A new study from Glasgow University has found that playing video games might help to reap some positive rewards later in life, like the possibility of helping to boost key skills such as problem solving and critical thinking. Playing just two hours of video games per week, the study found, could even help to make an individual more employable.
The study was pretty small, as it involved only 36 undergraduates. The undergraduate participants were divided into two separate groups. One was the control group and the other, with 16 students, were the game-playing group and they were asked to play 8 video games under certain conditions.
The games they were asked to play: Borderlands 2, Lara Croft, and Minecraft.
The participants in the study logged roughly 14 hours of playing time in the period of about 8 weeks for the study. Prior to and following the experiment, the participants were required to fill out a survey and this survey measured a variety of skills.
They found that the game-players improved with respect to adaptability, resourcefulness, and communication; compared to the control group.
The study suggests that there is a variety of positive effects to be reaped from playing hours of video games, aside from the entertainment and pleasure aspect alone. These games also have the potential to reap rewards for individuals, in the way of improving life skills such as those mentioned above which were assessed in the study.
Other studies have suggested that playing games can make you smarter, slow the aging process, help to improve medical recovery, offer pain relief, improve eyesight, and more.
The worldwide game industry at the moment is estimated to be around $91 billion with the majority of gamers playing on their mobile phones; thanks in large part to Pokemon Go.
When or if researchers replicate this study in the future, it would be interesting to see the results if:
- more participants were included
- what results might be for other games
- there was an adjustment in their observation of the amount of time played and if that has any impact when adjusted (2 hrs a week isn't much).
Pics:
Pixabay
Giphy - via giphy.com/gifs/lara-croft-Y5DdT0nNHzPZS
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Sources:
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/playing-video-games-can-help-13140592
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/05/playing-two-hours-video-games-week-makes-employable-glasgow/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/07/video-games-good-for-us_n_4164723.html
http://www.scotsman.com/news/education/playing-video-games-can-help-young-people-succeed-at-university-1-4466874
https://venturebeat.com/2016/12/21/worldwide-game-industry-hits-91-billion-in-revenues-in-2016-with-mobile-the-clear-leader/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160308084925.htm