By Ramesh Somani
Chief Editor & Managing Director, Exhibit Magazine
If you were born in the 80s or 90s, you will not know what it was like growing up as “tab kids”. The menu of indoor games, apart from chess, carrom, cards, etc, has now become more digital, with high-end toys like the Sony Wii, Xbox Kinect, tablets and the like being top favourites. Outdoor and indoor games both have their share of advantages and disadvantages.
Gadgets like the Sony Wii ensure enough physical activity and fun for the whole family. Kids today tend to opt for the easy way out. Sitting and relaxing is a preferred choice than playing outside. Previously, indoor games meant sitting in one place for hours. Video games had the child hooked to the gaming console without a break in their day. But developers soon realised that this was proving to be unhealthy. So they came up with more interactive games that encouraged players to move around a little, like Wii and Kinect.
Indoor games like PlayStation and PC games can improve a child’s concentration levels and reaction speed; but they have their own cons too. Children can suffer from deteriorating eyesight as well as have a higher chance of becoming obese. Indoor games do seem to be a more convenient choice considering that one doesn’t require open spaces and can be enjoyed at the convenience of one’s own home, whereas outdoor games involve a lot more sweat and grime. Thanks to our cities these days, we have more pubs than playgrounds and not everyone can afford flats in huge complexes, open grounds or gardens.
When it comes to what type of gaming cane make your kid smarter, both outdoors and indoors have something to contribute. For instance, outdoor games can help increase agility, speed, and the ability to negotiate with one’s peers. It helps in the development of a child’s brain to become more adaptive to one’s surroundings. Your kid becomes smarter in the ways of the world and his survival skills improve too.
While indoor gaming also teaches your child coping mechanisms, they don’t necessarily give him the experience he needs to reinforce methods to deal with certain situations.
Experiences come in abundance but those experiences need to be in the real world for your child to really learn something. Indoor games do teach your child to think quickly. Math games, science games, other educational games ensure that your child is having fun while actually learning something useful. Children do gain a whole lot of knowledge with indoor games like these, but not the experience on how to utilise that knowledge in day-to-day life.
Thus maintaining a balance in the amount of indoor games and outdoor games a kid is exposed to, is essential for the development of that child. Also kids who learn to utilise knowledge to help cope and form new worthy experiences are those who are smarter. Gaming just provides the child with a little exposure to a world full of ‘un-experienced’ experiences. The balance of physical development that outdoor games provide and the mental development that indoor games provide is important for the child to become a smarter human being and also can take this as a career. By the way, did you hear about a kid who won Rs 50 lakh in an online gaming tournament? Not a bad reward now, is it?
Feedback: ramesh@exhibit.co.in
