Video games and the brain
Ever since I could remember, whatever show on television they somehow slipped the old "video games will rot your brain" thing, although not necessarily word for word but the essence of it through one of their skits or scenarios and those parts always made me laugh because for me it lacked information regarding such. In my experience video games helped me, the way I talked was from video games, by imitating how the characters talked I improved my accent, my alertness improved as some video games gave you surprises that you had to act to immediately, some general knowledge I knew came from video games, as some games have information about past or historical events and because of our interest in playing that game that information becomes retained, and whenever I was sad or in a bad mood an hour or so with my favorite game would always get me cheered up.
I have also experienced video game addiction, where I would stay up for almost 24 hours, completely ruining my body-clock, neglecting my physical health by not eating enough as I was always in a rush to get back to the game immediately, setting aside academics until the very last minute because I wanted to play more video games rather than do home-works or projects and shutting myself from the outside world, I didn't like going to family gatherings or going out with friends as I found it irritating as I always wanted to be playing games.
I have experienced both good and bad, what about you? i'd like to know some of your stories or experiences about video games.
Like in all things there will always be ups and downs, there have been researches on what the effects of video games are some have shown that video games help your brain in a way but there are some articles about video game addiction ruining lives.
Like all things there is a safe zone, a proper amount of it, and whether or not it would benefit you.
here are two links, one about the benefits of video games and the other about the negative effects of video game addiction.