Benefits of Video Games

1136 Words3 Pages

Crooks 1 Studies show that video games can in fact, be beneficial to you. Many times when you hear people talk about video games, it is usually talking about how they ruin people’s minds. While there is little evidence to back up those claims, on the other hand, there is also evidence defending it. Video games can have many social, educational, and/or cognitive benefits. Not all video games are rated violent, such as the Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat, or Battlefield. Instead there are games that are considered prosocial games and are rated E for everyone. Thus, just to name a few include Mario, Family Games, Lemmings and Dance Dance Revolution. They are games in which have been known to help or in fact, even benefit one’s social skills. If violent games, along with other violent media in general, have been linked to promoting violence; then it stands to reason that prosocial games can infact have the same effect, and promote prosocial behavior. Many experiments have been performed to test this theory on the effects of prosocial video games. What the group found was that after playing a prosocial game participants engaged in a more helpful behavior, such as offering to help clean up as spill made by the experimenting group. They were also more likely to agree to future visits which required more studies and research without further compensation for their time (Routledge). Another experiment conducted by a separate study group was cleverly set up to look like an encounter was taking place between two people, with one being a member of the experimenting study group. An angry woman bursts into the room where research with several participants is taking place. The woman ignores all everyone in the room, but begins to harass C... ... middle of paper ... ...es-greenBavelier.pdf>. Crooks 6 Griffiths, Mark. "The educational benefits of videogames."Humanities.ucla.edu. Sheu.org. Web. 5 Mar 2014. . Guarini, Drew. "9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For You." Huffingtonpost. © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc., 11 Jul 2013. Web. 5 Mar 2014. . Routledge, Clay. "The Social Benefits of Video Gaming."Psychologytoday.com. Sussex Publishers, LLC, 7 Jun 2010. Web. 5 Mar 2014. . Squire, Kurt. "Video Games in Education." Doczine.com. N.p.. Web. 5 Mar 2014. .

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