The more we learn about video games, the more benefits we find.
The latest is about long distance relationships. Now a days kids have friends in other states and countries. You might make a new friend while on vacation with your family out of state. You might move to a new city.
In the old days you would become pen pals or make a few expensive phone calls and then the old friendship would fizzle out. Today's youth is able to maintain long distance friendships in a far more intimate way with online gaming and chats.
Brian Crecente, a managing editor of Kotaku.com, came out with an article outlining the benefits of online gaming for kids maintaining long distance friendships.
Take for instance your average military family. They move around a lot. Not just around the country, but often to far off countries. Military kids are sometimes ripped away from family and friends they've had their whole lives and sent to live on another military base in a foreign land like Korea or Japan.
But thanks to the internet and online gaming & chats these kids can stay in touch with their friends and family back in the states. It may not be as good as hanging out together in the front yard and playing a good old fashioned game of tag or something, but it has very real and very similar benefits.
As we've said before, too much of a good thing can be bad, so we're not talking about excessive hours of unsupervised online gaming, but limited exposure to online video games and chats seems to have its benefits. Brian drives the point home that a healthy kid is one who can as aptly socialize online as well as he or she can off line.
Craig Davison, the senior director of Xbox Live is not surprised by the use of Xbox 360's online services to maintain long distance relationships. Craig said, "Xbox Live members of every age are highly engaged and very active on the service. It's cool to see this level of social interaction extending beyond gaming and entertainment."
There are currently 30 million active users on Xbox Live. Members spend about 40 hours a month on the service. That means users are spending a combined BILLION hours a month on Xbox Live. At any given moment there can be as many as 2.4 million people logged into the service at the same time. Every day 4 million personal messages are sent between Xbox Live members. That's a lot of long distance friendships!
So if you've moved or are planning a movie, you and your parents should consider the benefits to online gaming and chats to help maintain your old friendships. For those of your without online gaming, this could really help you make your case for why it would be a good family investment.
What other benefits are there to online gaming? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!
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