To start, there’s evidence that video games improve our memory and our visual navigational skills. A 2015 study from the University of California compared people who played video games to people who did not. They found that people who played 3D games performed better at memory tasks than people who played 2D games like Angry Birds and people who didn’t play video games at all. They also took a group of non-gamers and split them up into three groups, making the first group play a 3D game, the second play a 2D game and the third play no games at all. They found that in those who practiced the 3D game for half an hour a day, they had improved performance on certain memory tasks.
Contrary to popular belief that video games make you bad at school, researchers from the UK found that certain video games can actually enhance our brain flexibility. The study was done at both the University College London and the Queen Mary University of London and had 72 volunteers play two different games for 40 hours over six to eight weeks. The games were Starcraft, a fast real-time strategy game, and The Sims, a slower life-simulation game. They said: “This result supports the notion that the within-StarCraft gaming manipulation led participants to manage more information sources during game play, thus leading to enhancements in cognitive flexibility.” In other words, the people who played Starcraft boasted better cognitive flexibility since the game requires constant thinking and player input.
Thirdly, evidence from the University of Rochester shows that people who play video games tend to be better at allocating their attention. Dr Daphne Beverly ran an MRI study and she found that the three areas of the brain associated with attention (the parietal lobe, the frontal lobe and the interior cingulate cortex) all had more efficient performance in people who played video games than people who didn’t. They also did some neural simulations and they found that in people who played video games, their brains were better at collecting visual and auditory information more effectively and efficiently than people who didn’t. Most people who play video games will see why this is as video games require a high level of cognitive performance.
Finally, there is also some evidence that video games can help conditions like anxiety and depression. For example, a study from New Zealand used a specially designed game called SPARX to help teenagers who are dealing with depression and they found that the teenagers who had the video game were significantly more likely to have their depression cured (43.7%) than the people who just had therapy as usual (26.7%).
In conclusion, the benefits of video games are that they improve our memory, help you at school, increase focus and attention and are more effective than therapy at dealing with depression. So yes, video games are actually good for you on many levels. Of course, I must add, like anything, to maintain such benefits, games should be consumed in moderation. Staying up all night, every single night playing video games may not the best thing for your health.
