The Benefits of Playing Video Games

The article I chose was titled “The Benefits of Playing Video Games,” by Isabela Granic, Adam Lobel, and Rutger Engels C.M.E. The authors are trying to show the benefits of playing video games. The main idea is that there is much speculation on the negative effects of playing video games and not much on the positive effect of video game. The authors want to prove that there can be more positive benefits for games that have been proven violent or bad for children. The authors in this article are proving that there are, in fact, many positive benefits to playing video games and they do so using four domains which are cognitive, motivational, emotional, and social.

To show these benefits, studies were done for five years. It was a small, but significant body of information explaining how video games affect kids positively instead of negatively. By conjoining developmental, positive, social, and even media psychology the authors give reasons why playing video games can gain real world benefits for children who play them.

The authors found in their study of the cognitive benefits that those who play shooter games vs. those who do not had higher attention to detail and higher spatial resolution. They found in their study of the motivational benefits that game designers have found a way to bring people of all ages to work together and triumph giving them motivation in the real world to succeed as they did in the games they played. They found in their study of the emotional benefits that the mood and happiness of children increased when they were playing the game of their choice. Lastly, they found in their study of the social benefits that children learn to cooperate with others and who to trust or not trust. They gain experiences that help them better socialize in the real world as well as the “game world”.

The authors of the article found that there are many positive benefits for video games and most of the positive benefits outweigh the negative benefits....