1Faculty of Ethnology and Educational Science,
University of Silesia in Katowice, Cieszyn, Poland
2Humanitas University in Sosnowiec, Cieszyn, Poland
Corresponding author details:
Adam Adamski, Faculty of Ethnology and Educational Science
University of Silesia in Katowice
Poland
Copyright: © 2022 Adam A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4. 0 international License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
We live in an information society in which the Internet has become an indispensable
medium for work, study, information, and contact. Computer games are an important
component of the computerized world; they are an essential part of the lives of millions
of young people, including children. Computer entertainment increasingly eliminates
other forms of spending free time from everyday life. Access to a computer, the Internet,
and, computer games cause younger and younger children to show interest in this
form of entertainment [1]. Often in these games, the values of art that is there are
forgotten an attractive educational “instrument” that goes beyond the framework of
traditional pedagogical institutions. It shapes human attitudes, is a means of teaching,
enriches knowledge resources, and develops cognitive mechanisms. Art makes a
person sensitive, noble, and capable of heroic deeds. It connects people regardless
of national, racial, and even political affiliation. Art shows not only the diversity of
life and the unity of truth, humanistic content, but also shows that which has been
called “the destiny of man”, shows his problems of life, often from the perspective of
ourselves. A technique without art is like a broken bell in a church that drowns out the
aesthetics of the soul and the cantata of human existence.
The educational influence of computer games on the learning process
A computer game has a specific character. Some games show aggression and violence, but there are also games that are therapeutic and educational. Each of them delivers a specific type of message: positive or negative. The most popular of them are sports, simulators, races, adventure games, economic, economic, military, urban strategies, solitaire games, arcade games and, many varieties of action and fighting games. They aim at various audiences, both children and adolescents, students and adults [2]. Games can play a positive role in a child’s development: shape social behavior and the ability to think independently. They are often interesting and interactive and they can be successfully used for educational purposes. Good-quality educational games improve the ability to perceive, improve reflexes and manual dexterity, develop spatial imagination, and teach decision-making. They enrich the child’s knowledge of the surrounding world; can shape positive attitudes towards animals, people, and social phenomena. Strategic games develop the ability to think, plan, perform several tasks simultaneously, analyze and interpret events, as well as quickly solve problems [3]. In computer games, children not only use knowledge about the world and the mechanisms that govern it, but they also acquire skills that may be useful to them in the real world. Games can shape children’s social attitudes, teach them to cooperate with their peers or, help others, especially the elderly. In many games there is no competition, they have to cooperate, help each other, and solve problems together to achieve a common goal - they teach teamwork. There are also games and programs teaching decision-making, strategic thinking, supporting the learning of mathematics, Polish and English, simulators of sports games: tennis, billiards, football, hockey, etc. They help in learning, compensate for gaps, develop the ability to learn independently, consolidate knowledge, shape memory, attention, and thinking, develop knowledge and skills. Children can repeat exercises many times, regulate their selection and work pace. For correct completion of the task, they are rewarded with words (Bravo! Wonderful! You’re wonderful!). At the same time, the child gets to know computer operation (efficient use of a mouse, keyboard). It improves reflexes, eye-hand coordination, develops the ability to perceive, associate, think logically, and stimulate the imagination. According to many scientists, these games are not very popular among children and adolescents; they seek more attractive games [4]. When purchasing games, parents are not always guided by education values, most often they succumb to pressure from children or leave the child “freehand”.
Threats from computer games in computer games
In computer games, the player is usually an active participant in what is happening on the screen. However, in most games, the action is based on aggression. There is a principle of using violence that is rewarded. The player identifies with the aggressor and wins if he is successful in using violence, and gets used to it as it is repeated many times. In computer games, the child learns aggression by inflicting suffering, which in his later life can be transferred to the real world, which manifests itself in; indifferent to violence, unable to sympathize, adopting a passive observer attitude, anxiety states, the division of the world into allies and enemies, the conviction that cruelty is a normal state, necessary to survive in the real world. Children do not show need and work on themselves, they are characterized by a strong concentration on their needs [5].
It happens that a child in the real world cannot do much, but as a player, he becomes strong, brave, fighting with people, with animals, creatures, fantastic dragons, monsters, and robots. He has a sophisticated, effective weapon. The whole scenery is accompanied by a well-chosen image, music, sounds, and screams. In many computer games, graphic realism is perfect, which is why it is often difficult for children to separate fiction from reality. They completely immerse themselves in the virtual world, identify with the heroes and accept their rules of the game, which in real life behave in an identical way towards their friends, colleagues, or family members [6].
The threats posed by computer games include: limiting social contacts, encouraging them to stay only in contact with the machine, participating in acts of violence, presenting anti-social behavior, tearing the child away from the real world, and leaving him in the world of illusion. Many hours of sitting in front of the monitor cause in the human body such ailments as dizziness and headaches caused by eyestrain, spine and back problems, circulatory system disorders in the lower and upper limbs, tingling and pain in the arms, wrists, hands, drowsiness, fatigue that do not pass after rest. excessive blinking of the eyes, rubbing of the eyes, tearing, pressure, stinging, trouble concentrating, etc. [7].
Strongly flickering images and the phenomenon of glare is very harmful to the eyesight, especially for the child, his mind, and body. The result is an imbalance, headaches, stomachaches, hearing impairment, and the inability to think quickly. There is a skin irritation caused by the constant bombardment of the skin by positively charged dust particles repelled by the monitor, and headaches due to electromagnetic radiation by the monitor [8].
Internet addiction as a destructive factor for personality child
The Internet is a particularly dangerous and addictive medium. Hours spent online arethe time taken away from work, study, or family life. Internet addiction is becoming a more and more serious social problem. Internet addicts exceed the number of drug addicts in some industrialized countries, and measures need to be taken against this new disease. People who use the Internet a lot feel bad when they have to be taken away from the screen, and then they become irritated, like an alcoholic who has been taken a glass of vodka.
A mother’s conversation with a psychologist, who describes her child’s reaction, “Either you give me access to the Internet in my room and on the phone, or I will take my life” - these are the words of 15-year-old Tom, whose mother cut off his access to the Internet because of poor results in science and an inappropriate attitude towards it.
A similar story of an 11-year-old girl Emilia told by her mother
My daughter was born as a very calm child, there were no biological or psychological problems with the child. In kindergarten, she was a child liked by her tutor and by children. From an early age, I played her fairy tales on the Internet. Then she searched for videos herself. I didn’t see anything wrong with that. She spent more and more time in front of the computer, it was a convenience for me, she had a job and I was free to do my daily activities. In the second grade, she began to lock herself in her room more and more often and play games and watch videos on YouTube. She spent all the time after school with the computer. She stopped learning. I started hiding her computer. And she forced him: “Give me back! The girlfriends have access to computers.” There were first quarrels. She did not meet her friends, did not even leave the room. Playing in the yard or the pitch did not interest her. When I tried to cut her off from the Internet, she became truly hysterical, and the same thing happens to this day. When I took her phone, or the computer became extremely nervous, she slammed the door, called me terribly, screamed that I was a retarded madman. All conversations with her failed, nothing reached her. She stopped studying and going to school. I couldn’t stand it and went with her to a psychologist. After talking to a psychologist, she realized that it was all Internet addiction. I allowed her to use the Internet for 2 hours a day, but after a few days, everything returned to the old behavior.
She started blackmailing me, threatening me with a kitchen knife, and trying to commit suicide if I did not give her the Internet back. I had to intervene with a psychiatrist who referred her to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. Currently, she is relatively calm, but under constant control. Reflection for other parents, which was missing between Emilka and her mother - a simple answer, love from the mother, and tender conversation. The mother lost her child in her heart; she did not have time for her. Lack of interest in the child’s affairs, she left the child at home like an unnecessary item. A lifelong trauma remained with Emilka.
Internet addiction usually starts very innocently. First, there is curiosity and fascination, the child spends a lot of time playing computer games. Parents look with pride at their teenagers or teenagers who efficiently use the computer, considering them young geniuses. They allow the child to spend many hours in front of the computer, because they are convinced that they develop their interests, and at the same time are at home under the watchful eye of their parents. However, over time, the son or daughter begins to spend more and more time playing computer games, and when trying to break away from the computer, they react with outbursts of uncontrolled anger and aggression. Parents slowly lose contact with the child, and the child itself loses contact with reality because the most important thing is the game and time spent in the virtual world. When they are isolated from the computer, they develop withdrawal symptoms: aggression, irritability, insomnia, physiological reactions, depression, and even suicide attempts.
The drastic thing is that the Internet is leading to the loss of interpersonal relationships. The fact that people get to know each other via the Internet and have no fear does not feel embarrassed, but the downside of these new acquaintances is the loss of a relationship based on a close exchange of emotional states. This leads to the disappearance of the feeling of love, friendship, and loss of closeness to humans. and its surroundings. Such a person can no longer communicate normally with other people. He loses all emotional connections with them; his whole life takes place far away from the ordinary world. The psyche of such a person shows features of lability. It is variable: explosive and aggressive, sometimes calm, with slowed-down behavior, but always unbalanced, and the personalization of the personality follows [9].
