Video Games ARE Good For You: Part II

Last week, we began this three part series by examining a study that showed the medical benefits of playing video games for those struggling with depression and other health issues. This week, we are going to look at how playing video games help children learn and develop social skills.

LEARNING

Let’s move on to the area of learning. In an article entitled “Why Video Games Make You Smart”, “According to some scientists and academics, video games can actually make you smarter. The strategic thinking and problem solving involved in video games makes them good learning machines.” The article goes on to explain a little bit about how video games work, how the brain learns, and how video games make learning fun. The study goes on to say: “Gamers must deal with immediate problems while keeping their long-term goals on their horizon. "'Probing' refers to the strategic thinking and complex problem solving of video games, according to James Paul Gee, professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Gee says that playing a video game is similar to working through a science problem. Like students in a laboratory, gamers must come up with a hypothesis. For example, the hidden treasure is in the castle. They engage in an action by hunting for the treasure. Gamers discover if their hypothesis is true or false when they search the castle. If they don't find the treasure, they revise their hypothesis the next time they play."

Well DUH!! Who wants boring? If I had a choice to learn logic and puzzle solving through textbooks vs. video games, I choose video games any day. And moms, think about it. Wouldn’t it be easier to get your kids to do their homework if it was a video game? Rather than fighting to get them off the games, you could actually be proud of what little Susie is learning with a game pad and joystick in her hot little hands. You may read the full article I reference in this section by clicking here. Let’s move on to social development.

SOCIAL SKILLS

How many times have you heard anyone say, or read somewhere, that playing video games can harm social development and social interactions? That sitting in front of a television or computer playing a game is harmful because it leads to a more solitary life and will stunt social growth? WRONG ANSWER!

"By providing places for social interaction and relationships beyond the workplace and home, MMOs have the capacity to function much like the hangouts of old," they said. And they take it one step further by suggesting that the lack of real-world hangouts "is what is driving the MMO phenomenon" in the first place.” In addition, MMO games can provide a deep, rich, entertaining, and valuable social structure for those who embrace them. “The researchers, Constance Steinkuehler and Dmitri Williams, claim that MMO’s function not like solitary dungeon cells, but more like coffee shops or pubs where something called ‘social bridging’ takes place.”Furthermore, MMO’s “reward players for cooperation and the formation of long-term player groups or “guilds”, (and) is part of the game. Game play in MMO’s is not a single solitary interaction between an individual and a technology.”

In fact, from personal experience, I can tell you that I have have met folks of all ages from across the globe. Video games can also help make the generation gap disappear, and bring people together who otherwise would never meet. There is also something to be said in learning to work together in teams to accomplish a goal impossible to achieve in solo play.

So mom, listen up – while sweet little Johnny is sitting in front of the television beating up bad guys, he may very well be doing it with online friends, meeting new people from different cultures, and reinforcing what he was taught in kindergarten. That is, how to share and play nice. Again, you can read the full article I reference in this section by clicking here.

I will wrap up this three part series next week when we look at how video games can help with visual development, and then finally examine a real life, ADULT application as a result of playing video games.