How Much Gaming is Safe for Health?
Gaming industry is so vast and it’s expanding day by day. In 2015 two billion people were counted as digital gamers. Nowadays, gaming is one of the most enjoyable sources of home entertainment. With the advancement of technology, the number of smartphones, desktops, laptops, and gaming consoles etc are increasing rapidly. This gives the facility of playing games to almost everyone who owns any device among the mentioned categories.
Billions of people are enjoying the leisure of gaming these days. Many studies have been conducted to figure out whether gaming affects adversely or favorably. While reading some articles on the web, we find that for kids and adults, gaming has been discovered advantageous in improving their cognitive abilities.
However, gaming can create health issues, when its addiction wins against other priorities of social life. Gaming can become an extreme addiction for some people. Which causes anxiety and depression as well as social isolation. Such addictive gaming is viewed as a disease called gaming-disorder.
With that said it becomes crucial for the youngsters and parents to think about their gaming duration. This is where the question of how much gaming should one do to maintain good health conditions, comes.
How Much Gaming is Safe?
Gaming is one of the attractive activities for kids and adults. Parents provide gaming equipment to take care of their boredom and to keep them engaged and busy. But as we all know, excess of everything is bad. Same is true for gaming. Although gaming has proved beneficial for kids, it also has negative side effects if it is done excessively. This makes parents think, how much gaming is safe and how much is not?
A research found that for kids of 7–11 years of age, 8–9 hours of gaming per week is safe and proved beneficial. Kids who played within this time frame came out with improved reaction time, cognitive abilities, and more social than those who played more. Increase in gaming duration beyond nine hours creates behavioral problems in kids. It reduces the time they spend in other social and academic activities.
Game development corporations set age ratings for each game they develop and release into the market. Some games contain content which is considered inappropriate for minors. Thus it becomes crucial for parents to monitor the age ratings of gaming titles being played by their kids. Video games rated for adults being played by minor kids, creates behavioral problems in those kids.
Interactive Gaming
Gaming is quite beneficial as long as it is interactive and is done within the time frame. A study found that for older adults with mild cognitive impairment, gaming improved cognitive abilities keeping them more relaxed and happier than before. The adolescents under study were allowed to game for 90min each week. Gaming becomes a good source of relaxation and it is more fun when played with friends and family members.
Moreover, gaming can also provide excellent assistance in learning and teaching. The process of teaching and learning can further be improved by introducing gaming in education. As this study suggests that gaming should be introduced in educational institutions. The discovery is amazing. Gaming improved kids’ problem solving power and abilities to build new strategies. This is why gaming is highly expected to be introduced in different learning fields.
Although this does not mean that all kinds of games will be brought into classrooms or any other learning institutions. Video games consist of different categories. The developers and educators together are conducting studies and developing games with the help of which new learning skills are achieved. That day is not too far when these initiatives will bring and set the basis of gaming in classrooms. This would turn many unbelievers into believers of gaming.
Problematic Gaming
Although gaming has proved beneficial for health, meanwhile, some people find it troublesome. As this study finds that 4.9% of gamers out of a sample of 4028 adolescents, experienced problematic gaming. But the number of people for whom gaming turns out problematic is very less. Problematic gamers suffer from impaired control over gaming duration. Such gamers feel weird and depressed all the time specifically when they are away from gaming. They are socially isolated and they live in their gaming world.
This is the dangerous face of gaming. Well, it has its own symptoms which can be seen prominently. Following are some symptoms found in gamers who are suffering gaming disorder:
- Thinking and discussing gaming most of the time
- Anger and bad feeling while bad game play
- Wanting to have more time to play
- Losing interest in other activities e.g home or school work or any other job
- Still wanting to play more despite such problems
- Lying about the gaming duration
- Trying eliminate bad feeling with gaming
Guardians are advised to continuously look for these symptoms. These symptoms show the gamer is not a normal one. Such symptoms are quite bad for health and steps need to be taken in order to take such kids or adults out of this mental disorder situation.
Conclusion
Gaming is an excellent source of home recreation. Gaming is enjoyed by billions of people globally. Gaming itself is not bad, until the gamer takes it to the dangerous level. It is just a matter of time that one spends gaming. Kids should not play for more than 8–9 hours per week. Gaming is advantageous for kids, and adults within this time-frame.
Older adults can enjoy 90min of gaming each week.
Parents should take care of their family members. The impaired control over gaming is considered a disease named gaming disorder. It has clear symptoms to be seen in its victims. Parents are advised to look for those symptoms and take crucial steps if any of these symptoms are found. Furthermore, age rating is an important factor in how a particular game will affect the gamer’s behavior and manners. Games must be allowed according to age rating to kids and adults of different years of age.
Every activity has limits beyond which it affects adversely. Similar is the case with gaming. Gaming was invented for humans to recreate with it and it should be enjoyed either alone or with friends and family. But one should not forget the real world and rather start living in the gaming world. Gaming world is virtual, living inside it creates a lot more problems.