Gaming? What good will that get you?

By: Ygie Belleza

We have often been told that playing video games is a waste of our ever so precious time⁠—that we should be focusing on school and school alone. Perhaps, some of you have found yourselves at the receiving ends of long sermons about the dangers of this pastime. 

 “It’s a black hole that will get you addicted to it,” they say, while others have taken issue with video games being far too violent, gory, or perhaps morally depraved. 

The adverse effects of video gaming have often eclipsed much of its merit. But what if I said that video gaming could also reap numerous positive effects on one’s life?

Shannen Velasco, a Grade 10 Rosehill student and avid gamer, shared that she likely spends about 28 to 32 hours playing video games like Valorant and Call of Duty Mobile (CODM) in a week. Since playing video games, she has noticed that she has become more patient and observant in real life. 

“Personally, I think gaming is a really fun way to de-stress, especially when the week is so cramped up,” Shannen added.

In his article “Cognitive Benefits of Playing Video Games,” American psychology researcher Dr. Peter Gray has also outlined several study findings in support of the positive effects of video gaming in improving one’s mental capacities, such as the following:

Gaming improves your spatial attention. 

Spatial attention is the skill of identifying targets in an area with distractive stimuli. Where might we find this valuable? Well, we often use our spatial attention in many everyday activities such as searching for objects, crossing the street, driving, and playing sports. 

Gaming improves your ability to multitask. 

Researchers have also reported that playing action video games enhanced performance in a test involving the use of several aviation skills such as controlling a joystick, keeping one’s eye on fuel levels, answering radio communications, etc. Their findings demonstrated video gamers’ increased ability to respond to multiple activities or demands synchronously. 

For the typical Rosebud who has a lengthy list of chores and school requirements to get done, the art of multitasking comes in especially handy when balancing one’s responsibilities.

Gaming improves hand-eye coordination.

Similarly, video gamers have also been observed to be more adept at navigating aerial drones than non-gamers, while another study showed that gaming experience enhanced the performance of beginner surgeons. Notably, controlling aerial drones and performing surgery are both tasks that require excellent hand-eye coordination skills.

However, whether we are students, teachers, parents, or other members of staff, we, too, use hand-eye coordination in almost everything we do, such as writing, typing, putting a key in a lock, and more complex tasks like driving.

Gaming reduces impulsiveness.

As most of us already know, impulsiveness can lead to many irrevocable consequences, both short and long-term. Lucky for us, research has shown that we can save ourselves some regret by lessening our impulsiveness through, you guessed it—video gaming. Interestingly, a study determined that gamers had an increased ability to stop themselves from responding to unnecessary stimuli. 

It’s no secret that video games have had a bad rap since their invention for many sensible, scientifically-backed reasons. Once abused, it can lead to addiction or desensitize one to violence—but isn’t that often the case with most things in life? Although it has its cons, video gaming has its own set of benefits too. 

On this note, Marga Ramos, another avid gamer and Grade 10 student, shared one of the things that gaming showed her. 

“Gaming made me realize that failure never meant game over. It reminded me that I could always start over,” Marga said.