• Question: Do you think video games are good for your mental health?

    Asked by Ebby to Jack, Gem, Jermaine, Michelle, Steve on 21 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Jermaine Ravalier

      Jermaine Ravalier answered on 21 Jun 2017:

      I teach this kind of thing in my module, and really there’s two schools of thought. The first is that video games (and violent video games in particular) can make some children more aggressive (for example, the Columbine Massacre is a case study that many people point to as an example), but also pro-social video games (where you help others) can also make people help others more too!

      There’s another school of thought which argues that video games really don’t have any influence on behaviour at all!

      With respect to mental health, I don’t think there’s a single piece of compelling evidence which shows that video games are good – or bad – for mental health.

    • Photo: Steven Brown

      Steven Brown answered on 21 Jun 2017:

      I second Jermaine! For sure, it’s too black and white to think of ‘video games’ when they come in so many forms. I expect a lot of parents would nowadays rather their kids were indoors playing games. When I was a kid we were out and about all day long.

    • Photo: Michelle Jamieson

      Michelle Jamieson answered on 22 Jun 2017:

      As both have said below, people are in two minds about it!

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