Parents often look at video games as a waste of time for children. This is because video games were something parents never had in their childhoods so parents don’t understand them.

At the same time, however, gaming is becoming more popular. There are 1.31 billion people who play some form of video games, and this number is expected to keep growing. This rise in popularity does not fit the idea that gaming is harmful. Instead, it suggests that video games have become a normal and important part of modern culture. For this reason, parents should not dismiss games so easily, especially when games can offer real benefits to children.

Research shows that gaming is good for your health (kind of):

Though parents and the media like to say video games are a waste of time for children, research has repeatedly shown that video games can confer health and cognitive benefits. This improvement in cognitive skills is because when you play video games you have to hold a large amount of information, such as game maps, enemy positions, and boss attack patterns, which trains parts of the brain.

Furthermore, under the high pressure from parents and schoolwork teenagers have to deal with daily, having a way to relieve stress is crucial for teenagers. Video games are a major way kids relieve stress. Research backs this up. Not allowing children to play video games and stripping them of their favorite way to relieve stress can have negative impacts on children.

People make friends and link with each other

Video games are also an important social space where children connect with others and form friendships. Fortnite, a battle royale game, was super popular when I was in third grade. I remember classmates asking each other if they played it, writing down usernames, and adding each other in-game after school. Like sports, gaming became a natural starting point for friendships.

Games can also connect people who would never have met otherwise. One time my friends and I were playing together and a Chinese kid joined our party. None of us knew him, and his English was broken, but he wanted to play with us. We let him stay, and after talking with him more, we found him funny and interesting. Eventually, we exchanged contact information and became friends. We still chat sometimes. This shows that gaming is not only a way to maintain friendships, but also a way to create new ones across cultures.

Gaming is part of modern culture

More and more, video games influence music, art, memes, storytelling, and have given rise to professional esports. Game soundtracks are widely recognized, and many games have been adapted into successful television series such as The Last of Us and Cyberpunk: Edgerunnners, showing how deeply gaming has entered mainstream culture.

Games are also a source of shared jokes, references, and trends that people instantly understand if they are part of gaming culture. For example, a famous meme called “my mom is kind of homeless” was created when an online streamer was playing Fortnite and one of his opponents said this phrase while the streamer made a face trying not to laugh. Kids who are completely excluded from video games miss out on pop culture references like this and can feel left out. If a child is not allowed to participate at all, they may struggle to relate to their peers and miss shared experiences that help build friendships.

Video games are not unusual or harmful by default; it is simply how culture forms and evolves. New forms of media are always criticized in their early stages. For example, radio in the 1920s and 1930s was also seen by many educators as a bad influence on children. Gaming is following the same pattern: what was once dismissed as a distraction has become a major cultural force in modern life.

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In conclusion, video games are not a waste of time. They can improve cognitive skills, relieve stress, strengthen friendships, and help children engage with modern culture. Although excessive gaming can cause problems, the solution is not to ban games completely. Instead, children should be encouraged to play in a balanced and responsible way. With moderation, video games can become a positive part of children’s lives.