Video games used to be a way to pass the time and have fun with your friends, but that seems to be a thing of the past.
Research has shown that students tend to score higher on tests if they play video games in their spare time. There are some exceptions to these results, which includes the amount of time the students spend playing the games.
If a student plays video games for an hour or less per day, they tend to excel in school and have good emotional stability. This study doesn’t portray a causation, but more of a correlation.
If a student plays for two hours a day or more, the student begins to see a decline in academic performance, and may begin to have a variety of social problems.
Video games have started to be incorporated into learning. There are now websites that design games specifically for kids to learn. Teachers believe these games help kids understand the material more, and it is a more creative way of learning instead of listening to a lesson.
Video games don’t just help young kids, they also have been helping high school and college students throughout the pandemic.
Ben House, a William Penn student, has found a way to incorporate video games into his study habits. “The biggest thing with video games for me is that it’s a way for my mind to still be actively involved in something, but also be enjoyable as a mix up from what students typically do with all the studying and reading,” said House.
Video games can be a much better alternative than what the typical college student would do on a study break. “I think it’s a lot easier to hop on video games for a little while as a break and then return to school stuff. Turning on a show makes it a lot more difficult to return to studying because your brain gets out of that mode of being active,” said House.
Hawkeye Community College student Trent Hendricks echoes a similar sentiment as House. “I wasn’t always the best student, and, my grades reflected that. As high school went on, I knew I had to find a way to help my study habits, or college was going to be extremely rough for me,” said Hendricks.
Hendricks went on to describe how video games have helped him. “Video games were always about playing Call of Duty or some type of war game. Once I found out video games could benefit performance, I started to be more cautious of what I play. Don’t get me wrong, I still play games like Call of Duty, but not nearly as much,” said Hendricks.
Hendricks shared some perspective on how the world views video games. “Video games were always the reward for me if I did something well, and the punishment if I did something wrong. I think with all of the uses video games have been proven to provide, the stigma of video games just being for fun or bad for you needs to end,” said Hendricks.
Students across America seem to concur with Hendricks and House, and as more research is done, the more we will know about the impacts video games have on our society.
Be the first to comment