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There is often a lot of focus on the negative side of playing video games. Too much screen time, eye strain, and feeling removed from the real world – these are all reasons people say you should limit the amount of time you spend gaming. But video gaming can be good for you too, and in more ways than one. Here’s why.
Social Skills
A common misconception about video gamers is that they don’t enjoy social situations, and use gaming as a way to avoid interaction. Evidence is increasingly showing this to be false. Video games often require some form of social interaction – whether you play with a friend in person or over the internet.
Playing out different scenarios through game play also helps people practice for real life social situations. This can help all kinds of people build confidence and become more able to engage and interact in general situations they come across in life.
Become a Strategist
Some of the more complex video games that are open ended or multi-level can require an impressive amount of strategizing. Sometimes players will spend several hours thinking outside the box to plan the best solution to a problem in the game. In other moments, players have to come up with a strategy quickly to get good results. This isn’t just reserved for games on consoles; gamers who play cell phone apps or casino online at Novibet also have the opportunity to build up the same skills.
These strategy-related skills are important to build up more generally in life. For younger children it can give them good skills to progress through school. Learning to strategize is also important for adults and can help in both their personal and professional lives.
Fine Motor Skills
There is a lot of information out there for helping babies and young children build their fine motor skills. But this isn’t just something that needs to be done in early life. Building the small muscles of your hands and arms is an important skill to work on even as you get older. Being able to do intricate work and keeping a steady hand is important for all sorts tasks you may need to accomplish.
Using a video game console is a brilliant way to build up dexterity in the hands. Gaming often involves very fast movements to manipulate the players and movements on the screen, and this is a skill that gamers build up over weeks, months and years. Video gaming is increasingly used to help people with hand and arm injuries recover. Bringing together fine motor skills with improving peripheral vision, multitasking and solving gaming puzzles, video gaming supports many aspects of physical and mental development.
Work your Brain
As video games are seen by many to represent fun times relaxing, people can overlook the fact that gaming gives your brain a workout too. Learning new games, reacting to the scenarios you are faced with and fine tuning the mental skills you need to win – these are just some of the ways you use your brain while video gaming.
Research has shown that it is incredibly important to keep exercising your brain throughout your life. Using different parts of your brain helps you retain mental clarity and sharpness. People who exercise their brains in different ways are shown to be less likely to suffer from dementia. Some people even change the language on their video games, to help them learn a new language while doing something they enjoy!
Work your Body
Video gaming is often seen as an inactive pursuit, with gamers often pictured to be sitting on the sofa for hours on end while playing. Some studies even relate video gaming to poor health and obesity. However, with the incredible advancements in video gaming, accompanied by virtual reality and fitness devices, it is actually possible to move your body while gaming.
In particular, many consoles that have sport-related games are great for doing a little movement. Playing tennis, bowling or baseball in a virtual way is a great start for getting a little more activity into your day.
Inspire Confidence
As well as helping people from a social perspective, video games can also help build confidence in other ways. The very nature of gaming is that you have to keep motivated to succeed, particularly when you come across a particularly difficult level. When players keep persisting, finally enjoying success, it shows them the value of being determined. Playing physical games such as sport can help increase self-esteem and confidence, but researchers now agree that the same principle can be applied to video games.
Overall, this process can help develop higher levels of confidence in players of all ages. Again, the idea of playing out different ideas and personas in a virtual world can teach very important lessons that are applicable to real life. Having a good level of confidence can help people push themselves to succeed, both in personal situations and in professional ones.
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