Everything Bad Is Good For You Essay

"Researchers at the University of Rochester found that young adults who regularly played action-based video games showed better visual skills than those who didn't" (USA Today). Researchers have also found that the subjects who played video games "were better able to keep track of objects appearing simultaneously and processed fast-changing visual information more efficiently" (USA Today). Video games have made it a long way from when they first started. Some games actually teach children how to read, write, and even count. Teenagers also state that a little gaming after school actually helps take some stress off from classes and the overload of homework.

Do you remember the first time you played a video game? Was it Super Mario Brothers, Call of Duty, or Minesweeper? How about the time your parents told you that video games will rot your brain? Well forget all that, this paper is going to tell you the benefits of playing video games. My claim is that video games can help you with leadership skills, problem solving, education, and cognitive function.

Despite the multiple studies that have been conducted about the impact of video games on the brain. This will remain a long debated issue. There are some who argue that there is no impact on the brain from playing video games. Then there are others who argue that there is irreversible damage on the brain from video games. Some claim that video games can enhance performances, and hold beneficial value in training and even medical technology. On the other hand, there are studies that show video games can make a person anti- social and in some cases obese. The overall consensus is that there is some type of impact. Whether that impact is positive or negative, depends on who you ask.

This is especially true with shooter video games, such as Halo 4 and Grand Theft Auto IV. A 2012 study took naive gamers that rarely or never played shooter games, and randomly assigned them to play either a shooter game or another type of video game. The gamers playing shooter games showed faster and more accurate attention allocation, high spatial resolution in visual processing, and enhanced mental rotation abilities. A meta-analysis concluded that these spatial skills improvements are comparable to formal (high-school and university-level) courses designed to improve these same skills. This same meta-analysis found that these spatial skills trained can be trained by video games in a relatively short amount of time and last for an extended period of time. Of course, these skills transfer to other spatial tasks outside of game. Preliminary research has also shown that these cognitive advantages manifest in neural processing and efficiency. An fMRI study found that the areas that control attention allocation were less active during a challenging pattern-finding puzzle in gamers than in non-gamers, leading the researchers to believe that shooter game players are more efficient in attention allocation and more effective at filtering out unneeded information. Cognitive neuroscientists have begun to send requests to video game companies asking to develope games designed to test hypotheses and the specific mechanisms that provide different cognitive benefits. In addition to spatial skills, some scholars believe that videogames are important in developing problem-solving skills. This growth is shown between all genres. The game puzzles range from finding the quickest route from A to B, to using memorization and analytical skills to learn complicated action sequences. Also, game developers often provide very little

They had 12 non-gamers and 11 gamers view a display of moving dots, and had them determine whether more dots were moving from the right or the left. Although both groups were equally accurate, gamers decided much faster than non-gamers. A further study was then conducted, having participants distinguish pure tones from white noise. The gamers were also quick to make decisions based on auditory input, (Denworth, 2013) and the ability to quickly make decisions, is very important when driving. I thought this study was pretty accurate, and it made sense. If you’ve ever played Call of Duty, you have to be quick to spot an enemy avatar on the screen, or your avatar will be dead in a matter of

In the article “Digital Game-Based Learning: It’s Not Just The Digital Natives Who Are Getting Restless” by Richard Van Eck he states “Games are effective not because of what they are, but because of what they embody and what learners are doing as they play a game”(4). That ties into what Zichermann discusses in his video How Games Make Kids Smarter because he explains the five different ways one can increase their fluid intelligence, which is the intelligence we use to problem solve. His list included, seek novelty, challenge yourself,

A good explanation of that comes from Marc Prensky: “The most explicit kind of learning in video and computer games is how to do something. As you play you learn, gradually or quickly, the moves of the game-how various characters, pieces, or anything else operate and what you can make them do.”(Prensky 20) He also has another article that explains exactly what is gained from these types of activities, stated here: “At the second level, players learn what to do in any particular game (and, equally important, what not to do).”(Prensky 21). So with that information, just because a game isn’t made for learning, doesn’t mean that said person cannot learn from said game. Many people also claim that video games cause people to become dumb and cause children to have poor grades in school. Some may say that belongs to the responsibility of the person playing the game or the parents of the child, limiting their play time and making time for them to study instead of playing video games.

