While our hurting country is still reeling from the shooting in CT a few weeks ago, many are talking about gun control and some are talking about the dangers of video games.
While I am not about to defend the more gruesome and violent video games, I wanted to share some of the joy that some of the other simple video games bring. If your on facebook, chances are you saw the Farm games that sucked so many of us in. We had such a great time playing and being social together. I have to admit I moved away from facebook games a bit ago but my Step Mother got a laptop and we got her Facebook a few months ago finally and she then got me sucked into the game PetRescue. It is a puzzle type of game.
Helping her play today got me thinking about how these types of games help adults stay sharp. It requires logic and strategy. These are important things for aging adults. As I have gotten older I have more and more often run into walls with technology that make me feel old. This is saying something too as I am a techy geeky girl who much rather read a book or be on a computer than go shopping or get the newest hot handbag. Tech is my world. Yet when my web site went down and I was researching how to fix things I found programming and terms I never encountered before. Simple HTML is so much more now. Turns out there was nothing I could have done to fix it, it was a problem with the server my site was on and it took a call to my host to get it fixed. Still, it was an awakening moment for me. I need to stay sharp, we all do, and games do actually help.
I taught my mum some strategies to help her beat the levels she is dealing with. I hope it helps. I am so far ahead of everyone I am playing on that game with now and it is less fun this way.
Science has shown us there are benefits to video games to both children and adults, it isn’t hard to look up so I will leave that task to you if you wish to learn more. Just consider a bit of fun though in the future and don’t be quick to take video games away from others.
I agree totally–there are many games that adults can play which will keep their minds sharp. I was a member of Pogo for a couple of years and tended towards Scrabble, word games –not so much puzzles. I have played FB games and should probably start again.
We LOVE video games and I love how many educational games there are!