Why Video Games Are Not a Waste of Time

 

What activities are worth spending time on? Time is the most valuable asset a person can have. To get the most of your time, you must manage it cleverly. Using your time management skill investing in time guarantees an outcome of happiness, wisdom, health and wealth. There’s a lot of ways you can spend your time and tons of activities to do every day, so you must adopt some and leave some. It became a common advice to avoid playing video games because it’s a waste of time. However done in moderation playing video games can have positive effects.

Playing video games is a mental exercise thus it enhances your cognitive abilities. In 2014 a group of researchers from the institute of Max Plank in Germany, published a study in the Molecular Psychiatry, showed that playing video games increases grey matter is the areas responsible for; spatial orientation, memory formation, strategic planning and fine motor skills (the game used in the experiment was Mario64). Another benefit is that video games improves all visual-Motor coordination, buy playing action video games like shooters and racing you become better at sports, driving, drawing, and using hand tools. They also can improve you reaction time without effecting accuracy, which can be critical in a live or death situations, like being assaulted for about to get in a car accident. Moreover first person shooters can improve your mental flexibility and meaning that it makes you better at rapidly switching tasks and adapting to changes. As well as increasing your attention capacity making you a better multitask-er. Solving puzzles and coming up with creative solutions stimulates you brain’s problem-solving skills and reasonable thinking and planning.

Being a fun and interactive medium for information and communication, there’s a lot you can learn playing video games. Combining visual and auditory media in an interactive way, video games are a great way to learn languages. It can do so because it utilizes repetition and pressure so the player can’t overcome an obstacle without understanding what’s being said or written, reading and listening to dialogs and chatting with other players, but most importantly it’s not boring and a fun way to get exposed to that language, that’s so your brain doesn’t stop comprehending cause of boredom, but quite the opposite as it is sharp and alarmed not only for enemies but also for language input too. Furthermore, Most of the games include social interaction whether with real players or NPCs, that can help the player in developing some real word social skills, because in the games players learn how to communicate, who to trust and make friends with and how to lead. Some games can teach you about some subjects like history, economy, cooking etc… and also some valuable life lessons and morals. Adding to that, video games enrich your imagination so that you can benefit from it in your creative hobbies and professions like; creative writing, drawing, filming, music and video games development. Nowadays video game making is easier than ever, with free software and free tutorials and courses you can whenever boot up your computer bring some papers and free you imagination and creativity in a new hobby or profession.

Having a well body is one part of being healthy, maintaining psychological health is the second, playing some video games has some benefits in that matter. A 2016 study concluded that immersive video games (like role playing games) are helpful in achieving emotional stability, since it allows the player to experience different versions of themselves and explore their personality. Also it’s a good unharmful way for teens to ease off stress. When video games allows teens to express their aggression there’s no need to be aggressive in the real world. Moreover it increases your confidence when you rely on yourself to solve problems and overcome obstacles or when you lead you team to win. Additionally playing video games can boost your mood when feeling low so you can continue on with your duties and social interactions with a more positive attitude.

In conclusion, video games can have a lot of benefits, but remember moderation is the key, and being addicted to video games doesn’t only cancel all its benefits but also brings harm. So play when you have some free time or when you want to take some long break, consider limiting your playing time for less than an hour and play a variety of games.