Why Video Games are BENEFICIAL to people of ALL ages
Has anyone ever told you videogames are bad for you? They may not be wrong,but video games can save your life. Many parents and adults will strongly disagree with the fact that videogames are “good” for you. Most kids,teens,and young adults enjoy playing video games in their free time. Not enough people know the positives of gaming.While playing video games should be kept under control,they can help us in many different ways such as making us smarter,increase our memory formation,and help slow the aging process.
Some video games like Super Mario can bolster our brain power. German researchers asked 23 adults to play Super Mario for 30 minutes a day for 2 months.A separate group didn’t play video games at all. “Examining the brain of the 2 groups using MRI machines showed that the gaming group had a rise in the area of the brain responsible for navigation,memory formation,and strategy,while the other group remained stagnant.” Games like Super Mario are like steroids for the brain in the sense that they improve our mental skills.These skills will also come in handy in the real world because people use memory for passwords and if they get lost without their phone. “Action video games are fast-paced,and there are peripheral images and events popping up,and disappearing.These videogames are teaching people to become better at taking in sensory data,and translating it into correct decisions’’ (Green). This evidence tells us that video games improve our decision making skills.This is vital because if we get a curveball thrown our way we’ll have the skills to make the right decision and make the right choice.As videogames make you brighter,they also don’t make children violent.
Violent video games don’t lead to violent crimes. “Large analyses of violent crime and video games find no evidence that increased sales in violent videogames lead to spike in violent crime”
(Psychology Today). Since the myth of violent videogames isn’t true,parents shouldn’t have panic attacks of their child becoming a perpetrator. This also shows us that adults should let their kid play these games for sometime. “Much of the research on violence and videogames is affected by publication bias;especially studies that concluded that videogames lead to aggression.
Large reviews conclude this without much research” (Psychology Today). People should take these articles with a pinch of salt because they aren’t 100% true. Parents should be aware if these articles and let their children play because of the benefits.We can now conclude that violent videogames don’t make you violent,but videogames can also have other vital benefits.
Videogames help slow the aging process. Playing brain teasing games for 2 hours a week may help slow the degree in mental decay. “A study of 681 healthy individuals over 50 years old revealed that playing 10 hours a week of specially designed videogames was able to stall natural decay” (Wollinski). This study shows that older people can slow aging processes by playing brain-teasing games which help the older people stay in their senses. This also infers that videogames can be played by even our grandparents and elders! “Whether it’s a specially manufactured game such as Call of Duty,videogames are cognitively complex and require mental energy and abilities to play them to help keep our mind active” (Guarini). This evidence displays that video games can keep our mind active,and in fact enhance our mental capacity.We need our minds to be kept thinking,so if a challenge appears,we’ll have the capability to rationalize through everything and make a sensible resolution.
It is true that videogames shouldn’t be played for long, constant periods of time,but by all of these reasons and evidence,this is proof that videogames have the ability to bolster our minds in positive and beneficial courses of action.