Press Play: Exploring the Role of Video Games in Teenage Life

 Press Play: Exploring the Role of Video Games in Teenage Life 

Over the last couple of decades, video games have exerted a dominant presence on the horizon of teenage life, such that they have transformed from mere instruments of entertainment into channels that facilitate social interaction and personal development. 

To begin with, video games offer immersive experiences and are most often predicated on great storytelling. For example, the Emmy-award-winning TV limited series The Last of Us is based on a universally acclaimed action-adventure videogame series of the same name. Video games then instead of being spectacles of senseless enjoyment allow players to experience diverse contexts and settings, in addition to exposing them to a wide range of perspectives and narratives. In fact, some might even argue that video games are educational experiences much in the same way that magazines or books are. 

Owing to this, more and more young people are playing video games, and over time the skewed gender dynamics of video game players have improved too, such that young girls have slowly become as enthusiastic about video games as young boys. As teenagers do not limit themselves to specific genres of video games, but instead play a wide range of genres, it allows teenagers to imbibe different ways of thinking about the world. Gaming therefore has become a major social experience for teens, and contributes to community formation, allowing peers across the world to come closer to each other and form meaningful social bonds. Further, gaming contributes to an enrichment of the cognitive skills of teenagers, in addition to honing their reflexes and decision-making skills, by requiring them to improve their hand-eye coordination and make split-second decisions.

There are legitimate concerns about video games, with the most important of them being how video games are often violent and gory, and therefore desensitize teenagers to violence. Arguments from this perspective also claim that because video games directly implicate teenagers as players in their violent worlds and require them to make violent decisions, they are more harmful than violent TV shows and movies. Additionally, teenagers come in contact with strangers over the internet, and therefore their sense of safety and well-being is threatened in insidious ways. 

Therefore, a nuanced understanding of video games helps us foreground that while it is easy to villainize video games in themselves, demonization is not very helpful. Instead, it is important for us to equip teenagers with critical thinking skills to allow them to nurture healthy gaming practices.

Sources

1. https://www.brightpathbh.com/effects-of-video-games-on-teen-mental-health/

2. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2008/09/16/teens-video-games-and-civics/ 

Exercising Minds, Exercising Bodies: Foreground the Necessity of Daily Exercise

 Exercising Minds, Exercising Bodies: Foreground the Necessity of Daily Exercise

The world is not an easy place to be a teenager: it is a phase filled with a plethora of increasing pressures that strain a teenager’s body, mind, and soul. Therefore, it becomes imperative to ensure that teenagers remain mindful of their health and well-being in this crucial part of their lives before they come of age.

Given the formative nature of the teenage years, habits learned during this time are more likely to stay with an individual well into adulthood. Therefore, the teenage years are the perfect time to develop the habit of exercising daily.

It is important to remember that teenagers need at least 60 minutes of physical activity to ensure optimum wellness. Such activity should include a healthy mix of aerobic exercises, muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening exercises. Examples of such activities include running, swimming, jumping rope, dancing, gymnastics, roller skating, cycling, hiking, or playing outdoor games.

Such exercises are crucial in preventing conditions such as chronic stress, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol, all of which lead to heart attacks and strokes later in life. Other physical benefits of exercise include how it helps in the improvement of blood circulation, as well as in fixing our sleep cycle. Further, regular exercise also helps revitalize our immune system by increasing our body’s resistance to colds, flu, and other such viruses.

It is important to understand how the positive effects of exercise are not limited to the body alone but spill into the realm of our mental health as well. This is because exercise has a proven effect in terms of improving our self-image as well as helping us fight anxiety and depression, in addition to increasing our optimism. This is because exercise triggers the release of endorphins in our body, thereby shaping our psychological states. 

Given how a lot of teenagers are conscious of their skin, exercise is instrumental in helping us with our skin too. This is because physical exercise boosts circulation in our body, thereby improving the delivery of nutrients to our skin, in addition to removing toxins from cells. Further, the increased delivery of oxygen to our body because of enhanced circulation also increases the production of collagen, which is the connective tissue responsible for smooth, elastic, and plump skin.

