The Olympics are gradually moving away - in the near future, eSports can become the main sporting sport. Electronic sports are gaining popularity by collecting millions of spectators during major competitions for $ 5 million. It is not surprising that professional players train 10 hours a day. Surprisingly, non-professionals can spend the same amount of time in front of the screen, forgetting about real life. What's the catch? Can virtual life be full or equal to real? Do gamers need to turn off the computer and feel the grass under their feet?
Some recent studies shed light on the effects of the games that have on life, work and school - and you know, not everything is so bad.
Billion players
There would be no restaurants without regular customers, and video games along with their developers also follow this rule. Among the many game genres, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (or MMORPG) are MacDonalds in the game world.
The MMORPG simply has no end - the games constantly require a higher level to perform more difficult tasks, as well as a high level of collaboration and cooperation.
Excellence in such games requires considerable time spent online, and serious social efforts to achieve high levels. It is reasonable to assume that such people eat up almost all their free time offline, or real life.
In an Australian study of the Australian Journal of Psychology, 1945 gamers over the age of 14 were surveyed. The goal is to find out how the MMORPG affects the lives of players.
Of those results that were not surprised - MMORPG players come into the game almost every day and are involved in the game process much longer. What surprised the psychologists is the emotional experiences of these players.
They could not imagine life without a game, they felt annoyed and thought about the game when they were not playing. What is remarkable, they played even when they did not want to. And of course, they knew that the game interfered with their work, school and personal relationships.
However, there are two ways to interpret these results:
- MMORPG players lack what non-gamers call “real life”, so they just worry about it;
- MMORPG players worry that they spend a lot of time in the game, because society sees this as a waste of time.
The findings not only make it possible to distinguish between the two options, but also emphasize two separate problems; one is connected with individuals, the other with society. To understand the essence of the problems, you need to study who plays these games and why.
Online: Comrade in misfortune?
If games are a way to escape from reality, they can also be a way to avoid uncomfortable social interactions. There is evidence that shy people prefer online spaces because they provide greater control over social interactions. Accordingly, the MMORPG meets the requirements of a large range of gamers.
In a German study published last month, scientists found that people who spend more time in online games are very emotional. They also studied the degree of their friendliness in online and offline environments.
It turned out that shy people have more friends in “online”, with whom they also meet in “offline”. They also transfer more of their friends from the real world to online. In other words, shy gamers use the online social media to create and maintain their friendships in a way that suits them.
Should we refuse timid people in comfort just because they choose a less social and intrusive way of meeting and communicating with people?
Do not forget about the children
As adults, we got enough experience to figure out how to spend time and not feel guilty after spending this very time. But children have no such experience. Should we regulate their playing time to eliminate the negative impact on school performance and friendship?
Three studies published over the last year shed light on this question.
The first study, which surveyed 192,000 adolescents in 22 countries, showed that performance in exact sciences, math, or literature was not influenced in any way by single or multiplayer games.
The second study, in which 27,000 middle school students (12–13 years old) in France were interviewed, showed that video games do not reduce cognitive abilities, regardless of the type of games (but children who read more show slightly higher cognitive abilities) .
And the third study, based on 4899 British schoolchildren, showed that children who play less than an hour a day show improved pro-social behavior and life satisfaction. These effects were reversed for those who played more than three hours a day, so it was concluded that excessive playing with games could be detrimental.
Together, these studies show that children mostly use their extra time to play video games, and until they have other responsibilities (or games will not replace them), they will feel good. Wasn’t that when we grew up?
One hundred hours on a game chair
Taking into account all the warnings taken out in the course of the research, we can say that the situation is better than it seemed. We create online spaces in which people feel comfortable, and with this help them build social relationships that they previously feared. Is it bad?
Research also shows that the best thing we can do for our children is to teach them how to navigate technology. Diversity is the taste of life, and the demonstration of this diversity is the responsibility of every parent.
And when children become adults, if they decide that a desire to spend their time playing games online leads to satisfaction, well, it may be worth giving them what they want without hammering a nail of guilt. It is better to spend a hundred hours in a game chair to understand what your children really feel. Why not?
The article is based on materials .
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