Questions about screen time and gaming have been occupying the minds of parents for years, but for many the issue has come to a head since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. With most kids stuck at home for much of the last year and parents frantically trying to figure out how to balance childcare and work, many have turned to video games as a source of entertainment and solace in these unusual times. Debate has been swirling over whether gaming is good for you or not, but one journalist decided to take the question straight to the source: kids themselves.
Former BuzzFeed News reporter Anne Helen Petersen turned to the dispute in the most recent issue of her Substack newsletter, titled "Gaming, In Kids' Own Words." She spends a few paragraphs outlining her general thesis that, in their haste to worry to excess about "how a cultural product is affecting a group of people," most people neglect to actually talk to the people consuming it. What follows is a collection of interviews, collected and transcribed by family members, with a range of children from 5 to 15 years of age, who happily discuss what they're playing, why they enjoy it, and what they think of gaming during a pandemic.
RELATED: Oxford Study Suggests Playing Video Games Can Be Good for Mental Health
The interviews run the gamut from the hilarious to the poignant. Doug, a 5 year old child, shares that he likes playing Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in part because he likes "[watching] Link make all sorts of funny faces when he eats the gross food," but also goes on to explain how his dad helped him beat a Hinox in the game and how he likes to play Super Smash Bros. with his uncle who lives in faraway Maryland.
Meanwhile, Hayden describes discovering their friend's latent creativity after stumbling across his custom-built base in a shared Minecraft server, and explains how online gaming can provide a crucial avenue for social interaction and spending time with friends in a period when everyone is having to keep their distance. Milo agrees, telling how he hosted his birthday party with 8 friends in Among Us and suggesting that "it's keeping [him] from going insane in the pandemic."
Most of the interviewees recognize the potential downsides of spending excessive time online though. Violet confesses that she "[does] feel a little anxious after spending a lot of time on screens," while Luca laments the toxicity that sometimes crops up in online communities. Even the previously mentioned Doug admits that giving up his screen time makes him upset saying, "It's like I don't want to take a break...it robs my happiness."
Ultimately, almost every kid interviewed understands the classic maxim of "everything in moderation" and most of them comment in some way on how gaming and screen time shouldn't get in the way of the rest of your life. The kids found gaming a creative outlet, a valuable way of maintaining their mental health during a global pandemic, and a tool to continue socializing with their friends even when they couldn't get together in person. The truth of this particular matter, then, is complicated: screen time, like anything, can be bad for you in excess, but we need more outlets talking about the positive sides of gaming as well.
MORE: 'Truck Simulator' Games Event Lets Players Deliver COVID-19 Vaccines
Source: Anne Helen Petersen