Raising Boys: Video Games

Mothers Raising Boys (MRB) discusses video games and boys. Are they healthy or bad? What are your video game rules? Conversations with MRB

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• family
• video games
• raising boys
• travel
• childcare
• circumcision

[wrongheadedfool]

By the way, if you'd like an example of a game that would be more appealing to young girls and has creative elements that make kids think, I'd recommend games like Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii) or the Professor Layton series (DS). Really there are tons of different genres out there, but people tend to only hear about the more violent offerings because of sensationalism in the news.

[wrongheadedfool]

Second, be VERY wary of well-meaning people who claim that TV/video games/etc. are intrinsically bad. As someone who went to school for psychology and majored in cognitive development, I can say that there is NO conclusive link between video games and any negative behavior. A big part of that is there's no one type of game, just like there's no one type of television program or one type of book.  Don't think of it as a monolithic entity, but rather a genre of entertainment.

[wrongheadedfool]

Interesting discussion. As someone who used to be involved in the video game industry, I do have a couple comments. For one, a BIG part of why more boys play games than girls is because the majority of them are explicitly marketed towards boys. This is changing thankfully, but at this point we have kind of a vicious circle of "games are for boys" that sometimes stigmatizes girls for enjoying games. It's kind of like sports in that regard - getting better, but still not fully accepted.