VIDEO GAMES PROS AND CONS

                                                                               Pros

DECISION MAKING

FAST-PACED games have been found to help gamers make quicker decisions in real life.
A US study split participants between the ages of 18 and 25 into two groups. One group played 50 hours of The Sims 2, the other group played 50 hours of Call Of Duty 2 and Unreal Tournament. The Call Of Duty group made decisions 25 per cent faster in a task away from the consoles and were accurate more often.

PROBLEM SOLVING

A LONG-TERM study in the Netherlands found the more teens and young people reported playing strategic and role-playing video games, the more they improved their problem solving abilities and academic grades.

SPATIAL AWARENESS

THE same study from the Netherlands found shoot-em-ups enhanced players’ abilities to think about concepts in 3D.

HELPS SURGEONS TRAIN

A BOSTON study of junior surgeons found those who had gamed as children and adolescents had better surgical skills and hand-eye co-ordination.

Cons

                                                             RISK OF ALZHEIMER’SRESEARCH at the University of Montreal has found playing video games could increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in later life. It has been shown to affect the hippocampus part of the brain which controls memory, learning and emotion linked with Alzheimer’s and depression.

LESS AWARE OF PAIN

GAMING as a character or avatar has shown a reduced sensitivity to pain which could lead to people ignoring the body’s warning signs when they need medical help, according to a German and Australian study.

CONTRIBUTES TO VIOLENCE

STUDIES over a decade found that exposure to violent video games is a risk factor in aggression in game players. The American Psychological Association report stopped short of blaming video games.

IT ENCOURAGES OBESITY

A SURVEY of 17-year-old boys found that gamers burned an average of 21 extra calories an hour but ate nearly 80 calories extra afterwards. The World Health Organisation named video games as the single biggest cause of childhood obesity.

TENDON ISSUES

NINTENDONITIS, PlayStation thumb and Wii fracture are all medical conditions which patients have presented to doctors in the UK after excessive gaming. A study found kids who game for more than two hours a day are at an increased risk of lower back pain.