Here, it is important to remember that there is absolutely no such thing as too much exercise. Often, teenagers, once they begin exercising, are so swept away by the activity that they forget the healthy limits of exercise, and are therefore obsessed with the gym as well as with the idea of burning extra calories. 

This is why it is important to regulate the amount of exercise we undertake in order to derive the most optimal benefits from it.

Sources

1. https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/exercise-for-teenagers#too-much-exercise

2. https://www.webmd.com/teens/benefits-of-exercise

3. https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=90&ContentID=P01602 

Framing Teenage Perspectives: A Glimpse into Free-Range Parenting

 Framing Teenage Perspectives: A Glimpse into Free-Range Parenting

In 2008, much to the shock of most parents who read the article, Lenore Skenanzy published an article, "Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone". Gaining significant media traction since then, it has become a key media text in helping us understand a marked shift in parenting styles in the 21st century. 

Skenanzy's style of parenting is a radical shift away from the extremely involved nature of helicopter parenting, in which parents constantly interfere in each and every aspect of their children's lives with the assumption that their interventions are automatically beneficial for the child. As opposed to helicopter parenting, Skenanzy's style of parenting is known as free-range parenting, which is defined as extending children the freedom to make choices for themselves, act on their own agency, and experience the consequences of their own actions. 

Despite whatever it is believed to be in the popular imagination, free-range parenting is not automatically about neglecting your children's needs or being uninvolved in their lives. In the article too, Skenanzy writes that before letting her son ride the metro on his own, she made sure to train him adequately, taught him to read the map, and even gave him extra money should he need it for any reason. 

Let's then discuss these parenting styles from a teenager's point of view. Given that teenagers, broadly speaking, are in the process of forming their identities and figuring out who they are and what they want to be, it is crucial to give them the relative space to explore different facets and decide what appeals to them. This is, of course, not to say that parents should let their children be like how birds abandon their young ones. Instead, the goal here is to offer limited parental supervision depending on the contextualized situation of the child, and how mature they are. 

Therefore, for teenagers to realize the concepts of agency and accountability, parents need to nurture freedom of thought and action in them to help them ease off the monumental pressure they face. As a teenager myself, I am aware of the heterogeneous pressures faced by us in different areas of our lives that strive to crumble any potential of joy from our lives. Despite receiving fierce criticism about how this method is equivalent to neglect, I believe that such a parenting style is deeply liberating in nature, because it creates an organic sense of self-confidence by teaching teenagers to trust their instincts.

I believe that no teenager wants to fear their parents. Instead, they want to develop healthy relationships based on mutual trust and confidence. In this context, free-range parenting emerges as a viable parenting style that seeks to let children develop at their own pace and follow their own visions of who they want to be.

Sources: 

1. https://www.verywellfamily.com/what-is-free-range-parenting-1095057

2. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/aug/16/let-them-be-kids-is-free-range-parenting-the-key-to-healthier-happier-children 

Inter-Species Companionship: How Pets Add Magic to Teenage Life

 Inter-Species Companionship: How Pets Add Magic to Teenage Life

Teenagers across the world crave the love and warmth offered by the companionship of a pet, as they continue pestering their parents to have a dog, cat, rabbit, or fish, with them. This is because teenagers derive pleasure and joy from interacting with animals and engaging with the cuteness that they exhibit. 

Pets are also a wonderful lesson in responsibility, given how they depend on their humans to offer them care and look after their daily needs. This includes feeding responsibilities, making sure that they get adequate exercise, as well as cleaning after their litter. By participating in such essential care work, teenagers are able to cultivate a sense of responsibility and foster a sense of purpose in life. 

This is why inter-species companionship is an important lesson in empathy, as it allows us to step beyond our selfish perspectives, and extend love and kindness to beings that have nothing in common with us. This is a lesson most needed by teenagers in some of the most formative years of their lives.

