Why do we let children play with video games without supervision? — Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik
When my husband bought the then-5-year-old a Nintendo Switch, I made a list articulating all my reservations about my child having a gaming console so young. I worried about the dopamine of it all, about my son becoming accustomed to getting the immediate gratification that comes from a game and how it would impact his development as a human being. I worried about how it would affect his ability to meet people in real life.
"Too much, too quick?"; "brain development?"; and "anti-social?" dominated the list I wrote in my planner, where all the pro-and-con lists live. The bottom of the negatives column featured one word underlined three times. "Strangers?"
