#51 26/03/14

COULD COMPUTER GAME BE GOOD FOR YOU AFTER ALL

     In Britian, the average young person now spends more money on games each year than on going to the cinema or renting videos. But is this necessarily a bad thing? For years, newspaper reports have been say that children who spend too much time playing computer games become unsociable, bad-tempered, even violent as a result. But new research, carried out in both Europe and the USA, suggests that opposite may be true.

     Indeed, playing some of the more complicated games may help people of all ages to improve certain skills. Researchers claim that this is because the games make the brain work harder in certain ways, like noticing sounds and movements quickly and identifying what they are. The fact that people play the games repeatedly means that the get a lot of practice in these skills which are therefore likely to become highly developed.

     Social skills may benefits, too. Researchers in Chicago think that fans of first-person shooter games such as "Counterstrike" are better than non-players when it comes to building trust and co-operation, and that this helps them to make good friendships and become strong members of their communities. So rather than giving up computer games, perhaps young people need to spend more time on them?