Technology moves quickly. We all know this. In a little over three decades, we have moved from Pong to games in which you can literally immerse yourself in the action. Games now can be so realistic that it is almost as if it is real life. However, despite the changes in technology, what has not changed is the immersive nature of gaming. It pulls you in. Gamers become hooked on the gaming experience, and it becomes a hobby. A passion. You may be forgiven for thinking that this could be unhealthy. That the nature of gaming, and the pull that it has over gamers, means that it is unhealthy, and will have a negative effect on your health and wellbeing. However, this seems not to be the case.
Gaming can actually, according to research and a perhaps surprising scientific consensus, have a beneficial impact upon your health. For example, let us focus on pain, which you may imagine gaming could not possibly help you with. You may be wrong. The Journal of Preventative Medicine found that in multitude of studies, that gaming improved the health of participants, and that in particular virtual reality games led to the players feeling less anxiety and reduced sensations of pain. As well as this, there is evidence to suggest that gaming can improve spatial awareness, memory, motor skills and also be cathartic.
So, whether your poison is Pong, or you are more taken by Tekken, you can rest assured that gaming can actually improve your health. Gaming is fun, but it can also be recuperative and healthy.
The infographic (source; computerplanet.co.uk) below gives the health benefits of gaming:
