For decades, the phrase “put down the game console and do your homework” has been repeated by parents in most homes since video game consoles, such as the Atari and Commodore 64, first appeared about 40 years ago.
Games have been criticized for being distracting, even in their old form filled with cluttered images, and video games have recently been criticized for their violent content, which can sometimes be addictive.
But it seems that critics of computer games should reconsider their position, after a scientific study conducted in Japan showed that playing games, especially on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 2, mitigated the negative mental effects of long periods of staying at home during the novel coronavirus pandemic, and reduced distortions in the social and educational development of children and adolescents during that period.
The researchers in the study, published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, say they found that “owning a gaming device, along with increased gaming, improved mental health.”
They added in the results of the study, which included about 100,000 people between the ages of 10 and 69, that “owning a gaming device reduced psychological stress and led to an improvement in the level of life satisfaction.”
The study involved researchers from several institutions, including the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies at Ritsumeikan University and the Center for Child Developmental Brain Research at Hamamatsu University School of Medicine. The researchers said video games “face increasing public skepticism due to controversial health policy decisions such as the World Health Organization’s recent decision on so-called gaming disorder.”
At the same time, playing video games is linked to decreased physical fitness and hearing problems, as excessive gaming leads to sitting for many hours in front of the screen, often with headphones on and the volume turned up.
There are also other concerns related to how online gaming is played by children who may be exposed to dangerous practices against them by strange adults.