Blog Assignment #7

Video games gain more popularity every year. In schools you can take for granted that most of the kids play video games. The ones who don't play them or don't own a video game console might even are bullied. I think the video games impact has been a huge deal because average American households own at least one video game console.

I've played video games since I was like 5 years old. I do think it's good for kids to play them because they force kids to find solutions, look for alternatives and overcome challenges. These thinking out of the box skills can be developed and kids will be able to apply them in the real world.

I am 20 years old now and I still play video games. Maybe not as much as before because I don't have as much free time as I used to, but I still try to play often. I've had every single Nintendo console since the NES and something tells me the Wii console it's not the last one I'm going to have either. I also have an Xbox, but I don't use it as much as the Nintendo consoles because most of the Xbox games are violent and targeted to men. Sony consoles have never caught my attention. I think Nintendo consoles are way better.

I believe that playing video games make people more tech savvy, which is why kids are more tech savvy than old people. The old population didn't have as many opportunities of playing video games as young kids do.

Obviously, it has its cons if you become addicted and abuse of the video games usage. Some kids have been so addicted to video games that they don't engage in social activities anymore. They miss the chance of meeting new people and hanging out with them.

The Social Learning theory comes into play in video games when players try to imitate what they see in the video game. There are studies that show that kids that don't play violent video games versus kids that do play violent video games are less violent in real life than kids that do play them. Violent learning happens, whether the behavior is imitated or not. 


Here's the link for a funny video that illustrates my point: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URIWJlSDh68

Blog Assignment #6

I remember we only had one computer when I was little and it was the classic big and white IBM PC. I think one of the first experiences I had with a PC was moving the mouse all over the screen. My parents bought me some Barbie and Toy Story CD-ROM games. I'm not sure if it was Toy Story but it was something like that. I could dress up Barbies, design their clothes, learn cowboy songs, organize a doll house and stuff like that.

My first experience with the Internet I think it was remembering we could not receive or make calls or something like that from our landline phones while someone was using the Internet because of the Dial-up connection. In order to get access to it you had to listen to this kind of annoying noise. It was painful after a while and it took several minutes. Here’s the link where you can listen to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNaR6FRuO0

Let's say I wanted to know the meaning of "ensemble". I would type in the Internet like www.ensemble.com. Obviously, my results were not really accurate or the website did not exist. I remember this because when I discovered Google doing research was way easier. I had access to all sorts of information in a click.

This experience has helped me tons in my education. Every time I have to do an assignment I access Google most of the time. Without Google or the Internet, our research methods would be looking for information in books, which is time-consuming and people would have to go to libraries.

As time passed by, more members of my family started owning computers. We are 5 and now we have 7 computers, from laptops to desktops, from Macs to PCs. I hardly spend a day without using a computer. I might use it for either educational, social or leisure purposes. It has become part of most people’s lives.