Video Games Can Make You Smarter?

     It is safe to say that most of us know the basic/ most common negative stigmas people tend to have towards video games and people who play video games. It is very common for parents to actually not allow their children to associate themselves with video games for various reasons; but it is usually due to their preconceived idea that video games can make you "lazy, stupid, anti-social, and unhealthy." I'm sure this comes to no surprise for you, because of course, society has instilled the same idea in our brains. How surprised would you be if someone told you video games can actually make you smarter, more active and in some ways, more social? Science has proven these things to be true through psychology.  You can actually gain a lot of great qualities and skills through playing video games. In other words, Albert Einstein, known for having one of the most gifted minds of all time, would probably play video games if he was here today.

Increase Brain Function 

     Gaming can actually improve your brain function. According to Queen Mary University & University College London scientists, certain video games can help train our brains into becoming more acrobatic and enhance our strategic thinking. It's almost like going to the gym to gain muscle and improve your health, except more fun. When playing video games you are using a lot of different parts of your brain at once, which is a healthy exercise for your brain to practice. Of course, there are other ways to exercise your brain this way, but we cannot ignore the fact that gamers are really working their brains while playing video games. According to Psychologytoday.com new studies have found that while playing video games a process called neurogenesis is occurring in our brains. Basically, our brains are growing new neurons when we play video games. This means our brains are actively growing in size and generally speaking, we are getting smarter. In the study the neurons were shown to be growing in the parts of the brain that control planning, motor skills, memory and space orientation. Who would have thought that playing video games could actually benefit you in the real world. Planning, motor skills, memory and space orientation are all things that are relevant to our everyday lives and contribute to our well-being. 

What Games?

     I know the first question that pops into all of our heads is, "well which games make us smarter?" This is a valid question, because although studies have proven video games to be beneficial to us it doesn't mean all games are this way. One game that is extremely popular and can help improve our brain function is Super Mario 3-D World. A study was conducted at University of California where students (gamers and non-gamers) were told to play Super Mario 3-D World and other students were told to play a cell-phone game called "Angry Birds." Those who played the Mario Game showed significant improvement with their memory throughout the course of a few weeks. In the article, "Why some video games are good for your brain," on Fortune.com, Hilary Brueck wrote that the improvement in their memory was actually enough to help students remember small things like where they put their keys, if they struggled with this before. Our memory tends to fade away as we get older, so this should be viewed as a possible solution. Maybe we should be playing more video games and we'll stop forgetting what we came upstairs to get! 

Final Thoughts

     It is important to remember that everything is better in moderation. It wouldn't be good for our bodies if we worked out 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week, as well as it would not be beneficial to our brains if we played video games 24/7. But I also think its important to give credit where its due, and video games deserve some credit. The negativity surrounding video games should decrease and people should keep an open mind to different hobbies, even if the hobby doesn't look like its benefitting the ones doing it. Gaming is almost like a secret weapon and gamers are like secret geniuses.

Link:
https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/se/112578.html