Contrary to long-held beliefs that playing video games will damage your brain, a recent study offers the most recent evidence that doing so actually improves academic achievement.
According to an Australian study involving more than 12,000 high school kids, those who regularly play online video games perform better on math, reading, and science exams than those who don’t.
According to economist Alberto Posso from RMIT University in Melbourne, “students who play online games practically every day score 15 points above the norm in arithmetic and 17 points above the average in science.”
You must solve problems in order to go on to the next level of an online game, which necessitates using some of the general knowledge and abilities in math, reading, and science that you have been taught throughout the day.
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which evaluated students from more than 700 schools in 2012 and gathered data on their online and personal interests, provided the Australian data for the study.
Posso contends that students who regularly play online games are honing analytical and problem-solving abilities that will be useful to them in their academic pursuits.
Posso told Bridget Brennan at the ABC that “sometimes [players] have to comprehend some of the basics of chemistry even, so they really have to understand science.”
Massively multiplayer online games have been supported by some psychologists as being good for cognitive growth.
However, not all internet use seems to be as advantageous, despite the fact that gamers seem to be gaining scholastic advantages in their downtime.
Posso discovered that teens who regularly check Facebook and other social media sites run the risk of falling behind academically. According to the research, these pupils fall 20 points behind their peers who never use social media in math.
You won’t actually solve problems through Facebook, Posso told ABC.
From an economic standpoint, it’s interesting to note that time has a high opportunity cost because we often spend it on things that aren’t always related to academic achievement.
Posso acknowledges that kids who are heavy social media users may be using platforms like Facebook because they are finding their homework to be too challenging, but he also claims that time spent on social media is not merely wasted time intellectually.
According to a press release from Posso, “[it] may also suggest that they are having difficulties in arithmetic, reading, and science and are turning to social media as a substitute.”
Teachers may wish to consider incorporating Facebook use into their lessons as a means to engage those kids.
Although the study found a link between gaming and grades, it’s vital to remember that causality hasn’t been established, and Posso isn’t yet ready to claim that gaming is the cause of improved marks.
One option is that some kids find it simpler to do their assignments and studies more quickly.
There are probably a variety of variables at play, such as gaming prowess, the activities pupils choose to engage in during free time, and familial settings.
It’s a promising topic for further investigation, according to Posso, and other scientists concur.
It’s intriguing that this study found a link between online gaming and academic achievement, but biological psychologist Peter Etchells of Bath Spa University in the UK, who wasn’t involved in the study, told Samuel Gibbs at The Guardian that “we really need better ways of understanding how and why people play video games before we’re able to tease apart what that correlation actually means, if anything.”
In order to respond to these kinds of questions with greater assurance, he stated, “Several researchers have been making efforts to raise awareness of this subject for a while.
Other new research reveals that gaming is good for your learning capacities, powers of memory, motor skills, and even gives promise for recovering from brain damage, though we may not be able to understand the connection just yet.
So, at least we can feel good knowing that gaming is probably doing us more good than damage while scientists find out exactly what’s going on here.
