Many parents have heard their children say: "Mom! I'll play a bit more before studying!" According to a survey by the Family Welfare Society in 2024, one in ten students in Hong Kong is addicted to video games. Parents think that students playing video games will affect their daily life and academic performance and that playing video games will not bring any advantages to students' growth.
However, with the increasing diversity in technology and game forms, which are novel and interesting, it turns out that playing video games can also help students develop physical and mental health!
The Christian Service Department found that 75% of students play video games to relieve stress. Some cardiologists even have positive thoughts about playing video games. Dr. Tsang Chi Yan and Dr. Cheung Ling Ling said that playing video games can help students relax, coordinate their bodies and react. Parents playing video games with their children can further promote parent-child relationships!
What are the benefits of playing video games?
Action and shooting video games can enhance students' hand-eye coordination
With high-speed and dynamic game plots, students need to quickly integrate and judge the game task instructions and respond within a specified short time, such as coordinating body movements, etc., to enhance students' hand-eye coordination, attention and concentration.
Strategy video games improve students' cognitive abilities
Students are required to use logical thinking, make quick decisions and take actions, which effectively strengthens the multi-task processing area of the prefrontal cortex in the students' brains, improved cognitive thinking and trains independent thinking, making the fun of playing video games more meaningful.
Relax students' body and mind to reduce learning pressure
A 2024 survey by the Hong Kong Education Bureau showed that 82% of secondary school students still need to carry out academic activities for 4.2 hours after school every day. Long-term study will bring pressure and increase the concentration of students' hormone cortisol. If it exceeds the standard for a long time, it may damage the regeneration of hippocampal neurons and affect students' memory and emotions.
Enhance students' social and interactive communication skills with others
For cooperative team video games, students need to team up with different players to play video games, communicate and coordinate in real-time, formulate strategies, allocate resources, etc. This digital social method can effectively enhance students' social interaction skills.
Video games that combine physical activities
With the technology of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), such as dance or fitness video games, students can easily move their bodies at any time to achieve a relaxing effect. Avoid stereotype of traditional sports, not only can online gaming help maintain physical health, it can also help solve the lack of physical fitness among students nowadays.
As long as students arrange their time properly, choose video games that are beneficial to their body and mind, and maintain effective parent-child interaction, they can relieve stress through fun video games in a busy learning environment. Healthy gaming has become a stress-relief tool for the new generation.