What is Johnson's main
point? What are some of the supporting details he uses to make that point?
Johnson’s main point in why games are good for you is
that games, mostly electronic video games are not harmful to people. One of his
supporting details that really stuck out to me was when he said, games for many
years have engaged the person playing the game in a complex social relationship
with their peers, building and exploring worlds together, while books force the
child to sequester him or herself in a quiet space, shut off interaction with
other children, (Johnson, 483). This stuck out to me because he is basically
encouraging children to play video games rather than read a book, which is
completely opposite of what most people would say about these two topics. It
just really surprised me to see, someone who actually believes differently, but
from reading his article, I do have to agree on a lot of his points, like video
games are socially, because they actually are. He makes very valid points with
this argument, and I do believe he is right, and it has changed my mind, in
that video games really aren’t so bad like everyone thinks. Another, supporting
detail, he pursues is, when he says “now I have no doubt that playing todays
video games does in fact improve your visual intelligence and your manual
dexterity, but the virtues of gaming run far deeper than hand eye
coordination,” (Johnson, 486). He is very right about this, it does in fact
improve your visual intelligence, when it comes to visualizing things, also,
your manual dexterity is definitely helped by video gaming because it gives you
better hand, body, and eye movement and coordination. Yes, there is absolutely
virtues of gaming that isn’t hand and eye coordination for sure, it goes beyond
deeper than that. Video gaming truly has many great qualities towards them,
which people seem to forget because it is just a video game to most people, but
it is really so much more than that. Finally, one more supporting detail of
Johnsons, I liked was when he said “It’s not what you are thinking about when
you’re playing the game, it’s the way you are thinking that matters,” (Johnson,
493). Which what he means is, that it is not about what game you are playing or
how you play the game, but the thinking and strategies that go along with
playing the game, that is what matters. It’s that you are thinking about the
game, and no just playing, you put your brain to work when playing things
games. Therefore, Why Games are Good for you, by Steven Johnson, is a great persuasive
piece, which shows video games can actually be good for you, better than a book
in most cases.
Lacey --
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how thorough your response is here and your use of good quotes from the text. While I think you overstate his argument a bit -- he's not saying video games are BETTER than books, but that they hone different skills -- I do think you've touched on some of his supporting points.
Thanks!
Nick