The described effects of Internet addiction include:
To get out of addiction, you should go to a psychologist for occupational therapy. In such a situation, it is also worth asking for help from relatives in the family. Psychotherapy helps a lot. The treatment process is based on changing the habits of using the Internet, which is to gradually restore a place in the patient’s life for other, non-virtual entertainment, activities, and relationships with people and nature.
Caring for the proper development of a child, remember to:
Alternative leisure activities to the computer
A significant factor in a child’s development is movement, which is one of the natural needs of a child, which determines its proper biological and mental development. Movement becomes an irreplaceable means of moral, aesthetic, and social education. Movement stimulates and activates mental processes. It integrates and anchors new information and experiences in our neural networks. It is necessary for all activities known as learning and reasoning. Movement is the basis for visual training, learning, and studying the shape and forms of our environment, as well as for interacting with people. In a child, every experience is expressed in gesture, movement, and voice, which constitute the dynamic whole of the development of his personality [11].
Dancing as a natural need for movement during music allows you to express your feelings using gestures, movements, and facial expressions. An example would be flamenco dancing. In this dance, body movements and gestures express certain emotional states of the dancer or emphasize the meaning of the words and the character of the melody that accompanies them. Movement and dance exercises satisfy the child’s movement need, but also develop a number of his psychophysical dispositions, such as perceptiveness memory, the concentration of attention, quick reaction, eye-hand coordination, orientation in the body schema and in space, which factor is extremely important for the proper development of the child. Through movement, the child learns about his or her own body. They learn about activities in space, and adjusts their activity to the situation and place.
The lack of this ability leads to many mental dysfunctions, such as dyslexia, ADHD syndrome, autism, neurosis, emotional underdevelopment, depressive states, etc.
Dance not only makes the child sensitive to his attitude, activates the senses, but also connects with the behavior towards other children. A dancing child must establish physical contact with other children, cooperate, and thus become a member of a community that acts together and empathizes. His sense of self-confidence increases confidence in yourself. He ceases to be egocentric, becomes communicative and open, and eliminates complexes and shyness. This is especially true of a shy child. It is also very important to meet one of the most important needs of a child - to be noticed [12].
Dancing is an excellent way to relieve stress, relieve accumulated aggression and tension, as well as an excellent form of gymnastics, developing physical fitness. By exercising his body, the child not only explores and improves it but also gets to know himself and his surroundings, eliminating his mental dysfunctions, such as ADHD syndrome, dyslexia, neurosis, depression, etc. Movement exercises, apart from shaping muscles, bones, heart, and lungs, also strengthen the base of the brain, cerebellum, and corpus callosum, and increase the number of connections between neurons [13].
The teacher should take care that the body language is adorned with the beauty of movement and creation own movement compositions that are to facilitate the readability of interpersonal communication, as well as show distinction, culture, and beauty of the body.
Contact with art gives the individual a sense of a spiritual connection with the past and the present. It is therefore a factor in the social integration of an individual. Art fulfills extremely important functions in meeting the individual needs of a child, among which we can distinguish: the need to experience experiences, the need to spend free time attractively, the need for creativity, and the need to express feelings. Art is an important factor in communication between people on the emotional plane, and thus in bringing people closer together. It has a specific language that allows you to communicate specific content and mutual understanding without using words. Art also develops: perceptual sensitivity; allows you to express yourself and your feelings. The child, artistically expressing himself, learns to think independently and express his opinions; Art teaches to live, develops desirable character traits, deepens knowledge about life and the world; determines the child’s spiritual development Art in a child’s life is not only a means of his education but also allows him to develop and understand reality. Art responds to a child’s need, satisfying his curiosity about the world [19].
The child is very sensitive to various elements of art (i.e. music, dance, painting, fairy tale, poetry, theater, ballet) the child contemplates, “gives birth” to a constant cosmogenesis of the world and worlds. Therefore, art can be an excellent method of therapy for every child. A child’s rich and original range of dreams testifies to the correct emotional development of a child, the lack of fears, anxieties, and inhibitions in his life, and at the same time about the readiness for creative activity and creative experimentation [2]. Theatrical art plays an important role in the life of every human being, including children. The theater is a source of emotions, sensations, and new experiences. It allows creatingthe experience of a new reality that goes beyond the real world surrounding the child. The theater is one of the oldest fields of art. It grows into almost all forms of social existence. It is an independent art and at the same time a discipline, that integrates other branches of creativity. The theater is an art created by man, for man, and about a man. The plays show various situations, relate to life, various problems, thus help the child to get to know the world, people, and himself better [20].
The theater is a stage art that teaches to live, explains life, explains and comments on it. By affecting the child’s entire personality, theater satisfies his intellectual, expressive, emotional, and aesthetic needs, and plays an important role in the individual and social life of a person. A child needs to practice theatrical art because in a theater they can create their world of shapes, colors,sounds, and words, events, problems, experiences and emotions, personal and shared experiences. Moreover, theater plays a very important role in the process of educating a child. Participation in theatrical classes makes children sensitive to the dramatic nature of human experiences, and thus develops the ability of creative, dynamic thinking[21].
