the job done.
Before we run to the break and we are holding you over, how long is too long to be playing one of these games, does it have any certain neurological impact. You are not a doctor, but have you heard anything?
I don't think that there're limits in general. I think it really depends on your kid, and if you have a sense that your kid is playing too much or spending too much time in front of the screen, it's your responsibility to say: hey! Go do something else for a while!
Marc, we want you to bother us a little bit more. So stay with us after a quick break.
My pleasure.
Ok, thank you.
We are still joined by Marc Prensky, the author of "Don't Bother Me Mom, I'm Learning" about playing video games. So what about those games we've all heard of that are also destructive, or at least that's what we heard like Grand Theft Auto.
Well, in those games, you...there's no doubt you can do some things that are not so nice. But that's not what the games are really about. And even more important than that, if a parent discusses those games with the kid and says what do you think of these things because you can hit somebody over the head with the baseball bat in the game, should you, should you do it in real life? It's such a great opportunity for ethical and moral discussions that we should take.
And that leads to my question, in terms of parental involvement when it comes to kids. We are talking about kids playing these video games themselves, um, sometimes in virtual isolation, but what about parents getting involved with the games with the kids? How does it...
I think it's a terrific idea. I think the first step is to talk with your kids about their games. Ask them what they play? Why they play it? What they like? And then the second step for many parents is to start playing with the kids, and everybody, when families play together they have a lot of fun.
I have to vouch for that, coz my husband's really into all these, you know the football ones and stuff with my kids and my boys, and they have a ball, they like get way into the teams, in the strategies, and then they did the hockey one, I mean, that's a big, it's really a fun thing.
It's a family thing and I've heard that even grandparents getting involved with their, with their grand kids in this thing.
Yeah, that's fun!Marc Prensky, Thank you!
The book is "Don't Bother Me Mom, I'm Learning", Marc, thank you so much for joining us.
Made me feel a lot better about leaving my kids to the video games.
Thank you. Marc.
You're leaving...
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