Having pets then allows teenagers to forget about their stress and anxieties during the time that they devote to their pets and indulge in carefree frivolity and play with their pets. Given that middle and high school years are turbulent times, involving multivalent pressures and intense expectations, pets become a crucial support system that offers teenagers a sense of stability to navigate such high levels of stress. 

Owing to the urgent need for self-validation that most teenagers experience because of undergoing physical transformations owing to puberty, as well as because of having fluctuating interpersonal relationships with their peers, having a pet allows teenagers to find external validation in the unconditional love showered on them by their pets. This further allows teenagers to develop a healthy sense of self, helping them feel confident in their own skin.

Several research studies have proven how adolescents are deeply influenced by their pets. For example, a 2019 study undertaken by Lynn J Piper and Clarissa M Uttley demonstrates how pets not only improve the socialization capacities of children but also have positive effects on their emotional development as well as their physical health. Significantly, the study also exhibits how adolescents who are at risk because of factors like homelessness and mental health problems derive a whole host of benefits from canine-assisted therapy.

Therefore, having pets allows teenagers to weave lasting threads of joy and emotional resilience, as pets add magic to life, and make our adolescent years full of love and laughter.

Sources: 

1. https://raisingteenstoday.com/reasons-a-pet-can-help-your-teen-get-through-the-turbulent-teen-years/

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7149533/ 

3. https://www.verywellhealth.com/pets-during-adolesence-5080955 

Crafting Identity: Artistic Expression as a Tool for Teenage Self-Discovery

 Teenagers are involved in a continuous process of the formation of self-identity, to garner a sense of individuality for themselves, by figuring out the kind of person they want to be, and the preferences and dislikes they want to have. Therefore, constructing a coherent identity is one of the primary challenges of adolescence, wherein teenagers must synthesize their experiences to form a firm and consolidated identity.

In this regard, art emerges as a powerful tool for self-exploration allowing individuals to not only learn to express themselves in a variety of creative ways, but also allow them to become more flexible and imaginative in their thinking. Research conducted by Kenneth Elpus in 2013 shows that students who participate in the arts are far more likely to do better at school, and avoid suspension. By indulging in artistic expression, students feel that they have a sense of control. This is how artistic expression empowers students and prompts them to a path of positive identity development.

Thus, art allows individuals to take ownership of their identities and experiences. Because art classes generally tend to be more flexible, students learn to work with their own preferences, and therefore are able to transcend the barriers of rigid norms and expectations, by allowing individuals to assert their own choices and exercise their own agency.

Further, art also exists as a platform for collaboration, as it allows individuals to widen their perspectives, work with other students, and therefore foster a sense of community. Thus, through nurturing feelings like belongingness, group projects in art allow students to support one another, in their quest to be the best they can.

Additionally, arts also have a healding tendency to them, as they allow individuals to navigate feelings of hurt and injury. Thus, through exerting a therapeutic effect on individuals, art allows individuals to channel their grief and pain into beauty, by providing them with the drive to better their skill, and create something truly remarkable that would allow one to feel proud of themselves in their quest to forget their hurt.

While it is true that for most students art is not their calling, most students can derive pleasure and joy from art if the subject is taught to them in a wholesome environment. By pushing students to think outside the box, art allows students to push their thinking and become more innovative and risk-taking.

Sources: 

1. https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2319&context=honors_research_projects

2. https://core.ac.uk/download/387893942.pdf 

Beyond the Surface: Exploring the Depths of Teenage Identity

 Beyond the Surface: Exploring the Depths of Teenage Identity

Teenage years are one of the most exciting years of our life, as they are a process that allows one to head on an onward journey of self-discovery, and find out who they truly are and what they want to be. 

Even as our identities are shaped by a lot of factors, including sociocultural and familial dynamics, as well as our engagement with media and our friends, teenage years help shape the personality of an individual, in terms of helping individuals figure out their preferences and desires. 

