As a parent and someone who worked in early childhood education for years, I've seen what video games can do first-hand.
I have some pretty strong opinions about them.
I love them.
Video games are a regular part of my lesson plans for a lot of different reasons; but we can talk about those at the end of the article.
First let's hear what other people have to say.
Reddit user MCKlassik asked:
"What's something important that video games taught you?"
Turns out, we're learning a lot more than we think.
Take a look.
Obstacles
"If you encounter obstacles and enemies, you're going in the right direction."
"And conversely, if you're encountering obstacles you really can't handle, backtrack because there's probably something you've missed."
"And if you encounter lots of health/ammo/equipment and a save point, you're going in the right direction and about to get reamed."
- FrostyD7
Giphy
Avoiding A Wreck
"I think Super Monaco GP (Sega Genesis) saved my life."
"It's a Formula-1 game, one of the first semi-realistic racing games and came out in the early 1990's. When designing a track and there's a long straightaway Formula-1 often adds a small S-shaped curve called a chicane to slow the cars down."
"You basically have to make a very quick left, right, left."
"I was driving on the highway and suddenly saw a stopped car in front of me, and used the exact same maneuver I had done 100 times in the game, and avoided a wreck."
Giphy
At Least Once
"Everyone is worth speaking with at least once."
- jttIII
"I really like this one. I used to be the cliche 'angry misanthropic edgelord teenager' in my youth and as I've gotten older I've softened a lot and am generally interested in people."
"Now I tend to give anyone and everyone the chance to disappoint me, heh."
"Some people seem to have the same dialogue no matter how many times you talk to them"
- Suyefuji
Giphy
"Parthunax made a great point:"
"What is better- to be born good, or to overcome evil through great effort?"
"Should we hold people to their old wrongdoings, or should we grade them by their efforts for redemption?"
- Guava_
Giphy
Lesson After Lesson
"How to type faster - WoW"
"Communication skills - WoW and any team game"
"How to deal with frustration - literally any game, but starting with Mario 3"
"Finding answers to my problems by myself - also any game, but specifically OoT/LttP and rpg/adventure games. This is the biggest one to me."
"I know so many people that don't take the time to solve problems and look immediately for help from others. I've made a career out of doing it myself (where appropriate, of course.)"
"How to ask for help - Prima's strategy guide/ Runescape/WoW/ pretty much everything. Sounds counter to the above, but there's a time and a place to swallow your pride and admit you can't do a thing."
"Better to ask for help than bang your head against the wall. The trick is knowing when this is better than the above one."
Giphy
"Resource management - most games, but especially rpgs. Save or spend? Worth the time to grind or so something fun?"
"Try something new - games with difficulty curves. Try fighting the bigger badder guy and see if you can win. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Losing isn't bad - every game. Ultimately, none of it matters. Losing is a step to winning. Getting comfortable losing makes winning easier."
"Never stop practicing - super smash brothers. I was really good and better than most of my friends. It got boring to just crush them, so I switched up everything from characters to strategy and learned more about the game."
"Add in mass effect, doom, pokemon, whatever. All of them can teach this."
"There's good enough and there's good. The only way to get past good enough is to never stop trying to be better."
"I think that's good dating advice, too!"
"Don't stop 'dating' your partner. Remember when you were trying to impress them? Don't stop just because you did it once."
"Good study advice, too. Don't study until you get it right. Study until you don't get it wrong."
"Friends matter more than winning - Mario party. No one plays with me anymore. Officially banned from games in college."
"Don't be a dick - any game with communication. It's just not worth it."
"Sore winners suck. Sore losers suck. Been around enough of both."
"Just don't be a dick. No one wants to be around a dick."
Keys To The Kingdom
"What I do as an adult and who I am came mostly because I picked up a seemingly random game on some Steam summer sale, and didn't play it until I was having financial problems."
"I decided to save money by just staying home and playing some games I randomly picked on Steam sales or Humble Bundle, but never played. And fate decided 'Kingdoms of Amalur' would be the one."
"Well, it pretty much freed me of the financial problems. It inspired me to take some particular philosophies into my life, and later I found a job and place to live thanks to that."
Giphy
Failure
"My son is seven, so even though I've been playing games since I was his age I'll answer for him as I've seen him grow."
"It's taught him that failure is normal. Everyone misses a jump sometimes and that's no reason to get angry."
"He used to get upset and want to throw the controller. Now he laughs."
Giphy
The Only Constant
"I am responsible for my success and failure."
"Context: You ever play a competitive game and blame your teammates for a loss? Alright, that's normal. Sometimes you do lose due to your team."
