“Video games are a bad influence to young peoples minds” says a news reporter. “That video game is destroying my child's eyes!” says a concerned mother. “Video games are for fat people” says a small majority of society. While all of these negative rumors spread throughout the world, people don't even want to consider that there may be some good in video games. In fact, new research reveals that that some video games may actually be good for your health. But you ask yourself, “How can that be when all kids do is sit on their butts in-front of a television screen all day long?”


First category: Vision. Yes, video games (specifically first-person-shooters) actually have positive effects on improving visual skills. The reason behind this is research, which has shown that our brains capacity increases by playing the games in order to spread attention over a wide range of events taking place in the game itself. Video games can heighten the capability of our visual attention and distribution of perception.


Now lets talk about the brain. Some people say that video games corrupt the mind, such as making kids violent and down right stupid. That statement is completely false. New games are invented everyday. Games that teach you skills, (yes, video games actually teach you skills) such as; quick and accurate typing, learning historical events, survival skills, teamwork, and much more. Therefor, video games are good for learning since there are numerous types of games where players have to use various skills in order to complete them.


Yet another positive reinforcer of why video games are good is because it greatly improves the effects of your hand-eye coordination. Video games do in fact help to improve motor skills and hand eye coordination because as you practice the ability to train your brain to react quick enough to a specific event in the game, it eventually becomes a habit, then a skill. Take the game, Guitar Hero for example. Sure it doesn't actually teach you how to play guitar, but it does increases the reaction time for that person, that way when they do pick up a real guitar the hand-eye coordination will already be there.


Now to help shine some light on the biggest concern for many anti-video game people. Health. Believe it or not, some of the video games of our generation actually improve health. There are multiple games out there now that are perfect examples of making players get of their butts and being active such as; Dance Dance Revolution, In The Groove, and the most common Wii Fit. These games force you to get up and break a sweat if you play long and hard enough.


The last point I would like make is the fact that kids aren't the only people using video games, adults are too! Adults, just like kids get on the same servers and play games together everyday. But then your thinking, “oh well, those are just low-life adults who live I their mothers basements” wrong. There are many types of video game/simulators that professional adults use to learn new skills. Examples of this would be pilot and astronauts getting trained to replicate a real life event to improve their flying skills before they start the job, the same goes for marines in the military too.


To be honest, the world that we live in is surrounded by technology of this type and its only going to increase as we progress towards the future. Therefore, in conclusion, video games aren't a negative aspect to children because they improve all of the following: Vision, the parts of the brain that deals with motor and hand-eye coordination skills, and health, and professionals in many fields use this technology as an advantage in the real world.