Videogames stop you ageing
So there is hope for all us geeks out there!
While it doesnt stop you ageing all over, it does save your brain from ageing! My first thoughts on this were that it’s a bad thing - surely if your brain isnt ageing then you arent going to be learning anything and if you start gaming at 3 you’ll keep a mental age of 3?!
However, apparently (from globeandmail.com) “playing video games provides benefits similar to bilingualism in exercising the mind. Just as people fluent in two languages learn to suppress one language while speaking the other, so too are gamers adept at shutting out distractions to swiftly switch attention between different tasks.”
This means that gamers outperform in mental tests…
But hold on a second… arent many games just mental tests in their own right? So how does this really prove anything - you play games, you can solve mental tests easier… surely thats equivalent to saying that if you solve mental tests, you can solve mental tests!?!?
I’m sure there is probably alot more to it than that, but if thats the only factor, then it seems like a bit of a waste of money to me in order to solve something that’s pretty obvious!!
Anyway, at least it gives me an excuse for all those hours i spend kicking my housemates at Mario Kart!
February 12th, 2006 at 20:26
You may beat your housemates at MarioKart now - good job I’m no longer living with you, or you’d have to admit that you’re rubbish and bow down to my superiority :p
February 12th, 2006 at 23:16
Can’t beat Wario and Princess though, can you?! Ha ha haa