Despite large amounts of criticism and disapproval, esports continues to attract people from various fields and age groups. In the following article, my main aim is to demonstrate some of the key social and cognitive benefits that this form of competition has shown to have. Extensive research that I have conducted during the second year of my university studies regarding the intellectual and social advantages of the video games will help me provide helpful insight and provide appropriate pieces of information for those interested.
Increased self-confidence
Stereotypically, gaming is seen as an antisocial activity. Oftentimes, it can also be associated with low self-esteem and insecurities. However, the studies report that engaging in esports considerably boosts the players’ level of self-confidence. The instant reward and feedback offered by most gaming interfaces lets you know that you are advancing your skills, leveling up and doing things correctly. All of these positive affirmations help people receive the necessary and healthy amount of validation.
Problem solving skills
Second benefit in my list falls under both the cognitive and social categories. Quick and effective problem solving is an essential requirement for most jobs nowadays. It is also a universally needed ability to have. As time progresses and the challenges imposed by any particular game grows in difficulty, the players are required to develop more and more effective ways to tackle the challenges and advance to the next level. It is important to be able to incorporate and manifest these skills from the world of esports into real life as well.
Deriving strategies
Do I really need to say much here? Real-time strategy focused esports games have shown to significantly improve the players’ planning and strategy-deriving skills. This particular benefit could also have a lot of use in the modern lifestyle and the working environment. The world where businesses constantly compete with each other and spend massive amounts of time trying to come up with the perfect strategies, it is essentially important to possess such a skill at the expense of enjoying your favourite game.
Satisfied parents
Before you squint your eyes with skepticism, it turns out that esports have an overall positive influence on small children. 71% of parents have reported satisfactory evaluation with regards to their kids engaging in such games. This should not be sensationally unexpected, since esports is an excellent way for the introverted children to socialize, connect with their peers, develop interests in actual, physical sports activities and become equipped with all of the previously mentioned skills. Increased degree of socialization is perhaps one of the most underappreciated benefits of esports. People tend to forget that not everyone fancies being out and about. Some of us are simply not the social butterflies we are expected to be. If you can engage in fun conversations, exchange ideas and connect with the players from different parts of the world, all while enjoying your favourite game, what is the harm in this? One could meet their life-long friend on an esports platform, and there is so much more to the socialization-related benefits than I can provide here. I strongly suggest reading more about this aspect of esports.
Enhanced attention span, coordination and responsiveness
Playing sports is naturally associated with having good coordination skills, the ability to respond effectively in critical or decisive situations, and possessing a better than average attention span. It turns out that the absence of physical exertion does not eliminate these useful benefits at all. Gamers should exhibit maximal caution, attentiveness and cooperation with their teammates. All of these are necessary to successfully work towards the common goal and complete the desired mission. The latter may sometimes take a substantially long time, which is exactly where the attention span enhancement comes in. As for responsiveness, it is relatively more self-explanatory. Esports and virtually any type of game it has to offer, presents various challenges filled with unexpected situations and scenarios that may be hard to navigate for the beginners. However, with the progression of a player, the latter will find themselves responding under much less pressure, with increased effortlessness and ease.
Euphoniously beneficial
Good music is one of the best fuels for our brains. Luckily, esports will not let you down in this area either. There are various Spotify playlists you can dig in or you can find out more at spotifystorm about the ways you can grow and promote your existing esports playlists which will help popularize this gaming niche. There are so many underrated,or even completely unknown tracks you could listen to. Make sure to share them with your friends and have fun.
Supports employment
While this could be considered as more of a financial benefit, being employed is largely judged and assessed by societal expectations. To debunk another negative stereotype associated with esports where people assume that gamers are generally lazy and jobless, the studies have shown that this industry successfully supported more than two thousand companies. In terms of the job market, it has provided a whopping 220,000 employment opportunities only in the United States. Keep in mind, however, that this data is more than 3 years old. It would not be too unreasonable to assume that the current stats look far more impressive.
Affecting the academic performance
To finish off my list with a purely cognitive and intellectual benefit, let’s not forget to mention the fact that those who take interest in esports exhibit improved performance at schools and universities. With higher overall GPA scores, the gamers also tend to develop more interest, and oftentimes at a young age, in STEM fields. I can support this statement from my personal experience since I’ve been a STEM major for four years and I continue studying chemical expertise for my MA. Almost all computer and electrical engineering students, as well as computer science majors extensively played video games, especially esports. They had been doing so since childhood, in most cases. The type of people I am referring to were very well-affluent, equipped with multidimensional skills and having high academic stats. Of course, I am not implying that the things I just mentioned are in direct correlation with whether or not someone engages in gaming. I’m simply providing an example from personal experience that coincides with the findings of the above study. Although, it would not be absolutely baseless to admit to a certain degree of interconnectedness between gaming and enhanced academic performance. Afterall, critical thinking skills, longer attention span, effective communication, responsiveness and the ability to efficiently navigate in difficult situations could all very well be employed to tackle the studying-related challenges.
The post Cognitive and social benefits of esports appeared first on Evertise.