Review Finds Gaming Benefits on Health, Social and Learning

A review in American Psychologist unearthed the benefits of playing video games. Even playing some violent games can boost the health, social, and learning experience of a child.

Subsequently, this finding sparked a debate between psychologists and health experts on the impact of violent media on young people. Therefore, an APA research team carries out an analysis of the violence found in video games, soon releasing the results through interactive media.

Undeniably, gaming has significant adverse effects on young people, such as addiction, aggression, and depression; there’s a need to explore the benefits of video games on kids and teens from a balanced perspective.

Read on.

Benefits of Gaming

• Among other games, video games seem lazy because one sits all day and perhaps even night in the house playing. Even though the body is not physically involved, gaming strengthens mental abilities like memory, perception, reasoning, and spatial navigation.
• According to a 2013 meta-analysis, playing shooter games enabled a player to think of objects in 3D. This thinking, according to this review, is similar to academic courses which enhance the same skills.
• An expert in the review stated that such games have crucial effects on career development involving achievement in technology, mathematics, science, and engineering. This finding was not a result of role-playing or puzzle games but specifically from violent shooter games.
• Moreover, playing video games helped children in solving problems. A 2013 published study stated that children who played more role-playing games improved their grades because of better problem-solving skills.
• Also, easy access and play video games enhance the player’s mood, providing relaxation and happiness. The authors also featured the possibility that video games are practical tools for learning resilience in the face of failure.
• It is also crucial to note that video games comprise failures. Therefore, when young people learn how to deal with the fun losses, they build resilience that is likely to help them take on what life throws towards them.
• One more stereotype the research defies is the socially secluded gamer. This way, the study noted that over 70% of gamers play in the company of a friend and millions of other people globally, hence participating in huge virtual worlds via video games like World of Warcraft or Farmville.
• In such multiplayer games, gamers need to make instant decisions quickly on whom to trust or cast off and how to be a leader of a group. This way, they form a virtual social community for interacting on the gaming needs and queries.
• Furthermore, a 2011 study found that video gamers who play violent games are likely to cooperate and help others in gaming. This is contrary to those who play to win as they lack attention to anything else apart from playing.

Is playing video games bad after all? Even with the known negative impact that parents agree to limit their children, a positive result is also worth noting, especially if it has research to back up.