Change in today's children because of social gaming.

Remember those days when we used to go out and play. Those things don't happen anymore, parents have to literally force children to go out and play as they are too busy playing games on their console with their friends. According to (http://www.whitedot.org/issue/iss_story.asp?slug=sedentary%20kids) "A child is six times more likely to play a video game on a typical day than to ride a bike" . The above articles shows that how kids have changed in just one decade. Earlier they used to like doing outdoor activities but now the norms have changed. Now if given a choice between outdoor activities and playing online games 9/10 children will choose outdoor games. How children of this generation ended up at this position. According to  ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012435/1-3-children-climbed-tree-figures-60-watch-TV.html) the reason is "dysfunctional adults" who don't do outdoor activities themselves.

According to The Guardian, the children of current generation are much weaker physically and emotionally compared to the children of previous generation "Academics led by Dr Gavin Sandercock, a children's fitness expert at Essex University, studied how strong a group of 315 Essex 10-year-olds in 2008 were compared with 309 children the same age in 1998. They found that:

■ The number of sit-ups 10-year-olds can do declined by 27.1% between 1998 and 2008

■ Arm strength fell by 26% and grip strength by 7%

■ While one in 20 children in 1998 could not hold their own weight when hanging from wall bars, one in 10 could not do so in 2008.

"This is probably due to changes in activity patterns among English 10-year-olds, such as taking part in fewer activities like rope-climbing in PE and tree-climbing for fun," Sandercock said. "Typically, these activities boosted children's strength, making them able to lift and hold their own bodyweight."".(The Guardian, retrieved from:"http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/may/21/children-weaker-computers-replace-activity"). Online gaming is not bad, its just that excess of anything is bad and in current situation children are playing excess of online games which is of course bad for them. Online games can be a great stress reliever if played properly also according to "http://sophieanne1213.hubpages.com/hub/The-Positive-Effects-of-Online-Games" online games can be great in making social relationships, building confidence and concentration. but this doesn't rule out the fact that children in today's generation also need physical activities for a better mental and physical growth.

I would like to conclude by saying that yes there is a change in today's generation and we can blame online gaming. But with a better parenting skill we could solve this problem. If parents pay more attention to children and force them to play outside rather then just playing online games then everyone wins. Today's children are weaker mentally and physically than previous generations because they don't get to play outside like the children of old generation used to. Moreover playing too many violent games such as battlefield has proved to make children more violent and short tempered. 

Here is an interesting video that tell us that how children's are affected by online games. This video kind of summarizes what i am trying to say and it also provides some really nice facts about how a children's mind is manipulated by online games.

According to me online games are not bad if they are played under a limit. and also they can be a great recreational tool given the fact that the child is also participating in physical activities.




------By Auquib Rasul-----------------



References
education.penelopetrunk.com
http://www.whitedot.org/issue/iss_story.asp?slug=sedentary%20kids
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012435/1-3-children-climbed-tree-figures-60-watch-TV.html
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/may/21/children-weaker-computers-replace-activity
http://sophieanne1213.hubpages.com/hub/The-Positive-Effects-of-Online-Games