Whether you choose to unwind by browsing the range of online casinos, by treacherously navigating the literal warzone of Verdansk, or just by playing Candy Crush on your mobile device, you are reaping the psychological and physiological benefits of gaming.
To anyone over the age of 30, who has vivid memories of their parents and teachers admonishing them for playing video games with apocryphal tales of square eyes, or less subtle digs about being a couch potato/waster/loser, the news that gaming could be good for you, might come as somewhat of a shock.
Yet it’s true. Playing games has several positive effects on your mind and body. In this article, we delve into a few of them, so the next time you’re being told off by a parent, partner, or friend for spending too much time gaming, you can tell them you’re doing it for the good of your health.
Health Benefit #1 – Mindfulness
The word mindfulness is often bandied about, all too frequently without much in the way of explanation. In order to best understand the word, it’s good to first get to grips with the opposite of mindfulness. Mindlessness.
In the modern world of WhatsApp messages, Facebook notifications, Instagram, X, TikTok, Gmail, BlueSky, and any other app you can think of, our minds are not operating at full capacity. They are mindlessly pulled from pillar to post, from task to task, and update to update.
This leaves us with very little time to process our thoughts and feelings, and can also leave us cut off from what is going on around us. When we play video games, however, we have to dedicate our full and total attention to them in a mindful way.
Even if we only play games for half an hour a day, that is 30 minutes of a mindful Oasis in a mindless day of stress, and that is beneficial to our overall well-being.
Health Benefit #2 – Lowering Blood Pressure
OK. Let us caveat this by saying that not all games are good for your blood pressure, and that this benefit depends quite a lot on your gaming style. If you are the type of person who screams at the screen whenever you get killed on a first-person shooter, you’re more likely to experience raised blood pressure than reduced blood pressure when you play.
For the rest of us, though, gaming works as an outlet for the day-to-day stress of life. Studies have shown that when gaming, our heart rates go down, our heart rate variability increases, and in the long term, our blood pressure lowers.
(Gamers like this aren’t likely to experience lowered blood pressure, unfortunately.)
Health Benefit #3 – Increased Attention Spans
Parents who admonished their children for gaming are now the ones who can’t sit through a 30-minute TV show without picking up their tablets to share memes about how the world was a better and safer place 40 years ago.
Conversely, those of us who grew up with gaming and still play have better attention spans than the average person and greater attention to detail. That’s because games train us in those skills and reward us when we demonstrate them. All of the online casinos at casino.org/us/ offer blackjack. If you play a few quick hands under pressure, you can increase your attention span, as well as learn how to make quick decisions under pressure, both of which are vital in the ‘real world’. Nurturing these skills can help improve our relationships, our performance at work, and keep us safe when out and about on the roads.
Health Benefit #4 – Reducing Loneliness
Loneliness can increase the risk of early mortality by 26% and it is on the rise. Not just because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but because of the global economy. With many of us forced to relocate or travel long distances for work, there is less time than ever before for socialising.
Combine this with the cost of living crisis, and it’s easy to see why 60% of Canadians feel disconnected from their community. Fortunately, online gaming provides a counterbalance to this. Not only does it provide a way for friends separated by distance to communicate and socialise, but it also gives people the opportunity to find new friends and feel part of a community.
Health Benefit #5 – Enhanced Cognitive Function
Reading has been shown to dramatically enhance cognitive function as well as increase levels of empathy in the reader. Whilst gaming does not boast the same figures of success as reading, it does come in as a close second in terms of pastimes that improve cognitive function.
Gamers regularly display superior visual processing and problem-solving skills compared to non-gamers, as well as higher levels of socially beneficial emotions such as empathy. Like reading, gaming forces its players to step into the shoes of someone else and, in doing so, understand their internal world.
In a time where the world seems perpetually on the brink of out-and-out conflict, empathy is perhaps one of the most valuable traits we can have as humans and one that should be actively fostered.
