The debate concerning whether playing video games has a positive or negative effect on the minds of our youth has been going on for years. During the last half decade, video games and technology have experienced rapid improvement. This incredible growth has driven up the amount of time people between the ages eight and eighteen spend playing video games per day by one hour and seventeen minutes (Rubin). Some scientists and parents of gamers, are concerned with this statistic and do not think that the growing minds of children should be using technology for nearly eight hours a day. However, many studies have shown that video games can increase the brain power of those who play them. Contrary to popular belief, video games can directly benefit the population of the youth and young adults, who are gamers, by increasing the speed, flexibility, and strength of their minds, while also slowing the age process, and aiding in educational, medical, and therapeutic applications. 

There are tons of articles and experiments out there about the effects of video games on the brain, but most of the big articles about this topic have always favored the viewpoint that tries to prove that video games have negative effects on those who play them. Yet, due to the recent improvement in technology, there is now a massive amount of research that shows video games can have numerous positive effects on the human brain. In Drew Guarini’s article, he wrote, “Your mother was wrong. Video games aren’t bad for you. They’re actually making your life better. Despite hand-wringing over a supposed connection between violence and video games (hint: there isn’t any), numerous academic studies indicate that playing video games has many psychological and even physical benefits.” In 2013, German researchers conducted a study with twenty-three people, with a median age of 25, and asked them to play “Super Mario 64” for 30 minutes a day over a period of two months while a separate control group did not play any video games at all (Guarini). After the two months were up, they examined the brains of the two groups with an MRI machine. The results showed that the gaming group’s brains had increased grey matter in the parts of the brain that are accountable for memory formation, strategic planning, spatial navigation, and motor skills in the hands. Furthermore, many experiments have shown that people who have video game experience usually have much better reaction time, perception, and attention spans than non-video game players.

Through research, it has also come to our attention that that video games can be applicable for various educational and therapeutic purposes. Video games can stimulate learning, which lets people experience creativity, curiosity, and novelty (Griffiths). For example, in Drew Guarini’s article in 2013, he wrote, “the Italian researchers presented evidence that playing fast-paced video games can improve the reading skills of children with dyslexia.” The Italian’s evidence derived from the experiment they conducted in 2013. They started the experiment by separating children of ages ranging from seven to thirteen into two groups. One group played a low tempo game, while the other played a fast-paced game called “Rayman Raving Rabids”. After the period the experiment was conducted, the researchers tested the reading skills of the children. The results showed that the group who played the faster paced game was more capable of reading faster and more accurately than the other group. “The authors of the study hypothesized that the action games helps kids increase their attention spans, a skill considered crucial to reading” (Guarini). 

In addition to that, strategic video games can increase a player’s “brain flexibility” which scientists define as “the cornerstone of human intelligence (Guarini). The study that acquired this data was conducted in August of 2013 at Queen Mary University of London and University College London. “Seventy-two volunteers played “Starcraft” or the life-simulation game “The Sims” for 40 hours over six to eight weeks. They found that participants assigned to play “Starcraft” experienced gains in their performance on psychological tests, completing cognitive flexibility tasks with greater speed and accuracy” (Guarini). This means that the group that played a more strategic game had better results in their brain flexibility, which leads to a faster, smarter, and more adaptive brain. 

Another important component proving that playing video games is beneficial, is the effect it has on eyesight. According to a study that was conducted at the University of Rochester, playing games like Call of Duty can surprisingly improve your vision. Drew Guarini wrote, “In the 2009 study, expert action gamers played first-person shooting games like “Unreal Tournament 2004” and “Call of Duty” while non-experienced action gamers played “The Sims 2.” Those playing the shoot-‘em-up games saw a boost in their “contrast sensitivity function,” or the ability to discern subtle changes in the brightness of an image. Considered one of first of the visual aptitudes to diminish over time, the ability to pick out bright patches is key to tasks like driving at night.” During violent action games like these, the player must locate and aim at their enemy. The quicker they do it, the better they are at the game. As a result, their eyes adapt and become better at, “analyzing optical data on the fly”, as Guarini stated. From this comes yet another benefit from playing video games. 

Contrary to popular belief, being the “bad guy” in a video game can actually cause the player to become more morally sensitive. Luke Reilly stated that, “Previous research has found that committing immoral acts in video games can elicit feelings of guilt in players, but a new study led out of the University of Buffalo has found that performing evil deeds in games can also increase moral sensitivity in players. This, in turn, may lead to these players displaying more prosocial behavior in real-life.” In other words, when someone commits a crime or does something bad in a video game, it causes them to feel guilty. This in turn makes the player feel obligated to be nicer to other humans in real life, which is not what the majority of people would expect the outcome of this to be.  