Towards this end, teenagers make a variety of active choices, with varying degrees of autonomy, which help them develop a sense of an autonomous self. Examples of this include, what music and movies they watch, the kind of friends they make, the hobbies they pursue, and the environments they place themselves in. Based on their engagements with and experiences of these contextual factors, teenagers begin to condition themselves. Herein, feedback and response play a huge role in fleshing out the identity of individuals.

Some of the pressing questions that teenagers navigate to help them develop an identity for themselves include interrogating their desire to assert themselves outside their family, forming kinship relations with peers, and forming a cluster of personal values to help them make their decisions.

As teenagers augment their cognitive skills and become capable of abstract thought, they move beyond shallow attractions. Often, this development is marked by a desire for authenticity. Teenagers navigate this quest by experimenting with different interests and expressions, not just in a superficial way, but in a way wherein they seek to engage intellectually with these different areas and interrogate them using their burgeoning critical thinking faculties. It is thus that teenage years can often feel empowering, because individuals begin making, at least some, decisions for themselves, instead of their parents making all their decisions for them.

As social media introduces new dimensions to the contours that form teenage identity, teenagers are exposed to an unlimited degree of new experiences, avenues, and opportunities. While social media can pressure teenagers to emulate their idols and their seemingly perfect lives, there are also pervasive counter-narratives that inspire students to seek authenticity and depth.

Precisely because teenagers are on the cusp of their development, these years can be convoluted and challenging. This is precisely why it is important for us to develop holistic structures of support to enable them to develop a unique personality through sustained self-reflection. 

Sources

https://parentandteen.com/developing-adolescent-identity/

https://pdx.pressbooks.pub/humandevelopment/chapter/identity/

Taking the Roads Not Taken: Traversing Your Turbulent Teenage Years

 Taking the Roads Not Taken: Traversing Your Turbulent Teenage Years 

The period of teenage is anxiety-inducing for not just teenagers but those around them, particularly the ones who take care of teenagers. A primary source of this anxiety stems from teenagers’ increased likeliness to take risks, often without a careful evaluation of what is best for them and what is not. After all, for every individual, what makes the teenage years the most memorable period is the recollection of the myriad of adventurous experiences that taking unfamiliar roads and exploring new terrains provided them with. The tendency to take risks, to a large extent, comes as an inevitable part of being a teenager, and with ample care and attention, these adventures can be made less intimidating and more fun-filled. 

Why are teenagers more likely to take risks? While there is no single answer for this, part of the explanation lies in how stepping out of one’s comfort zone is an essential aspect of finding one’s identity and becoming an independent young adult. Researchers, particularly those who dive into the psychological underpinnings of human development, highlight how during adolescence, there are certain changes in one’s brain that make teenagers more focused on the reward they feel from social situations, and this positive reinforcement often leads to one wanting to explore new spaces to expand their understanding of themselves and the world. 

As every growth-related phenomenon has underlying scientific explanations, there is one for the teenage tendency to take risks too. The areas of the human brain that handle impulse control and planning do not completely mature until about age 25, making teenagers quicker to make decisions than adults. Therefore, it is safe to say that the hormonal and psychological aspects of being a teenager make risk-taking natural. This is where one must dive into the importance of positive risk-taking, which is nothing but learning new things and exploring unfamiliar territories. This is a positive approach because fundamentally, it evokes a feeling of uncertainty or fear, along with developing a new skill and a positive long-term outcome. 

A few common examples of positive risks are sports, arts, volunteering, and even new choices in education. As peer pressure and lack of ample certainty about one’s life are indispensable aspects of being a teenager, it is easy to lose direction and be misled. Therefore, by gaining a comprehensive knowledge of the healthy ways to take risks and new roads, one can make the best of the teenage years, by avoiding any instances of confusion and harm.

Sources: 

1. https://parents.au.reachout.com/common-concerns/everyday-issues/risk-taking-and-teenagers   

2. https://www.teachingtimes.com/ecj-55-teens-taking-risks/ 

3. https://grandrapidstherapygroup.com/guide-teens-through-risk-taking/