Meditation calms the fear center in your brain, causing the amygdala to shrink. Turns out, video games can do the same thing.

That’s the good part. Here’s the bad: One researcher’s conservative estimate is that five million people in the United States have internet gaming disorder. These players show a loss of relationships, career opportunities, and more.

So are video games good for your mental health? Are they bad for your brain? Or is it somewhere in between? We spoke to two scientific experts to find out.

Video games by the numbers

In the United States, a young person will spend 10,000 hours on average playing online games before their 21st birthday. That adds up to almost the same time the average child in the United States spends in middle and high school — 10,080.

Ultimately, children literally spend years of their life online. (One year is just under 9,000 hours.)

Children can be “virtuoso gamers,” researcher Jane McGonigal says, citing Daniel Kahneman’s infamous theory that it takes 10,000 hours of effortful study to master any skill. By proxy, they may also be getting schooled in social resilience.

Why video games are good for mental health

Jane McGonigal created SuperBetter after she experienced a traumatic brain injury.SuperBetter

Working together to reach a shared goal can increase players’ social resilience. Some of the most popular games are collaborative by nature: Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, and other massively multiplayer online (MMO) games can foster meaningful connections between players and offer a sense of purpose.

Games are also a low-stakes outlet for people to let off steam for when they feel frustrated by their school or work life. “Play therapy” even uses this quality as an advantage, harnessing digital gaming as a psychological tool to encourage people to open up to their therapist online.

Take SuperBetter, which McGonigal created after she experienced a traumatic brain injury. A painful concussion left her immobile and isolated and she wanted to connect with an online support system.

Gaming offered her a community online not tied to her injuries — and she hopes SuperBetter can do the same for others. SuperBetter claims to help players “unlock your heroic potential” and “overcome tough situations” as a group.

Video games can also combat the isolation of a global lockdown marked by quarantines and virtual socializing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the video game industry is booming.

Video games saw a 73 percent growth in sales in just one year as people went online to socialize and …….

Source: https://www.inverse.com/gaming/video-games-mental-health-good-or-bad