Video games have garnered quite a negative reputation over the past few decades. If you ever played video games as a child, you most likely heard your parents criticizing them for their negative effect on your brain development.
This has led many people to feel quite negatively about the impact of playing video games on your cognitive abilities. But are these negative claims actually true? Or are they nothing more than a hoax that parents spread to keep their children from playing games for too long?
Well, since video games have now been around for almost 5 decades, we have a good sample size of players to inspect. Many studies have recently come out showing the benefits that playing video games has on your cognitive powers.
This article will take you through some of the main benefits that you may experience from spending an hour or two playing video games each day. By the end, you may feel like all your years of playing video games actually made you far smarter than you were before!
Let’s get into it.
Stress and Relaxation
This benefit may seem somewhat obvious, especially to people who are long-term video game players. Many people like to turn on the console and spend a few hours playing their favorite video games to simply destress and relax.
Well, research has recently been uncovered showing that playing video games is scientifically proven to reduce stress. This is because when you play a video game, you enter into a completely new and unseen world.
This allows you to switch off from the world you actually live in, and step into the shoes of a completely different character. This is especially true when playing role-playing pokies games, as it allows you to be someone completely different.
Being able to switch off from the real world, and step into a new one, lets you temporarily forget some of your real-world stressors. This has been scientifically proven to increase relaxation.
Memory and Reaction Time
Many video game veterans used to use the old claim that video games greatly improved your reaction time, which made it worth playing. Well, funnily enough, these claims have actually been proven as true.
Playing video games or that require quick thinking and quick button pressing has been shown to greatly improve players’ reaction times. This becomes even more true when these gamers play these types of games on a regular basis. Consistency is key to improving this skill.
Playing 3D-rendered video games has also been shown to improve a section of memory that most people never really think about. Playing these types of games may force players to remember maps and areas, which has the potential to improve spatial memory and awareness.
Closing Thoughts
So, video games aren’t actually all bad, right? In fact, this article has shown that playing video games can actually be extremely beneficial to both your mind and your body.
Like with anything, video games should be played in moderation so as to not burn out completely.