There are many ways to escape from our everyday stresses. Fantasies are crafted by storytellers in books and comics to give us release from the modern world issues that we face. With modern technologies, we have also been given a new, interactive stress reliever: gaming.
Gaming doesn’t just give us wonderfully crafted stories, it also gives us an interactive outlet for our stress relief. Whether you are looking for a good story, or just want to hit something, gaming is the way to escape. But, the question remains: what long-term effects does gaming have for stress relief?
IMAGE: PEXELS
The Connection Between Video Games And Stress
Video games have become easily accessible. Anyone can easily install the gaming client 918Kiss on their phones, tablets, or other media devices to download games. Downloadable games create easy, pocket coping mechanisms for free for gamers, supporting a much larger range of realism on a smaller, more portable scale. This realism translates over into the stress reactions that we feel.
The realism and attention that is required by video games activate the same centers of your brain that are engaged when you commit real acts of violence or when you are experiencing real stress situations. While these centers aren’t activated to the same extreme, they also activate other areas, which teaches you how to deal with these situations in real life.
What Research Shows
People have been trying to prove that video games cause violence for years. However, let’s go over what studies actually show: that gaming decreases human stress levels. To determine why and how it works this way, researchers had to tackle the first order of business: if players acknowledge a change in their real-life caused by their gaming habits.
When surveyed, gamers failed to establish a link between their real-life habits and their gaming. If there actually are any negative effects, gamers themselves do not feel or acknowledge them. Gamers acknowledge actual decreases in their stress levels, no matter what they were playing.
The Link Between Play Style And Stress Relief
Researchers decided to look into it more to discover if coop, single-play, and competitive play made a difference in the feelings that gamers reported and experienced. There was a surprising conclusion to their data.
There were differences in playing cooperatively versus single-player, with cooperative gaming showing significant stress relief and solo-play showing only slightly fewer gains in relief. Gamers who play together, however, get the added benefit that they retain positive feelings toward the members of their group.
It provides a social experience, which on its own has been proven to decrease stress levels. Competitive gameplay also shows stress relief capabilities. Competitive gaming increases certain stressors, which teaches you to deal with these stressors when they arise in real-life. It also teaches gamers how to work cooperatively in a sportsman-like experience.
Overall, gaming is providing and teaching people a successful coping skill for encountering stressful situations. The recovery experience is an essential facet of the gaming experience. This is the generation of technology, and they have made sure to make their coping mechanisms as easily accessible as possible.
Studies have shown that gaming has immense positive effects for the players who choose to seek stress relief in the graphics of the newest release. So, go ahead and seek relief from your negative feelings on your computer. It’s been proven to be good for you.
If you are interested in even more entertainment-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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