Do video games make us smarter?

[Love Pulse]

The video game industry is one of the most profitable segments of the entertainment industry, and has boomed spectacularly over the past decades.

Although similar sectors such as film and music have been subjected to piracy and a drop in sales, the video game sector has been able to achieve steady profits, with profits expected to grow from $ 67 billion in 2013 to about $ 82 billion by 2017.

In September 2013, sales of the controversial Grand Theft Auto V hit a figure that no one could have imagined, reaching $ 800 million in 24 hours. No entertainment product has ever achieved this level of success in a single day, be it a film, a book, etc.

Alongside this success, it's time to thoroughly research the impact of video games on cultural health.

The subject became controversial and widely debated following a deadly and unprecedented shooting incident at the Columbine High School in 1999.

The killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were fond of a famous shooting game known as "DOOM". The game allows participants to create levels and distribute them to colleagues, and some of the levels created by Harris are still available to play to this day.

Doubts were also expressed that another stabbing incident was linked to a battle game called “Mortal Combat 3”. These conversations linking video games to serious crimes continue both in public analysis and in the discussion of these cases in courtrooms.

The problem with the conclusion that there is a relationship between video games and behavior is its lack of clear physical evidence.

These criminals are involved in all kinds of mass culture, meaning that they have the same level of relationship with music, movies, books and games as other law-abiding citizens.

Recently, most of the dialogues focused on the negative impact of video games on childhood and social behaviors in general, with the discussion of the transition of video games from the power of mass murder to causing more battles and skirmishes.

But are any of these concerns justified? What do we do with the most modern and educated space in society, based on logic that claims that video games have positive effects on our intellectual and social abilities?

To make this all the more complicated, a relatively recent study by the University of Oxford on the psychological impact of video games indicated that the impact of violent games on children was merely a matter of “spending time” and no evidence of an impact.

The idea that games are only a matter of “spending time” and are evolving for a fuller understanding has recently begun to emerge.

“Violent video games do not affect children's behavior,” said Randy Duttnig, an article on www.healthday.com.

Perhaps the interesting result is that even if such games are long spent, their impact on behavior is limited. In contrast, forms of violence in other media, such as violent films, can have a greater impact. Psychological implications.

Despite the panic over video games, teachers are beginning to see it as a useful tool for students, and one study showed that about three-quarters of primary school teachers now use video games.

In the same vein, a new book by Greg Toby, which featured the contributions of a number of field experts in various fields, from neuroscience to the rules of music, called: “The game believes in you: how digital games can make our children smarter.” It may be an invaluable educational tool.

According to the book, video games are a source of “focus, inspiration, and reassurance to people, in ways that many teachers cannot do. Games give people a chance to learn quickly, take risks, refine deeper concepts, make you fail and then prompt you to re-experience directly, eventually reaching success in ways that are often overlooked in school. ”

This understanding has far-reaching implications for the classroom. For example, there is an organization that uses a game that helps young people with cancer learn more about the disease and commit to a treatment program.

As a child, I played a large number of video games, and currently I have one device and rarely play with it.

Video games helped me, taught me a lot, from basic writing skills to American history of archeology and logic.

I can say that I have not been involved in any field battles in my life and this made me confused because people regarded it as a negative tool, at a time when I saw it as one of the reasons for getting high marks.

I remember better historical events when I put them in a narrative template through a computer game, not by reading textbooks, especially since I was a child in my childhood lack of attention and I can not save static information like many children.

I needed to sort this information into a matrix so I could retrieve it, and the interactive nature of video games allowed that.

I thank God that my parents acknowledged my passion for video games and paid attention in a consumer way, and I found them encouraged and help identify some games appropriate for my interests and study.

Before that, I had a bad learning experience in traditional classes and moved to a home study system, which allowed me to excel until I was ready to enter university. At the age of 16, I enrolled in the college and performed well.

Now, research is getting closer to finding out what some parents - like my parents - have found that video games are tools with abilities that help enhance the lives of their children.

This benefit has gone beyond childhood, as is currently being the development of games intended to improve jobs and business in a number of different communities.

Video games have also proved to have a beneficial effect on the brains of older people, especially helping them with preservation functions and multitasking.

Clearly, there are options for some bad games that reinforce negative cultural views, especially on women's issues and ethnicity.

These are issues that can and should be fixed, and it is very important for the middle segment to ignore some publishers who have chosen to abuse.

Finally, we can begin to ignore the stereotypes of panic that prevented the embrace of video games as a means of fully learning.