Written by Ty 2022 Cohort
As a kid who spent hours playing video games every day, which was not the most appealing thing to his parents, I was always told that video games were harmful to me (physically.) I used to believe that, but it was never enough for me to stop. Until I had access to the internet. I googled this particular topic just to get shocked that playing certain video games can have health benefits for players. I’d like to talk about the ones that shocked me the most. I want to point out that these benefits come with reasonable and regulated doses of gaming. Excessive gaming certainly has adverse physical and psychological effects.
Dexterity
Playing video games with a controller or a keyboard can improve players’ ability to use their hands. Think about all the actions and quick responses that a player must make to make progress. One study involving a group of surgeons showed that those who played video games were faster at performing advanced procedures and made 37% fewer mistakes than those who didn’t.
Vision
Certain video games, like action games (a genre of video games) that requires a lot of concentration help improve the eyesight of those that play them. The eyes subconsciously get trained to detect small details that allow players to perform better, hence, enhancing their vision. Horror games that take place in dark places (I can’t think of a horror game that doesn’t) help train the brain to resolve different levels of the colour gray, which can help in everyday life, like driving the car on a rainy/foggy day.
Attention
One of the things we’re told as gamers is that we’re out of focus all the time because of video games; however, it’s quite the contrary. Action video games often require players to lock on targets, keep track of multiple objects simultaneously, and what was where. All these “sessions of training” improve the player’s ability to pay attention to their surroundings better and helps them perform daily life activities better when they’re not playing video games, of course, like, again, when they’re driving a car.
Mental Health
Playing video games, in general, as a hobby has been proven to boost mood and relieve stress. Some video games are even used in therapy for their mental health benefits.
There’s a lot more to this list than that, but these are the ones that are usually never expected. A balance of what we do in life can bring out the best in what we do, even if it’s playing video games.