Playing video games for fun is not the only reason why you should do it! For the entirety of my childhood and the majority of my adolescent years, I believed that video games lacked any benefits other than providing entertainment for oneself. It was the one interest that my friends and I shared that brought much happiness and excitement to our lives because of how much fun we had. Did you know that 97% of children/adolescents play video games for at least one hour per day? It was not until recently when I had read about and heard of a multitude of positive effects of playing video games.
Figure 1: Gameplay from Halo, a popular first-person shooter video game. Credit: Internet Archive Book Images / Flickr
Playing Video Games Enhances Cognition
After a long day of studying, mental exhaustion is a common feeling and I naturally reach over for my PlayStation controller for a quick game of Call of Duty. While studying may be thought of as a cognitive process relating to thinking, knowing, remembering, and problem-solving, playing video games is also a cognitive process. By playing these games, the cognitive (mental processes that relate to comprehension and obtaining knowledge) benefits cannot go unnoticed. These benefits include decreased reaction times, increased hand-eye coordination and augmented manual dexterity. These skills relate to using vision and movement together to produce actions. Researchers discovered that those who regularly play video games tend to outperform individuals in a myriad of visual aspects, such as attention in space, in time, and to objects compared to those who do not engage themselves in such environments.
Video Games Can Be Used as Educational Tools
Andre Thomas, CEO of Triseum (a video game company producing learning games), designs and researches video games for educational purposes. In this TED Talk, he glosses over the effectiveness of video games as a means of learning. In one example, he explains that after just two hours of playing an art history knowledge game, students saw a 24.7% improvement in knowledge.
In a study conducted by Dr Mark Griffiths, a psychology professor at Nottingham Trent University, it was found that video games allow the educators to measure performance on a wide variety of tasks while standardizing them to get an accurate representation of the students’ knowledge. Because video games are fun and stimulating for participants, they also are able to get students’ attention for longer periods of time, providing an innovative way to learn.
What I did not mention above is a personal benefit that I have experienced when playing video games. During the socially-distant times that we are all experiencing currently, it is a perfect activity to do with friends; working together to beat a mission or outscore the opponent strengthens our friendships and brings a sense of accomplishment to us all. Who would have guessed that playing video games proves to be useful for so much more than just entertainment!
– Gary Hwu
