The Science Behind Why Video Games Are Surprisingly Good For You
You may think that video games primarily exist in this world to distract us from doing meaningful and necessary tasks. Ask anyone that doesn’t play games and they may only provide a list the negative aspects of them, but can you blame them when a lot of negative press has come under the guise of video games being responsible for delinquency and anti-social behaviour.
Let me change your perspective. By the end of this post I hope to not convince you, but mayyybe open the suggestive part of the brain (your prefrontal cortex) and show you that there are actual benefits, and that being evidence based, for playing games. Of course there are also negatives to playing video games but for simplicity sake I will only be focusing on the good stuff - although I urge you to be scientific and look at both sides of the coin.
Lets begin with some of the key attributes that gaming can help in:
Improving cognitive abilities
Reducing stress and anxiety
Enhancing social skills
Providing a creative outlet
Improving physical coordination
Improving cognitive abilities - Video games have been shown to improve various cognitive skills, such as attention, memory, and decision-making. According to a study conducted in the US, they found that people who played video games in the action category had a stronger link to establishing spatial skills (still working on making footer for the site but I’ll list a couple of sites that indicate this below). Kind of like those psychometric tests we have to pass when applying for jobs, spatial skills are essentially the ability to interpret different perspectives and other visualisations of objects.
Reducing stress and anxiety - Some studies have found that playing video games can be an effective way to reduce stress and anxiety, as it can distract people from their worries and provide a sense of accomplishment. Several researchers have also found that those who enjoy video games have a way of dealing with “acute stress or feelings of sadness“ and that video games increase “psychological recovery… and reduces feelings of depression and stress“ (link 2) - unless you play games like The Beginners Guide, Firewatch and Telltale’s The Walking Dead - some people will never understand…
Enhancing social skills - Multiplayer video games allow people to interact with others, improving their communication and teamwork skills. Probably not the best idea to jump on a COD lobby as you may be venturing on the slightly toxic side of games but there are a load of multiplayer team games that really improve your communication and social bonding techniques like CSGO and Overwatch.
Providing a creative outlet - Many video games allow players to be creative, whether through designing their own virtual world or by creating content such as music or artwork. among a sample of almost “500 12-year-old students, video game playing was positively associated with creativity (Jackson et al., 2012). Critically, children’s use of other forms of technology (e.g., computer, Internet, cell phone) did not relate to enhanced creativity. However, this study’s cross-sectional design made it unclear whether playing video games develops creative skills or creative people prefer video games (or both)” (link 1).
Improving physical coordination - Certain video games, such as dance games, can improve players' physical coordination. People in the scientific field who like overcomplicating names call this visuospatial cognition. “Those who play action video games exhibit greater visual ability (i.e., the ability to see smaller fonts on a computer screen), greater contrast sensitivity, greater spatial cognition (i.e., the ability to acquire information about one’s environment), better attentional control, and greater mental rotation abilities (Bejjanki et al. 2014; Green and Bavelier 2012; Li et al. 2009)” (link 2). Essentially all your player stats increase by playing games - should play games more often.
I would definitely vouch video games for positively shaping my childhood. It was at first seen as an escape from the tedious homework and the mundane features of youth. But looking back I would definitely say it provides an edge to people that do play them. And now I can prove it with a little bit of science.
Links:
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-a0034857.pdf
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1304728.pdf