Theater allows for an in-depth understanding of the child’s psyche and the mechanisms that guide its behavior. The creative performance of theatrical art is a source of rich emotions and a factor in maintaining mental balance, as well as a means of educating children. Each well-planned work of a theatrical ensemble has, by its nature, great and real ideological and educational advantages, as it shapes artistic sensitivity, creative imagination, expression, and independence of attitudes towards the surrounding reality. It also shapes teamwork, discipline, and responsibility[22].
Theater allows for an in-depth understanding of the child’s psyche and the mechanisms that guide its behavior. The creative performance of theatrical art is a source of rich emotions and a factor in maintaining mental balance, as well as a means of educating children. Each well-planned work of a theatrical ensemble has, by its nature, great and real ideological and educational advantages, as it shapes artistic sensitivity, creative imagination, expression, and independence of attitudes towards the surrounding reality. It also shapes teamwork, discipline, and responsibility[22].
Teachers notice that artistic activity enables them to reach children, get to know them, and establish cordial contacts with them, necessary to shape the views, feelings, and attitudes of pupils and to support the development of practical skills, interests, and even an integral personality of children. For the teacher, art fulfills the role of not only a probe that allows the world of children and youth’s experiences to penetrate better, but also their measure of sensitivity and creative activity[23].
Theater therapy, choreotherapy, drama therapy strengthen the self-esteem of those playing in a theater performance, regain self-confidence, become open, free, independent, show the audience their greatest secrets and the most painful experiences, make us aware of their experiences, feelings related to their rejection by society. Theatrotherapy is an art and craft; it serves as an organ for internal growth, development, and enrichment of a child’s personality. Therefore, in contemporary pedagogy, education through art should become more and more important. Contact through art brings children and people closer to each other, allows them to establish an emotional bond. Education through art is about not only shaping sensitivity to beauty and the ability to esthetic evaluation, but it is the overall process of education that is comprehensively developed, rational, creative, and sensitive to other people and the world around them [24].
An alternative source of spending free time to computer games, apart from art, can be: expressive gymnastics, rhythmics, family recreation, sports in a wide range, school interest clubs, sports clubs, therapeutic and educational games, e.g. “Mountain of feelings” is an interesting proposition for the development of the child’s interests. This game is based on unfinished sentences and exercises: breathing, in the field of interpersonal communication, as well as tasks stimulating the development of imagination.
An interesting game for children to spend their free time is the “Pytaki” family game. It deserves recognition because it deepens family relationships and is also a great exercise developing empathy, the ability to show feelings and express needs. In addition, this game develops communication skills. https://natuli. pl/produkt/pytaki-czas-dla-rkieta-niezwykla-gra-rodzinna?gclid = CjwKCAjwmrn5BRB2EiwAZgL9oklItA6okz_oobSY-AoANpktzt E82NjPWo XWDZ5T-4RwOdLucBtahoCQwAQAvD_BwE.
Rules to be allowed for a child to play computer games
The biggest accusation against computer games is excessive aggression, which has a destructive effect on the recipient. Computer games increase aggressive behavior. Not only the publishers are to blame for this style of games, but the entire distribution and sales system. It is difficult to blame them for the fact that the game fell into the hands of a child. In Poland, special game qualification systems are introduced, but no one respects them when buying a specific game. Sellers should be subject to greater requirements and penalties.
In the UK, a retailer may be fined up to £5,000 or imprisoned for up to 6 years for selling games to underage requirements [17].
At the end, it is worth mentioning the action of art that fulfills extremely important functions in terms of satisfying the individual needs of a child, among which we can distinguish: the need to experience experiences, the need to spend free time attractively, the need for creativity and the need to express feelings. Art teaches to live, develops desirable character traits, and deepens knowledge about life and the world; it determines the spiritual development of man [14].
Contact through art brings children and people closer to each other, allows them to establish an emotional bond. Particularly noteworthy is the theater performance, capturing many elements of art such as literature, acting, stage architecture, music, and dance. Practicing theatrical art is necessary for children because in the theater they can create their world of shapes, colors, sounds and words, events and problems, experiences and emotions, personal and shared experiences. Moreover, theater plays a very important role in the process of educating a child. Participation in theatrical classes makes children sensitive to the dramatic nature of human experiences, thus develops the ability to think creatively, dynamically, and shapes teamwork, discipline, and responsibility [15].
Draw the command or do something to prevent the sad person from feeling lonely. A sad person can become attached to every warm word he hears.
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