Pretty much since the dawn of video games, there’s been a sort of negative connotation with every 13-year-old boy’s favorite pastime. “It’ll melt your brains!” Our parents scolded as we counted off the tenth hour of Super Smash Bros, their frowns reflected in the flashing TV screen.
I’m not saying video games are perfect; then again, nothing really is all good for you. Overdosing on certain vitamins can lead to organ damage. Eating too many carrots turns your skin orange. Taking ten shots of tequila will, strangely enough, make you throw up your soul.
Basically, too much of anything can be bad
…but that doesn’t mean you should avoid it completely. Well. Maybe the tequila. For a while.
With the huge controversy of the apparent “negative effects” of video games, much research has been done on the topic. They found their assumptions were, remarkably, very wrong–here are the benefits of playing some of your favorite video games.
Improved Eyesight
This is probably the most surprising of the found benefits of video games On one hand, staring at a screen for hours on end will cause damage to your eyes–sorry Tumblr. Still, action games can increase your sensitivity to both movement and contrast.
Reduced Stress
It’s pretty common knowledge that video games, like most pastimes, reduce stress, but the extent to which this is true is actually astounding. They allow us to forget our troubles for a bit, but they’ve also been shown to ward off physical pain. Hospital patients were given video games to ease their ailments–and it worked. Pretty amazing stuff.
Improved Motor Reflexes
Okay, so maybe most people still play the Wii sitting down, but video games do improve fitness quite a bit. They’re even being used to train surgeons who don’t have the space to practice. So like, when applying to medical school, don’t forget to include your gaming skills on the application.
Honed Creativity and Problem-Solving
Many games force players into some sticky moral dilemmas and, while it’s fun to play the bad guy, they teach us to weigh the pros and cons of every decision. Not only that, but many RPGs implore us to come up with creative means to an end. So even Grand Theft Auto might be teaching you a thing or two about being a better person.
Widened Knowledge
Sure, not everything you learn in a video game is true, but neither is every piece of information on the internet; yet, we constantly turn to one for knowledge and not the other. Some video games are based off real events, kind of like historical fiction novels. So you get a touch of history class without any of the suffering.
Increased Sociability
This is probably the biggest, yet most previously debated, benefit of video games. A ton of games are played online, connecting you to people across the globe, whom you would’ve never met before had you lacked the electronic means. Not only that, but video games are played with other people–they bring us together.
There’s an entire culture dedicated to the love of video games. The amount of times I’ve had hour long conversations about gaming is insane. People are passionate about video games, and with good reason. They are truly beneficial to society, and we should give them more credit for what they offer us.