I grew up playing a lot of video games. Some might say too much, but I think it has had a really positive effect on me.

I have also spent a pretty substantial amount of time arguing against people who think that all evil somehow stems from video games. Some of the arguments include that the violence desensitizes you and makes you a sociopath, or that playing video games makes you antisocial and informs a broken understanding of how the world works. These arguments are pretty extreme, but at their core they come from valid points about the drawbacks of non-moderated video game time. However, it’s not exactly fair to apply them to all people who play video games, which in 2011 included 91% of kids between 2 and 17. ¹ Many people also tend to ignore studies and articles that don’t support their ideas, never actually making an objective effort to see both sides of the argument.

Video games present the user with a diverse variety of frustrating problems to solve, which the player often has to attempt more than a few times in order to understand how to properly address the problem. Through this kind of fast-paced crucible, the player is training their brain to be quicker and more capable at active problem-solving. I think this kind of activity also helps develop habits to bolster motivation and workflow later in life. For example, spending so many hours developing a positive association to problem solving has largely contributed to my love of solving real world problems today. But, these are just my opinions and experiences, so I thought I would take a look at some outside sources to examine some of the positives and negatives of video games today.

In 2014 the American Psychology Association (APA) published “The Benefits of Video Games.” In the first few sentences they directly address the massive collection of research on the negatives of video games. Afterwards, multiple studies are reviewed  to show that video games have positive impacts on for areas: motivational, cognitive, emotional, and social. Subjects across multiple studies show improvements to reaction time, problem-solving capability, perseverance, and also develop an early appreciation for flow states.

With the progression of video games’ popularity, technical capability, and societal presence, the possible effects of video games are only going to get more impactful. For example, In recent news video games have been used for treating disorders like PTSD. People are using games for purposes ranging from escapism to a new kind of exposure therapy using virtual reality.

There are even viable main stream professions for serious video gamers, ranging from being on an esports team to game streaming on Twitch. The Fortnite World cup prize money right now is $100 million split across different events, and a Twitch streamer named Ninja makes $500,000 a month.

With this rise in popularity, the negatives of video games are becoming more impactful as well. Addiction problems have become common and relevant enough that the world health organization (WHO) has just classified gaming addiction as a disorder in its 11th International Classification of Diseases (IDC). This is compounded by stories of young kids not going to school and having violent tantrums because they are addicted to playing games like Fortnite. To make matters worse, some parents are enabling this addictive behavior by actually paying for “Fortnite Tutors” to help their kids improve at the game. I’m not condemning the fact that some people dream of being a professional gamer, follow your dreams, but skipping school and throwing tantrums seems OTT.

Another point to bring up when thinking about the increasing impact that video games have on our society is the deeply entrenched problem of sexism and stereotyping in many modern video games. Even despite the fact that women make up a large percentage of modern gamers, a very small percentage of protagonists in video games today are women. Even if a protagonist is a woman, or the game has characters that are women, they tend to be wildly objectified and their personalities often come from an old box of cliched tropes. There are quite a few shining exceptions, and they have received large amounts of praise and success, but unfortunately they still only make up a small part of mainstream games.

The important thing moving forward is the fact that there are going to be positives and negatives to almost every situation, as nothing is black and white. Regardless if the topic is video games or some other controversy, it is always valuable to look at both, if not all possible sides of an argument.