Gaming influence

How does gaming influence your studying and socialising? http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1880410

This blog opened up the discussion asking students how gaming affected their studying and socialising, either in the past or present day. It was really interesting to read down the comments on this forum, as they were very varied mostly neutral in opinion but some slightly more negative which is to be expected. A few people admitted that they had had a problem in the past and their grades at school were stunted because they had been obsessed with a game at the time and neglected revising for their GCSE’s. One person expressed how he had been disappointed in his grades but instantly new what was the cause, in his words “I got a sinking feeling as I immediately knew the cause of my failure.” He then went on to say, “Games in moderation are fine, you just have to know when to stop and unfortunately I didn’t…” (“The student room” forum user “Betacra” posted January 2012) Despite his bad experience he still doesn’t think badly of the subject just that caution and self-control is important. This was quite a common opinion within the discussion, gaming isn’t bad in moderation, and you just need to be sensible. On the other hand some people stated that they hadn’t had problems managing school or university work with gaming. One user said he was surprised he managed so well, “I've found it easier than I thought to manage my gaming habit while at uni. I still manage to get my work done and sometimes won't play for a few days or nearly a week. Then again, sometimes I'll do a bit of work then stop and go on the Xbox for a few hours as a 'break'.” (“The student room” forum user “ManBeast” posted January 2012). Using games as a treat for doing your work can be a really good motivator, for actually cracking down. As this student did it is good practice to have breaks doing work and completely get your mind away from what you are doing so you can come back refreshed when staring work again.

I enjoyed this forum because it was asking the people who it would affect directly and wasn’t an outside source that would only speculate at game negative affects on young people. Unfortunately a lot of this type of article exists and I have come across a lot of negative articles in my searching.