Video Games aren’t Just games
Has anyone ever questioned the benefits of the video games? Video games have come to be one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world. Sadly enough they have made a bad impression on millions of people’s minds, and that what makes the word video games so distorted. The truth is thou, video games have many benefits that can help develop and evolve the skills of the human mind, such as improved multitasking, developing motor skills, increasing well being among the elderly.
The 21stcentury is the time when each and every one of us has to deal with so many events in their lives that multitasking becomes not a benefit, but a necessity and with the development of video games, improving multitasking skills can be done while enjoying your favorite games. According to Daphne Bavelier, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, gamers are improving their brain abilities such as accuracy, attention, and vision. For example, when people play games like Need For Speed and Halo they subconsciously train their reaction, therefore they will be prepared for any changes that might happen in the environment. According to Michael Stroud, the professor of psychology at Merrimack College, “When you drive your car, you are faced with a constantly changing environment in the road, not to mention several other distractions that compete for attention that reside in the car. At the same time, you are attempting to navigate through the environment to reach a goal.”That is a really great example of paying attention and being capable of avoiding any distraction.
Is there any better way to improve your motor skills than just playing the game? In case you are thinking of an exciting and effective way to improve movement skills there games such as Wii, PlayStation Move and Kinect, these are the technologies that have been developed by one of the most influential companies in the industry. Since these recent technologies have made it into millions of living rooms, the idea of playing video games has changed a little bit to be more interactive than what it used to be in the past. A study done by health researchers at Australia’s Deakin University, found that children who play interactive video games such as Wii, and Kinect have better motor skills than non-players and that is definitely a huge advantage for the children who play those interactive games. Among the advantages of video games one should definitely point out that these games help kids to develop and train the coordination between their eyes and hands. Dr. Lisa Barnett: “Bowling and Ping-Pong are the types of games that require constant movement and precise vision, therefore playing games that require you to use these two senses would help the hand-eye coordination.”
Nothing would be better than making your grandmother happy. Believe it or not, but old people become happier when they play video games. A study from North Carolina State University questioned 140 people, aged 63 and over, about how often they play video games, and the results were quite surprising. Sixty one per cent informed about playing occasionally, and thirty five per cent play once a week. Another interesting fact is that both types of players questioned in this study, reported higher levels of well-being, life having more enjoyment than the non-player. Non-players show higher levels of irritation and overall mood, which eventually results in shorter life span. Generally, the study showed a very positive result on the elderly; by making them even a little bit happier than before.
In conclusion, video games shouldn’t be treated as a simple entertainment, because these studies clearly showed some substantial and somewhat unexpected results to those people who consider video games to be negative. They don’t always lead to violence, and even thou many have sexual scenes, it does not cause any effect on the behavior. In fact, there are hundreds of thousands of video games that don’t have any kind of harmful features. Personally for me the worst thing is for people to blame the video game industry, which is quite young, instead of giving little negative credit to television and mass media, which have been in this business longer. These, obviously, shows that people don’t really realize where the root of evil lies.
Video games are not as bad as they are considered to be, everything depends on what you choose to play and on the amount of time you spend playing video games, because even thou they are fun, we should always remember that there is a real world out there with real people and so many interactive entertainment.