Some of the first video games ever made like Pac Man, Mario Bros.,Sonic the Hedgehog and Street Fighter never helped someone learn math and english which caused video games to get bad names from parents like video games are to distracting and you can do something better with your time like study but, over time things can change and become a whole lot better and based off what this website it says that “A number of recent studies have indicated that video games, even violent ones, can help kids develop essential emotional and intellectual skills that support academic achievement.” This research can help teachers around the globe to recognize the benefits of video games and try to include game-based learning in their class rooms. However, it’s not only just gaming in school that gets benefits. In recent research it shows that all gaming that kids do can be positive.

I’m here to argue that videogames can be beneficial to people rather than bad. A lot of people (mainly parents) say that videogames have a negative effect on children because they think it causes them to become greatly distracted, violent, socially isolated, addicted, and teaches them the wrong values such as vengeance and aggression. However, what a lot of people don’t know is that playing video games actually impacts your brain in many positive ways. It allows people to improve in following instructions, hand eye coordination, problem solving, multitasking, accuracy, eyesight, concentration, and memory. Playing video games are not bad for people, however, some people may disagree.

Video games are also being used to increase problem-solving skills. For example, Florida State University and the University of Luxembourg, created a study in which they used a stealth assessment tool embedded in a game, to collect data on its users. They called this game Use Your Brainz , a slightly modified version of Plants vs. Zombies 2. Plants vs. Zombies 2 is a free-to-play tower defense strategy game, where your objective is to defend your territory from the enemy. This is normally achieved using defensive structures, which are either on or along the enemy zombie’s path. The modified game was used to test middle-school students on their problem-solving

For many years video games enthusiast have spoke out and said that well-designed games may impact learning through solo play. Video games are also good at motivation from their reinforcing reward systems (Ault 3). Meaning that people began to learn better when they are rewarded from the good work that they do from playing educational video games. Playing by themselves help them focus more on what they are doing and take in more than playing with others (Ault 3). They are less likely distracted from outside forces. Some studies on seeing if video games can help learning have shown to have positive feedback. Good Principles for learning have shown to come from well designed video games because they offer players “strong identities, makes players think like scientist, lower the consequences of failure, enable players to practice challenges until they get it right; and encourage players to think about relationships, instead of just isolated facts and events” (Ault 3). Many game enthusiast have also said that video games improve thinking. Educational video games cause the player to think and react to the obstacles and challenges that the game provides (Ault 4). With the option of repeating things in these types of games it leaves room for error and for the player to keep trying until they get it right. With most games ranking the player on their performance it makes you want to work harder to be the

Research has also proved that it helps hand and eye coordination. It has shown teens can learn spatial, visual, and iconic skills from the video games. Some games require a great deal of visual-spatial ability and hand-eye coordination to be successful.the player has to coordinate the brain’s reaction and interpretation with his hands and fingertip movements. It also has to calculate the timing exactly.

In today’s society, video games are often played. Kids spend about 16 hours playing video games. Many parents believe that videogames are a waste of time and aren't benefiting their children at all. About 44% of the parents that have children that play video games think playing games is destroying their child,. However, they’re studies that show otherwise. Researchers have came to a conclusion that video games can benefit children by helping them control their emotions, helping improve and gain new skills, help them out in school and more .

Children who play video games show better performance in perception, attention, and cognition. This can better educate students and control their attention for a longer period of time (Griffiths). The students like video games, applying a learning aspect to them that relates to the subject they are on, makes the subject easier to understand for the children and easier for the teachers to teach. Griffiths includes an image in his article that says, ”Game play involves repeated actions that strengthen the brain cell connections underlying memory and learning” (Image on article by Griffiths). The gameplay has scientifically shown to connect with memory, this will help children in class better remember what they are being taught. While playing the video games the children plan ahead and think about what they are doing which is part of their cognition, the more they do this the better it becomes. “the researchers

There are also experimental results that shows video games increase the cognition and problem-solving skills of professional players (4). On the contrary, there are research results that debates video games will cause aggressive cognition.