Table of Contents
Introduction
In today’s world, almost every person is very busy with their respective work schedule. Therefore, people hardly get time for entertainment. Video game plays a vital role for people to boost their mental health. Along with this, it’s also very useful for getting a job, as they will be more creative as well as skilful. For example, if a person wants to be a chef, he or she can use video game as a part of training. In present days, many genres of video games are available in the market. Also, there are many training institutes which train people for the virtual world. Some of the researchers have argued and claimed that playing video games can make a person’s brain smarter. According to Dr Bavelier, (2012) people who love to play the action games, such as shooting games, wrestling games, racing games, tend to be sharper as well as faster. It is the reason why the people play action games can focus on a particular job very well as it acts as a kind of training. People also tend to do different kinds of job at the same time. Video games definitely programme people in so many ways. For example, they can help people with dyslexia. Many studies show that if the people who are suffering from dyslexia tend to play video games, it can improve their vision. On the other hand, some of the studies have also surprisingly claimed that video games are also producing better surgeons (Prot, McDonald, Anderson, and Gentile, 2012). The specialists who have played video games more than three hours per week have made almost 50% less errors during their practice procedure compared to the surgeons who have not played at all. The following discussion part will revolve around the benefits and drawbacks of playing video games regarding mental health and education.
Discussion
Video games have both negative as well as positive impact on human brain, although there are more positive sides than negative sides of playing video games. The negative sides can be reduced if necessary roles are played. For example, it should be the duty of the parents to look what type of games their children are playing. Parents can make a routine for their children which will contain certain time of playing video games. Parents can also involve themselves with children while playing video games. As children will be more interested and enthusiastic about playing video games with their parents which will further result in providing guidance to them by their parents. Furthermore, parents can also take their children to the parks and make then involved in some of the physical activities. As a result, children will feel more connected with their parents. Hence, they will be less inclined playing the video games all day long. Schools can also be a vital source of teaching about the positive and negative sides of playing the video games. Teachers can teach the children about the ways of building a better social life. Additionally, the government and media also play a very important role. For example, they can advertise by different ways about the demerits of playing video games. This will result into less violence and crime. People can never blame video games solely for the crimes and the violence which is taking place. As there are millions of people across the globe playing the video games but still they are not involved with any of the crimes. Video games are the source of joy and entertainment for everyone.
We can do it today.
It has been always heard from the parents to switch off the video game, when their child is playing. Parents or the adults always consider playing video games as the wastage of time and creativity. But video games are no longer limited to the old and traditional game where a ball used to bounce from left to right of a computer screen. Nowadays video games have come up with amazing graphics, and several of genres. Whether an individual is regular gamer or occasional gamer playing video games can keep a person entertained for a very long time. According to the game researcher Jane McGonigal, at present more than half a billion of people plays video games worldwide
Good mental health balance is an absolute necessity for a human being throughout their life. Satisfactory mental health balance can be achieved when a person is happy from inside and accepts their life in their own way. Studies have showed that gaming can have positive effect on the mental health of a person if it is played in a right manner. According to the Seligman’s positive psychology model, an individual’s good mental health depends on the five elements. Such as positive emotion, engagement, meaning and purpose, relationships and accomplishment it is generally known as (PERMA). Playing video games can help in building the positive emotions of a person. A study was conducted on the effects of playing video games on the mental health of individuals. And the following data is exposed as a result. It is observed that the gamers who have played for an average of 6 hours per week exhibited better mental health than the non gamers. Males were found playing video games as the medium for regulating the emotions, forgetting the problems, relaxation, and feeling less lonely. Despite of the positive effects, some extent of negative impacts have been encountered. For example, the people who had played video games for a longer period of time possessed aggressive behaviours. While on the other hand it has been witnessed that the people who involved themselves in the gaming for seven to ten hours per week had more social skills, better relaxation and also had better way of coping up with some of the situations.
Playing video games is not only the mechanism for building relationships but also it is the gateway towards killing the loneliness. Based on the data collected from more than 3000 players aged under 18 years revealed that playing video games is better than having friendships in person to person. Experts also stated that individuals played video games to fill the missing gaps from the reality. It has been also revealed that players who connected with the online multiplayer gaming community had better level of understanding with other peoples. Video games have been a great influence on cognitive as well as in perceptual processes. In recent times many health institutes have been adding video games as the stress reduction and mood improvement therapy. These institutes also claim that video games can be the part of healthy lifestyle, but it needs to be played moderately. Video games are also the source of fighting the anxiety and depression. For example, playing angry birds can boost up one’s mood which will in return make them feel relaxed. Many teenagers have confessed that playing games also motivated them when they actually felt very much low in life. Developers have been making video games to treat the mental and health problems. For example, a game developing company is coming up with a role playing game which is aimed at promoting positive affirmations through the interactions that the players will have during the game (Primack, Carroll, McNamara, Klem, King, Rich, Chan, and Nayak, 2012). They are also claiming that the gamers will also see a drop in the negative thoughts after playing the video game (Greitemeyer, Traut-Mattausch, and Osswald, 2012).
