Video Games: Is Playing Video Games Beneficial For Us?

Video gaming is really entertaining not just for young people but also adults. The gaming industry has been growing bigger each year with all the innovations applied in all gaming platforms. In spite of its growing industry, a question still lies with unclear and doubtful answers: Are video games really good for us?

The effects of video games on behavior and mental skills.

A study published in Pew Research Center found that 49 percent of adult Americans in both sexes are playing videos games. Men play twice as much as women and ten percent of them call themselves hardcore gamers.

There is a debate about the effect of video games towards the behavior of people. Some say that playing video games influence people in having negative and violent behavior while others say that video gaming can also bring some positive influence but in the aspect of analytical and problem-solving skills.

According to statistics, 40 percent -- or four out of ten people -- say that violent video games are linked to violent behaviors to those who are playing it. Women are more likely to agree with this than men.

On the other aspect, looking at the clear graph posted by Forbes about this study, about 47 percent of all adult respondents agreed that not all but only some games can help improve one's analytical and problem-solving skills.

Are all video games really a waste of time?

The answer given by all adult respondents to this question is somewhat complex and hard to understand whether they really think it's a waste of time or not. In the research results, 26 percent of all adult Americans think that most video games are a waste of time. 

24 percent said that that it's not true for most games. 33 percent also said it's true for some games only and 16 percent are unsure about the answer.

The percentage of the answers are not that far from each other but the numbers of those who agreed that video games are a waste of time are a bit higher. Therefore, we can say that there are more adult American gamers think that video games are a waste of time than those who think the other way around.

Basing on the results of this study, we can conclude that there is an almost equal ratio of adult Americans believing that playing video games can be good and at the same time bad for us in all different aspects.