Video games can be beneficial
Video games can be beneficial
American Psychologists have gone ‘on the record‘ by suggesting that playing video games can indeed be beneficial. It seems video games are not all bad.
Recently, violent video games have been blamed for leading to more aggressive thoughts and behaviors in players, but they may also help young people improve attention and spatial orientation skills and develop a sense of teamwork.
Psychologist Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University has conducted 15 years of research into video games and what video game users actually learn during play.
He said that games are not ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but are powerful educational tools and have many effects we might not have expected they could.
Gentile said that Laparoscopic surgeons who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures, and made 37 percent fewer errors, compared to their non-gaming colleagues. However it was not all good. Students who played violent games were more hostile, less forgiving, and more apt to view violence as normal, than peers who played non-violent games.
Students who played “prosocial” games got into fewer fights at school and were more helpful to other students
Interesting research and one which is likely to rattle many peoples thoughts on the matter…
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