"But that is one match. If you are losing more than you win that is ON YOU."
"You are the only constant variable in all of those matches, so it never makes sense to worry about what your teammates do."
"You only improve by focusing on what YOU can do."
"Apply this to games to get better, apply this to real life to free yourself by learning how to put in effort into what you care about. Learn to improve yourself under any circumstance."
- GsTSaien
Giphy
Thank You
"I learned so much from playing Pokemon red and Zelda OOT as a pre-schooler."
"They both taught me to read and basic math. Zelda definitely developed my critical thinking skills and logical thinking, while also helping me overcome my fear of big spiders."
"Pokemon Red, on the other hand, helped me learn how to strategize, how to think ahead, and encouraged socializing. I remember busting out the link cable after church and battling my friends."
"The most important thing that I have learned from video games is how to lose. Those games were hard as sh*t to a 5 year old. But every time I died or lost a battle, I was learning."
"I learned to never give up, to not make the same mistake twice, and how to graciously lose. I learned how to become stronger in-game, and as a person."
"Thank you grandma, for letting me play your N64 so much. Thank you Dad for buying your spoiled 5 year old a game-boy pocket for Christmas."
Giphy
Now, if you were wondering about video games from an educator's perspective, I'll tell you why I adore and encourage them.
Honestly, because people will ALWAYS learn more when they are engaged and interested.
No, I absolutely don't care if the reason my students are reading is because they're reading video game guides. They're learning to use resources and to research in order to solve a problem.
No, I absolutely don't care if the reason my students can multiply at light speed is because they've gotten great at calculating profit from selling wares in the game.
No, I absolutely don't care if the reason my withdrawn second grader is finally talking to other people is Minecraft.
Engaging a young brain will always be better than boring them so much that they grow to hate learning.
So LET KIDS PLAY! Adults, too.
There are lessons here for all of us.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
- Gamers Break Down Their Favorite Games Of All Time - George Takei ›
- People Divulge The Most Important Life Lessons They've Ever Learned - George Takei ›
- Video Game Developers Divulge The Secrets All Gamers Should Know - George Takei ›
- Video Game Developers Share Their Horror Stories - George Takei ›
When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.
But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.
Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.
It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.
Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:
"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"
These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.
Bleeding Out
"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."
"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."
– DongLaiCha
Tragic News
"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."
– accountnameredacted
Bottom Of The Barrel
"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."
– Crotch-Monster
A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.
Like Father, Like Son
"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."
– psycospaz
Busted
"Flashing blue lights."
– FiddleOfGold
"This sobered me up just thinking about it."
– redmaple_syrup
Losing Sight
"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."
– MissHibernia
Quitting The Bottle
"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."
– omgtater
These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.
Unplanned House Guests
"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."
– Oneinsevenbillion75
Serious Health Warning
"Elevated liver enzymes."
"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."
"So I opted for recovery, instead."
"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."
– Far_Meal8674
The Joyride
"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."
– foxfood9116
The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?
How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.
But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.
Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.
We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.
Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.
These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.
From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.
Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:
"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"
"Tale As Old As Time..."
"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","
"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."
"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."
"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."
"Lol!"
"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom
"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."
"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."
"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."
"I think he was a germaphobe."
"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."
"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."
"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.
"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."
"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."
"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000
Money Burn GIF by nog
Giphy
Who Wore It Better?
"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."
"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."
"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."
"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'
"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"
"No."- mertsey627
Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...
"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."
"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."
"It was very low key."
"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."
"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."
"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."
"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."
"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa
south park wedding GIF
Giphy
See You In Court!
"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."
'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."
"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."
"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."
"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."
"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin
It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!
"I work in a public library."
"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."
"A popular book that just came out."
"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."
"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten
A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!
"My own."
"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"
"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."
"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"
"Unacceptable!"
"This shall not stand!"
"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."
"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."
"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."
"I got over it."- DeathGrover
homer simpson episode 23 GIF
Giphy
Holy Matrimony!
"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."
"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."
"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."
"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."
"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."
"It's just a party."
"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree
When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...
"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore
In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...
"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."
"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."
"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."
"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."
"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."
"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."
"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."
"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."
"We don’t offer wrapping services."
"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."
'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae
Customer Service Waiting GIF by Juno Calypso
Giphy
Happiest Place On Earth!
"I used to work for Disney."
"That in itself should tell you everything."
"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."
"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."
"Suddenly got worse huh?"
"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."
"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."
"I'm not kidding."
"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."
"My wife worked booking."
"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."
"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."
"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."
"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."
"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."
"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong
Disney World GIF
Giphy
The horror!
Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!
It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...
Said absolutely no one.