Imagine if videogames could make you smarter. A recent study by Swedish, German, and Dutch researchers has suggested this. It was published in Scientific Reports. For two years, the researchers tracked nearly 10,000 children aged 9-12 for their intelligence. The researchers found that the game had a positive effect on intelligence after two years. Intelligence is defined as the ability to learn well, think rationally and understand complex ideas.
The average child's IQ increased by 2.5 points if they were in the top 17% of children who played more hours than their peers over the past two years.
It might not be so bad for your teenager to play video games for hours. These conclusions are similar to those made by experts at a webinar by the French Office for Drugs and Addictive Trends. Celine Bonnaire is a clinical psychologist. "It's accepted that play contributes towards the development of children, adolescents, and their maturation toward adulthood," she says. Video games could be used to help young people learn to manage their social contacts, work in a group, socialize, discover different identity registers through their avatar, and increase their self-confidence details the psychologist.
Fortnite is a game I enjoy playing with my friends and cousins, but not much else. It's not a game I am very interested in. Morgan, 13.
According to Carine Mutatayi (research officer at the OFDT and prevention referent), video games can be "a place for youthful sociability and encounters, as well as a place where you can continue interactions with your real-life friends and loved ones." The OFDT presented the results from a study that was based on thirty interviews with adolescents who played video games in spring 2021. These results show that video games provide adolescents with a "personal and collective fulfillment", but that they also allow them to practice self-regulation. Carine Mutatayi notes that video games are subject to a golden rule: do your homework first.
Carine Mutatayi says that there is a "real grounding in real world" through the desire to play with real friends and partners. She also notes that they want to share their experiences with their families. This article will help you to dissect commonly held ideas about video gaming.
