Video games are actually good for you

Does your mother constantly nag at you for playing video games? Telling you that they"ll ruin your eyesight and social skills? Some studies show that video games can actually be good for you. Video games do not cause bad eyesight or a decrease in social skills, they can benefit the brain, help with school achievement, and can help keep criminals off the streets. From slowing the aging process, helping Dyslexic kids reading better, to improving eyesight, video games do it all. Drew Guarini, author of "9 Ways Video Games Can Actually be Good for You" ofn the Huffington Post, says, "A study of 681 healthy individuals ages 50 and older revealed that playing 10 hours of a specially designed video game was able to stall the natural decline of different cognitive skills by up to seven years, in some cases." This data is helpful because, this means video games can help families who are worried about someone with Alzheimer"s, if a family member were to hear about this they would be able to research more and figure out what video games would help the best to keep the person young in the mind. As stated in "9 Ways Video Games Can Actually be Good for You" the author claims that a study performed by the University of Padua shows that playing fast paced video games can help Dyslexic kids read better. "The team separated children age 7 to 13 into two groups, one of which played an action game called "Rayman Raving Rabids" while the other played a lower tempo game. "When the reading skills of the children were tested afterwards, those who played the action game were capable of reading faster and more accurately." This information could aid parents who did not know how to help their Dyslexic child, or maybe the parents know how to help their child but the kid is not interested in the parent"s idea. This option would likely appeal to kids better. According to Drew Guarini, video games can also improve your eyesight. "In the 2009 study, expert action gamers played first-person shooting games like "Unreal Tournament 2004" and "Call of Duty" while non-experienced action gamers played "The Sims 2." Those playing the shoot-'em-up games saw a boost in their "contrast sensitivity function,"" In other words, playing more action packed video games can help you react and analyze data coming from your eyes. This means we could try and correct bad eyesight with video games containing more action. Parents who think video games do not bring benefits when playing may say something along the lines of how they didn"t have video games when they were younger and that they are more well rounded because they spent more time outside. The truth is that times have changed, most kids in society play video games. Also, kids will always be playing some sort of games, when parents were younger they must have played games outside, this kept them busy. Video games are this centuries way of occupying themselves and staying out of parents" hair. Many people have been linking violence in society to video games, claiming that these games cause shootings and other violence in players, but it turns out there is no actual data that shows this claim. This claim is false and as relevant as saying our tap water causes violence. 91% of society plays video games with all ranges of violence, therefore making that claim is useless and proves nothing. Erik Kain, author of "Do Games like "Grand Theft Auto V" Cause Real-World Violence?", voices that "Overall, violent crime is down in the US"indeed, as violent video games have become more popular, violent crime has fallen." Which means that violent video games are doing the exact opposite than the other side states. Steve Levitt has an interesting hypothesis, he suggests that, "Potential criminals aren"t committing crimes because they are spending so much time playing violent video games." Or maybe these violent video games are good for those who need to let out a little anger, they take the anger out on some fiction world instead of taking it out on someone in real life. In Steven Pinker"s book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Pinker writes that despite high profile acts of digital savagery, we are actual living in the safest period in the history of history. Along with those facts, developers are coming out with more and more gruesome and violent video games and millions are buying them, this must play a part in how low crime rates have been. Countless parents and other adults are against the act of playing video games and often think less of children or teens who game. Dara Mohammadi"s article, "How Online Gamers are Solving Science"s Biggest Problems", documents that "In 2011, people playing Foldit, an online puzzle game about protein folding, resolved the structure of an enzyme that causes an Aids-like disease in monkeys. Researchers had been working on the problem for 13 years. The gamers solved it in three weeks." This means developers could make games like Foldit and come up with a solution for fatal human diseases. Mohammadi also stated that "people playing an astronomy game called Planet Hunters found a curious planet with four stars in its system, and to date, they've discovered 40 planets that could potentially support life, all of which had been previously missed by professional astronomers." What else could these games help with? Could players come up with the cure for Cancer? Now when your mother or any other adult goes to nag you about gaming, you have evidence to support playing video games. You can tell them how video games slow the aging process, help Dyslexic kids read better, and improve eyesight. Other things you can tell them is that video games are keeping potential criminals off the streets and solving science"s biggest problems.