I shall not list everything in detail but just explain what you should do to keep healthy.
Negative:
1. Playing games will not help the front lobe of your brain grow. (This is the part of your brain which controls your anger) This part of the brain can only develop to the age of 20 years. There are many things which will not help the front of the brain grow, such as watching TV. To balance things out you should do the following.
a) For every hour of play you should read a book out loud or do math for 15 minutes. Reading out loud and doing math help the front of the brain develop. Also, You should read all the text, displayed in a game, out loud. Do not click past the text.
b) Spend some time playing outside and talking to friends.
Note: If you play games for 2 hours, you should do at least 30 minutes of math or reading. This does not include your already given work (Such as school work). This must be extra. (Please follow this as it could effect you later in life)
2. TVs can cause some people to have a fit, also, sitting close to a TV can be bad for your eyes.
What can you do about this?
a) Try sit at least 2m away from the TV. 1.5m is also ok but its better to be safe than sorry.
b) If the repeated patterns or flashing lights on the TV screen cause you or your child to have a fit or blank out, there are only 2 ways to solve this. The best way is to wear an eye patch. (By using one eye to watch TV or play games, you will cancel the effect these patterns cause. Or you could consult your doctor for pills which can also help fight these effects however, an eye patch would be the better choice.
1. Researchers at the University of Rochester linked games to better visual processing. (Note: These were tests conducted using games like Shoot em ups (Counter Strike) and also Grand Thef Auto 3.) Tetris did not seem to help much. Gamers can react and see things faster than non gamers.
2. Brains nerve cells actually shift their shape when you play video games to communicate with each other other more effectively.
This does not mean you should play games even more as you must keep in mind that there are also bad effects. If you are over the age of 20 then you have less to worry about but you should still not over play games.
At the end of the day games are ok and have the same effect as watching TV or listening to music. Infact, you use less of you brain when watching TV than you do when you are sleeping.
Some TV programs do help your brain develop, like the math programs for school exams. There are also games that do this, like math games.
A game is the same as a movie because you also watch the TV screen but in a game you also need to control the events which take place, solve the puzzles and not only watch the guy solve the puzzles himself (as on TV), You also need to read in the game, reading is good ... isnt it? (However, some children dont read the text in games, they just click past it).
The only thing which makes games worse is that it is more addictive and children end up playing too much, they also neglect to do their homework. Unless the children play for the hour or 2 and do their homework, there will always be people saying that games are bad.
