Health Benefits of Playing Video Games

Video games are bad for your health because they're addictive! Video games make you prone to violence and aggression, so don't play them. Video games are a waste of time--focus on your schoolwork instead.

If you count yourself as one of the 2 billion gamers worldwide, most probably you have already heard all of these from your parents or anyone else who didn't have a high opinion of video games.

These misconceptions have already been debunked by countless studies, but they continue to persist today. To prove the naysayers wrong, this article presents significant benefits of playing video games. So, read on.

It Improves Cognitive Abilities

When you play video games, you are not just staring at a screen waiting for something to happen. Instead, you actively make things happen, and this can have a significant impact on your cognitive skills. How so, you ask?

Certain video games (e.g. sports games) require you to press a series of buttons in quick succession. Not only that, you also have to precisely time them according to the events unfolding onscreen. This boosts your hand-eye coordination and your reflexes because it teaches you how to properly react to a given situation.

Meanwhile, other video games have complex puzzles that you need to deal with before you can move on to the next area or level. These puzzles often need critical thinking to figure out, which helps improve your problem-solving and analytic skills--two things that will help you in the real world.

In addition to that, the constant audio-visual stimulation provided by video games helps increase brain speed. Research has shown that the brains of people who play video games work faster than the brains of those who don't.

It Promotes Socialization

Contrary to popular belief, gamers are not antisocial individuals. In most cases, they're the total opposite. In games such as MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), it would be very difficult for a solo player to succeed. Interacting and playing with other players within the game world is the only way to progress.