Video Games in Today's Society


Nathaniel Samuels
IHSS
David Roddy
September 26 2018

In today’s culture, society often looks down on video games, ether being unproductive, or a waste of time. But with many video games, this just isn't the case.  Recent studies show that although in a large quantity video games can negatively affect development, in moderation, playing games helps develop and entertain people from kids to adults.  Firstly, there are different types of games. Often times when someone says gaming as an insult they are referring to games like first or third person shooters, like Grand Theft Auto or Fortnite. Although these games are not as academically challenging as others while still not physically challenging as simply playing outside, there are still benefits to be gained such as faster decision-making. People who play any multiplayer time sensitive battle have to either accept failure or learn to make split-second decisions that could affect whether or not they win. Another benefit of these types of games is three dimensional spatial awareness.   According to BBC, people who played first person shooter type games ended up being better doctors as they can more easily visualize what they are doing. First person shooters however, are not the only types of video games. In more strategy based games, like Civilization, players learn to think long-term in their strategy including things like resource management. Even in Mario games, people saw improvement in areas like the hippocampus and abilities to memorize things like the map; these people also had better eyesight and are on average able to see two additional lines in their eye exams. Another argument against video games is that they are played by antisocial shutouts who sit in a dark room with a giant bottle of soda by themselves.  This simply isn't the case as the internet has become so widespread the Advent of multiplayer gaming slowly took over the world. In the majority of today's games you will find now have an aspect of multiplayer in which you play either with or against your friends to achieve a common goal. As video games move closer to what is social norm it is important that we look at them under a cultural lens to see what it says about the people playing them as opposed to simply looking over games as a waste of time.

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