Games and the Virtual

Johnson in the reading poses two great arguments about how the world views gaming and reading. On one side of the argument there is the fact that reading can promote intelligence, and make a person more active in the community and as a citizen, "People who read for pleasure are many times more likely than those who don't to visit museums and attend musical performances..." (Johnson 18). The argument that support this is that kids seclude themselves to playing games that do not teach or advocate learning. The flip side to this argument is that video games promote hand eye coordination, problem-solving skills, judgment, social interaction and norms, relationship help, studying strategies. Here is why exactly, in video games that are on the console, games that involve analyzing a situation and figuring out a problem have children begin thinking outside the box to meet the objective; in games where a person needs to memorize a series of sequences/patterns/events to pass to the next level allow the players to use memorization in the games which help in the future since the brain is being stimulated. Ryan states that this could be an example of the virtual following the two faces, games are apart of the electronic culture of today that have been mixed in with computer-mediated activites as the virtual playground that kids today now play with instead of on. A kids idea of a good time is playing video games with his buddy and they feel they are learning at the time, the social norm believes that these games are rotting their mind and serve no purpose. Is that true though? Is playing a game, and learning new ways of thinking, acting, and perceiving rotting the mind of children today? The society that which a person lives in judges that simply because it would be taboo to go against the grain and do what others do not want. With online gaming, the virtual as a potential totally becomes involved, such as a game called 2nd Life. In this game, people live their virtual lives as they wish to live thim in this real life. Their vision of reality is skewed since people can completely make their life in 2nd Life different than that of their real one and be the person they wish to be. The virtual is a big broad subject that is subject to change as the future moves on, and the world's views change on what is socially acceptable.