Real Benefits Of Playing Video Games
For many years, people have always thought that gaming is a terrible addiction and that there are no benefits in spending so much time on them. But recent studies have been showing that spending at least an hour a day playing a certain game can be of great benefit for you. The first ever video game made was around October 1958. It was a game called “pong” and it was played on a console named Atari. Ever since the first game, the world has changed and playing video games has risen to whole different level. Playing video games regularly should be a habit as there are multiple tremendous benefits for both children and young adults.
One of the greatest benefits of playing video games is that it helps you become smarter. A 2014 study published in molecular psychiatry by researchers in the Max Plank Institute in Germany found out that playing a certain game called Mario cart 64, can increase in the brain size of certain parts of your brain. The researchers had around 30 people play this game for 30 minutes a day for around a month. They did MRI scans to the people before and after playing and the scans showed that there was increased grey matter in certain parts of the brain. One of the researchers of this experiment said this. “this proves that specific brain regions can be trained by means of video games” (Simone Kuh). this is just one of the many advantages of playing video games and we finally have an excuse to play video games over the weekend.
Another idea that is fondly spoken about is how games can be a good method for pain relief. A 2012 literature review published in the American Journal of preventive medicine made a scientific experiment with around 40 studies examined, they found out that around 140 patients had improvement in their phycological and physical therapy. Furthermore, in 2010, scientists presented research at the American pain society’s conference, they found evidence that playing virtual games can decrease your anxiety and pain caused my chronic illness. “the focus is brought to the game not the pain or the medical procedure. While the virtual reality experience engages visual and other senses” (Gold). In this quote you see that when someone is going through pain, playing video games can help them get their mind off the illness and just relax and put everything on hold.
One of the least known benefits that is ever talked about is how social you can be while playing a video game. The online gaming multiplayer has grown so much in the past decade in a way that people can meet other human beings online from playing a game like fortnite for example. The game makes you work together as a team to do certain objectives and they require people to talk together using headsets and this is making the people who play more social. People usually think the opposite about people who play video games, that they are isolated and that they barely know how to interact with other human beings. This is not accurate whatsoever. You can say that gaming has gotten people closer together and made them interact with one another.
Did you know that playing video games can help you not eat smoke or drink that much? Many studies are being made that people who have terrible bad habits and want to stop them usually grab the controller so they can take their mind off it. For example, if you always eat and want to stop eating all the time or want to get your mind off it, playing a video game for an hour or two can be a great way to get you off this unhealthy habit and pre occupy your hands with the controller so you wont think about it that much.
Playing video games can also enhance your ability to learn. Video games usually challenge the people who are playing them by throwing at them puzzles and making the players think how to solve them. Usually this means that players are enhancing their critical thinking and are thinking outside the box to find out how to solve the problem. This happens in our day to day lives when we are solving certain math problems for example, we must think deeply about how to approach this problem and how to solve it. Moreover, video games also put gamers in certain situations where they must do multiple objectives all in a short span of time, similarly students for example get multiple assignments and quizzes all due in the same time. This makes gamers used to the stress and know how to solve certain situations one step at a time.
Playing video games today can also build you a career and make you rich. People are dropping out of college and playing video games and streaming it on a platform named Twitch. There are many people who are now millionaires from just playing video games at their homes while sitting on their couch. One of these people is Tyler Blevins, also known as “Ninja”. He is a professional gamer who streams his gameplay onto his audience, and they all donate money to him so they can see his skills being put into effect. This is a great example about how people can make a future for themselves and make decent amount of money from playing their favorite games. They make an amazing amount of money while not being stressed out about the outside world and getting a job as it is their job to play all day to their audience.
On the other hand, people tend to blame real life mass shootings to video game violence. Because of how we shoot and kill in video games, most news papers and articles online relate the violence in gaming to real life shooting because they say it motivates us. This is completely wrong as the people that usually do shootings are people who usually have had some issues growing up with their parents or are people who have had drug related problems. No person in their right mind should relate the violence in a video game to real life situations as nobody who is conscious would want to kill someone in real life just because they saw it happen in a video game.
In conclusion, playing video games should be considered beneficial for us because it helps with almost everything in our daily lives. Just spending a couple of hours each day playing can help our memory, help us cope with stress, and many more. People should not see it as a bad habit as there are many advantages to gaming as demonstrated above and that we should play wisely and know our limits as too much of a certain something, can be bad for you.
