Can Video Games Affect Your Child's Sportsmanship?

I was born in 1980. That means I was raised on 80's movies, MC Hammer and video games. Over the past 30 years video games have become increasingly popular. Any time a new form of entertainment comes along the generation before it questions it. Adults above a certain age think that video games cause children to be violent, have sex and swear like a sailor.

When movies first started they probably had the same criticism. They probably complained that their kids would starting waddling like Charlie Chaplin or that they would grow mustaches. Who knows what people thought when they heard music of for the first time. They probably thought the instrument was demonic. Video games aren't the reason for any of those things but there is one thing that video games have effected: Sportsmanship.

The notion that video games cause children to be violent is ridiculous. The over the top storylines and graphics of a video game are not realistic. For a child to think that these collection of polygons in a video game is a representation of how life really works then they already had problems to begin with. Sex and cursing isn't caused by video games either because they are rarely used in video games but it is reasonable to believe that video games can affect sportsmanship.

Most video games now come with an online multiplayer mode. This allows gamers to play their game against anybody in the world that has the same game. The biggest problem with playing video games online is that you do not see the person, you can only hear them and it's very possible that you'll never run across that person ever again. Due to this situations a lot of gamers don't mind saying whatever they want because there won't be many consequences. It's not like you're going to run into CroftLover82 in a dark alley and get your butt kicked for telling him that he plays Madden about as good as Matt Leinart plays real football.

Spend a few minutes playing video games online and you are sure to talk to more rude users than nice. Some players will brag about how good they are. Some users will call you a "noob' (that's slang for somebody that is new at the game) and inform you that you suck (which doesn't make sense because if you're a noob how are you supposed to be good already?)

Unfortunately I've met some adults that acted liked this online but most of the gamers that show bad sportsmanship are teens. It's difficult for a parent to monitor what a player is saying and doing in an online video game unless they are standing in the same room. There also isn't anybody monitoring the players in the game. If a teen acts like a braggart and nobody tells him not to then what is to stop them from doing it again?

Look around the landscape of sports (after all that is where sportsmanship is most prevalent, or maybe most lacking) and you'll see a lot of young men that don't behave they way they should. Maybe it's the American culture to care too much about sports. Maybe ESPN airing games on a high school level has made the fame go to players' heads but I doubt video games were not a factor at all.

Any athlete that is college age or young has been raised on video games. They were probably trash talking during online video games before they even took the field of a real sport for the first time. If your child decides they want a video game console then by all means monitor the violence if you choose to, it's your child, but definitely be sure to teach your child to win or lose with grace. Sportsmanship is not just for sports, it's for all walks of life.