Furthermore, it has also been found that video games can reduce or even relief a craving someone has. Research has shown that puzzle-like games such as Tetris have been known to have this effect on the tested subjects. The Elaborated Intrusion Theory states that visual imagery is one of the main components of cravings and that a visually-based assignment should lower the craving (Reilly). Researchers from the United Kingdom wanted to test this theory with Tetris. “Participants reported if they were feeling a craving (and rated the strength of said craving) they were either given a game of Tetris to play or placed in front of a computer waiting for it to load a program (that, unbeknownst to them, would never load). Participants who played the game of Tetris reported "significantly lower" cravings afterwards, supporting the theory that “a visuospatial working memory load reduces naturally occurring cravings” (Reilly). This finding could be useful for people who crave things such as sweets, cigarettes, or anything else simple like that. 

Yet another highly beneficial application that playing video games could be used for is on therapy. Cerebral palsy is an extensive term that denotes to a group of disorders that affects a person’s ability to move, due to damage to the evolving brain during pregnancy or shortly following birth (Reilly). This disorder affects around one in five-hundred children, and rehabilitation therapy is highly suggested. Since the early 2000’s, ongoing research has been done concerning virtual reality therapy for children with Cerebral palsy. In the past few years, many programs have looked deeper into Microsoft’s “Kinect” and how it could be useful for rehabilitation for children with cerebral palsy (Reilly). “A small study of 11 children with cerebral palsy who completed eight weeks of video game treatment on top of their conventional physiotherapy found improvements in balance among the participants. Researchers at the Bloorview Research Institute in Canada and the Helene Elsass Center and University of Copenhagen in Denmark have also created programs for Kinect to help kids with CP improve their motor functions” (Reilly). The broad spectrum of video games offer many options for therapeutic and medical applications, this just being an example of a small experiment. Another key point that comes from this type of gaming is the experiences that consoles such as Microsoft’s Kinect or Nintendo’s Wii have to offer. These types of video games are called AVG’s and they inspire people to get up and be active whilst gaming. Carlos Campos wrote that, “Among the definitions of AVGs, Oh and Yang (2010) define them as “video games that require physical activity (PA) in order to play” creating the connection between AVGs and PA.” 

The list of physical and physiological benefits that come from playing video games are endless. Tessa Berenson wrote an article about the speech that Jane McGonigal spoke at The Nantucket Project. In Berenson’s article, she wrote, “When we play video games, we have a “real sense of optimism in our abilities and our opportunities to get better and succeed, and more physical and mental energy to engage with difficult problems," McGonigal explained, "and that is actually the physiological and psychological state of game play.” When we play video games, we are seeking that feeling of accomplishment and we crave that feeling we get once we beat a level or win the game. This feeling is like crack to us gamers, as we cannot get enough of it. If we lose a level, we try and try again until we succeed. From all the failing and succeeding we do in our game trials, we learn from each win or loss. This is a real-world application that is similar to a mathematician trying to figure out a math equation or an architect trying to figure out what makes their bridge work. 

As our technology improves, so does the feasibility of research. This means it is becoming easier to prove that video games can help the brain, but also easier to prove that video games can hurt the brain. We can all agree that video games are fun and an easy way to connect with friends. Although, too much gaming has proven to have negative effects on not only the health of the brain, but also the body. For example, Dominic Harris stated, “A case of “Nintendo neck” was reported in 1991 after a child played his Game Boy for 30 minutes in a hunched position, while “Nintendo elbow” was diagnosed in a 12-year-old who played his console “a lot” for more than a month.” These are only minor injuries that have derived from gaming, but there have been cases where playing video games has led to serious injury, sometimes life-threatening. Although most people do not take the health warning at the beginning of every video game seriously, they should because video games can cause serious injuries.   

Video games can directly benefit the population of the youth and young adults, who are gamers, by increasing the speed, flexibility, and strength of their minds, while also aiding in educational, medical, and therapeutic applications. Most people believe that playing too many video games can be harmful, but the beneficial effects that come from them completely outweigh the negative effects by a landslide. So, if you think someone you know plays video games too much, think about joining them because they are already ahead of the game. Every second they are playing video games and you aren’t, they keep getting a step further into the future. 