CHS sophomore Josh Portman plays about 12 hours of video games per day on the weekends – two hours on weekdays. That’s a total of about 34 hours per week devoted solely to game playing.
However, Josh does not believe that this somewhat excessive amount of video game playing has impacted him negatively. On the contrary, he can name a number of positive effects that video gaming has had on him overall, including an increased ability to problem solve and make quick decisions.
Studies indicate that Josh, who plays a fair amount of strategy games, is not incorrect in saying this.
“There are lots of positive effects of video games,” said Dr. Honore Hughes, a professor and clinical child psychologist working at St. Louis University. “For games of strategy in particular, kids learn multitasking and cognitive flexibility and about problem solving and approaching problems logically. Sometimes the kids find that they have to stop and read the directions. Even those kinds of things can be really positive for them.”
According to Josh, however, the majority of kids at CHS play games such as Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto, which emphasize less strategy and more action.
Though these games may not significantly improve one’s ability to problem solve, research has shown that playing high-action video games can lead to heightened visual perception.
A study done by the University of Rochester found that prolific video gamers could process visual and auditory information more quickly. When administered a visual test, video gamers could identify 30 percent more of the moving objects on the screen than those that did not play high action video games. Researchers believe that this may be because the heightened sense of danger experienced in the games leads to an increased sense of awareness and visual processing.
Playing high-action video games can also improve one’s ability to make snap decisions using minimal amounts of information. In another study also done by the University of Rochester, subjects aged 18-25 were split into two groups. The subjects of one group played a total of 50 hours of fast-paced video games such as “Call of Duty 2”, whereas the second group played “The Sims 2”, a much slower-paced game.
Afterwards, they were administered a test in which they had to look at a screen and analyze what was going on, then answer a question on the action in as little time as possible. Results of the test revealed that action video game players were as much as 25 percent faster at coming to a conclusion than those that played Sims. And, moreover, they had the same percentage of accuracy as the Sims players.
However, this being said, when played to excess the effects that video games have are not entirely positive.
In this case, excess is defined as engaging in an activity so much that the activity “begins to take the place of other more productive social interactions with real people, ” according to Dr. Joan Luby, a professor of child psychology at Washington University.
The American Medical Association defines excessive playing as two hours or more per day.
Playing violent video games in particular can oftentimes promote “violent behavior in those who engage in it,” said Dr. Luby, who adds that this is why researchers are certain that “violence in programming is bad for public health overall.”
Dr. Hughes agrees, saying, “When you hear about the negative effects of video game playing, people are almost always talking about violent video games.”
For kids under the age of 10 in particular, playing violent video games can cause connections in the brain to develop differently. Kids can become “desensitized to the impact of violence and more willing to accept violence as a way of problem solving,” said Dr. Hughes. “Research has indicated that those kids may also be the kids that do more bullying, they have lower empathy for other kids, lower prosocial behavior – and just are more aggressive in general.”
Dr. Hughes adds that the reason why playing violent video games seems to be so much more detrimental than watching violent movies or TV shows is because, “the person is an active participant. You’re performing the actions yourself virtually, as opposed to just kind of passively watching.”
Non-violent video games, such as Mario Kart or Sims, can have negative effects as well, however these effects do not typically come from the content of the game. They come from the time that playing takes away from other, more productive and “developmentally important” activities such as communicating and interacting with real people.
Josh perpetuates that though his gaming time has reached the point where it could be labeled as being “excessive,” he has not experienced a decrease in communication skills. “Most of the time when I communicate in the games I use voice communication and speak to them as I do with people face-to-face.”
Josh does not feel as though gaming has negatively affected him socially, either. “I mean, there are friends that I would have had. But there are also friends that I have because of it.”