Band 7+: Some people have argued that video games are a waste of time, and people should spend their time and money on better hobbies. Compare and contrast the benefits of video games with other hobbies. In your opinion, which is more useful? Why

It is partly argued that playing video games is a time-wasting activity, so people should make a better use of time or money on more advantageous hobbies. I would side with those who contend that people should spend their time on doing advantageous activities that can improve their personal development and social skills.

In terms of personal development, video games, which cover a variety of games, can train people’s creativity and problem-solving skills. However, this activity does not provide the practical application of these skills at most of the time. Compared to cooking as one of practical hobbies, for example, people do not only read and understand the ingredients and steps in the recipe but also try to follow the steps in the form of real actions. Similar to video games, this cooking activity can train people’s creativity skills by trying to change or create a new recipe and train their problem-solving skills by overcoming the cooking problems they find during the activity. As a result, doing other hobbies that can improve someone’s personal development is better than only playing video games.

Playing video games also affects the way people communicate with others. Playing too many of them can give an addiction that prevents the players from meeting and talking to other people. Of course they can talk to other players while playing and communicate with those who share the same hobby with them, but the talk will be limited only to the topic of video games. In contrast, doing sport activity in a club, such as Karate or Silat, where they can meet other people can help improve their social skills outside of the house. This means that they do not only stay at home and play alone, but they can go outside and talk to many people in the club or in other areas as well. Thus, it results in the improvement of their social skills.

Therefore, I completely agree with those who believe that people should spend their time or money on doing other advantageous hobbies that can improve both their personal development and social skills.