Research dated back in the year 1980 has showed that playing video games irrespective of genres at a moderate amount can improve the self esteem of a gamer. Video games can absorb the attention of children. It has the capacity to engage children to learn something. By observing the children’s parents get an idea that they love this way of learning. Some of the evidence suggests that children who have started their school life with relatively poor skills have gathered many essential skills after playing the video games (Greitemeyer, and Osswald, 2011). From more than 20 years researchers have been using the videogames as the medium of researching upon the individuals. There are several reasons why playing video games can be good for education. Video games can be used as setting the goals of children with providing feedback and maintaining the records of their behavioural change. It can be used to examine the characteristics of the individuals such as the self esteem, self concept, and individual differences (Fischer, Greitemeyer, Kastenmüller, Vogrincic, and Sauer, 2011). Video games can be used to increase the language skills of a person. Playing video games can facilitate in discussing and sharing, and also having a discussion on a topic which contains visual aids with the others. Basic maths skills are also enhanced as the children learn to collaborate with the score counters on videogames. Then it is the reading skills of the children which is boosted up by the character dialogue on the screen such as play, quit, stop, go, load, move ahead, etcetera. Furthermore, video games provide a platform where children can interact with each other while playing with each other. It can be observed that in a school, there are always a lot of children who share the same passion of playing the video games. Nowadays, video games are been developed for imparting skills for the special need children (Valadez, and Ferguson, 2012). These types of children can be treated for their impulsive and attention difficulties. It has been noticed that after playing video games the conditions of these children have improved a lot (Saleem, Anderson, and Gentile, 2012).
Conclusion
The study has critically evaluated the benefits of playing video games. Video games share many similarities with the traditional games. Additionally, they also provide the same benefits. Video games are also very socially interactive. It has been also observed that players are also increasingly gaming online with friends, family and strangers (Greitemeyer, and Mügge, 2014). Nowadays People’s are investing a large amount of time playing video games because they are encountering positive changes in them. After studying the benefits of playing video games in different sectors it can be concluded that they have lot of potential for promoting the well being, including the prevention and also the treatment of mental health problems which rising in the youth. Furthermore, there are few video games which are been developed for aiding the minds of the people. As it is observed that children are very much addictive towards playing video games, therefore, a team of psychologists, game designers should work towards in developing innovative approaches for improving the mental health of the individuals (Granic, Lobel, and Engels, 2014).
- Fischer, P., Greitemeyer, T., Kastenmüller, A., Vogrincic, C. and Sauer, A., 2011. The effects of risk-glorifying media exposure on risk-positive cognitions, emotions, and behaviors: a meta-analytic review. Psychological bulletin, 137(3), p.367.
- Granic, I., Lobel, A. and Engels, R.C., 2014. The benefits of playing video games. American Psychologist, 69(1), p.66.
- Greitemeyer, T. and Mügge, D.O., 2014. Video games do affect social outcomes a meta-analytic review of the effects of violent and prosocial video game play. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, p.0146167213520459.
- Greitemeyer, T. and Osswald, S., 2011. Playing prosocial video games increases the accessibility of prosocial thoughts. The Journal of social psychology, 151(2), pp.121-128.
- Greitemeyer, T., Traut-Mattausch, E. and Osswald, S., 2012. How to ameliorate negative effects of violent video games on cooperation: Play it cooperatively in a team. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(4), pp.1465-1470.
- Primack, B.A., Carroll, M.V., McNamara, M., Klem, M.L., King, B., Rich, M., Chan, C.W. and Nayak, S., 2012. Role of video games in improving health-related outcomes: a systematic review. American journal of preventive medicine, 42(6), pp.630-638.
- Prot, S., McDonald, K.A., Anderson, C.A. and Gentile, D.A., 2012. Video Games:: Good, Bad, or Other?. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 59(3), pp.647-658.
- Saleem, M., Anderson, C.A. and Gentile, D.A., 2012. Effects of prosocial, neutral, and violent video games on college students’ affect. Aggressive Behavior, 38(4), pp.263-271.
- Valadez, J.J. and Ferguson, C.J., 2012. Just a game after all: Violent video game exposure and time spent playing effects on hostile feelings, depression, and visuospatial cognition. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(2), pp.608-616.