Video Games: Part 1 - Good for You!

Can playing video games be anything more than a (very addictive) timepass? Yes, says this Note to Self podcast with Jane McGonigal. For starters, video games are known to help those suffering from depression and anxiety. How come? Because the “opposite of play isn’t work; rather, the opposite of play is depression”. And we always knew this at an intuitive level, says McGonigal. After all, when we’re playing games, we’re excited, optimistic about our chances, full of physical energy and joyful. Take the opposite of all of that, and you have the “clinical definition of depression”! This has even been proven clinically: the areas of the brain that are chronically under-stimulated when we are depressed are over-stimulated when we’re playing games.

Ergo, McGonigal recommends playing video games for, say, 10 minutes when you are very upset or replaying a very annoying conversation in your head. Playing the game will change your state of mind. Then stop, and continue with your life in this “new Zen like state”, she says tongue-in-cheek. Sound like self-medication? Yes, says McGonigal, and by analogy, there are different recommended dosages (durations of play) based on your condition! Of course, not every video game produces all these results either. So find games that involve something creative or something difficult or something involving collaboration.

Ok, mood change apart, do video games provide any other benefits? And since kids play (far, far) more video games than adults, do kids benefit by playing video games? Yes and yes. Video games help learn abstract things. Like what? Don’t give up when things are tough, try out different strategies, try to be creative and try something new: those are skills and mindsets that can extend beyond the game world into the real world.

A caveat though: to make those learnings persist beyond the game world, parents need to not saying things like, “What a stupid game” or “Go do something real and useful”. Because the more kids hear that, the more they compartmentalize the two worlds and stop carrying over mindsets into the real world. Instead, ask questions like “Wow! That level looks hard. How did you figure how to clear it?”

Wow! I never realized how much good all those Atari games from childhood have done to me! And, hard though it may be for me to fathom, Temple Run and Candy Crush and Granny may be doing the same good to my daughter…