Video games are like a good puzzle, they allow you to experience something complicated, but not impossible. They give you agency over yourself but in another world or setting. A good multiplayer game will teach you social skills and how to effectively work in a team. Whereas a puzzle game will educate you in abilities like perceiving and navigating with different pieces.

This allows people to develop agency over themselves in the game, teaching them how to make decisions in their own lives. It also teaches you to plan, or at least think your objectives through. For example, in real life people often get overwhelmed when they have a lot of things to do, I know I certainly get that way. Games often incentivize and even force you to eat the elephant before you can progress. While real life doesn’t have imaginary roadblocks, you’re mind does, and the best way to get over them is to just start. 

Video games teach good social skills, especially multiplayer games. They allow groups of friends to communicate, make plans, and such. Some games even encourage talking to random people to complete objectives. While the act of talking to random people is discouraged by schools and is generally a scary prospect, it is something you have to learn. In real life, they’ll be mean and funny and any other emotion you can imagine just as they can in a video game lobby or chat. People will talk to you randomly, so the best you can do is have some practice.

Video games are capable of teaching and advancing cognitive function skills. Such as Tetris increasing your ability to navigate, perceive and recognize different things. The same study discovered that gamers with over twenty-one hours of playtime a week tend to have more active memorization and attention centers of the brain. Additionally, other studies found that different types of games increase different functions, respective to the focus of the game. 

Ultimately, I believe that video games have a much more positive impact than previously believed, or at least shown by social media. Sure they can be violent, but so are movies and books, so if you are worried about it for your child, researching what they are playing and allowed to play will go a long way in that department. They are a phenomenal tool for connection, due to the many different types of games, many different types of people can be engaged in them. Allowing an easy way to make friends with similar interests, especially across long distances. I personally used video games as a source of connectivity during quarantine, and even before with long-distance friends. There is quite a lot of good here, despite the perception, just remember moderation is key.

Works Cited

“Are Video Games Good for You?” Cleveland Clinic, 15 November 2022, https://health.clevelandclinic.org/are-video-games-good-for-you/. Accessed 13 December 2022.

Boudreau, Emily. “Can video games help kids learn? | Harvard Graduate School of Education.” Harvard Graduate School of Education, 29 June 2021, https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/21/06/find-fun. Accessed 13 December 2022.

“Commercial video games and cognitive functions: video game genres and modulating factors of cognitive enhancement.” PubMed, 3 February 2020, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32014027/. Accessed 13 December 2022.

“9 Benefits & Positive Effects Of Video Games.” GEICO, https://www.geico.com/living/home/technology/9-reasons-to-give-video-games-a-try/. Accessed 13 December 2022.