Is Video Games Bad for Your Kids?

Games and sports have a lot in common: both are physical or emotional activities or competition that individuals do for fun. However, a sport is usually a competitive game or competition where people perform physically as per a certain set of rules laid out by the organizer. For instance, basketball differs from football in that the latter has more physical contact. In baseball, the game is generally played on an outdoor field whereas basketball takes place on an indoor court. Another major difference between the two is that sports involve competition whereas games are intended for recreation only. There are many different types of games, sports which involve physical contact such as soccer, tennis, and badminton while games such as chess, checkers, and table tennis are played for strategic thinking and strategy.

However, there is one thing in common between these games: all involve a ‘game’ (a sporting event) with a goal, a venue, rules, etc., and participants. The differences between sports and games sports lies in the fact that sports requires players to be mobile and athletic whilst games only require individuals to be able to react to their environment. Another important distinction is that sports require a number of players to video games only need one player. Furthermore, sports involve a series of physical activities to video games only require one player. Finally, sports and games can be separated further by considering games such as golf, swimming, rugby and cricket as sports whereas ‘virtual poker’ and’massively multi-player online role-playing games’ such as World of Warcraft games.

Clearly, there are considerable differences between sports and games. However, many people argue that video games have affected children’s attitudes to real-life situations through the influence of violence in these games. For instance, researchers found that children who played violent video games had more hostile attitudes toward others than did those who did not play such games. Similarly, a recent survey of American university students showed that a significant majority did not feel that violence was acceptable. In this article, we will look at how people view sports and games.