Are Video Games Bad For You?
Social scientists have historically studied video games in terms of negatives.
They’ve looked at whether video game use can lead to reductions in academic performance, create cardiovascular risks, or even epilepsy. More recently, gaming disorder, which describes video game behaviour that resembles addiction, has been added by the World Health Organization into the International Classification of Diseases.
But are video games all bad?
Given that there are billions of players of digital games world-wide, it may also be worth asking: What are the possible benefits of video games? Are there any?
It turns out that some studies do find that video games can have positive effects on people. Besides the possibility of enhancing cognitive performance and improving performance for surgeons in some cases, there also appear to be some benefits for gamers’ well-being. This article reviews that research that shows video games can boost various aspects of psychological well-being.
What is psychological well-being?
Well-being generally refers to a positive condition of a person or group of people. For psychological well-being in particular, experts have suggested a number of different models, but it is generally understood to be mental health.
