Online gaming is a fun way of spending one's time and it can also be a great way of making new friends and even sometimes making a little bit of money on the side. Most people love online gaming because it is fun and engaging, but could this activity also have the benefit of increasing your intelligence?
More and more studies are now pointing towards the fact that playing online games will actually make you smarter. This is good news for all the online game addicts out there because now you can tell your significant others that you are not just playing a “silly game”, you are actually improving your cognitive functioning! Online gaming is interactive and while you are playing your brain is more active as compared to say watching television where your brain is simply on autopilot taking everything in.
Online gaming can make you smarter in a number of ways, including:
Sharpening Your Critical Thinking Skills
Playing an online game, no matter what it is, requires a lot of problem solving. You will be faced with challenges and you will have to quickly determine what you should do about them. If you are losing you will need to figure out why you are losing so that you can get back on top again.
The more you play online games, especially strategy games such as card games and war games, the more you learn to make rational and analytic decisions -a skill that will not only help you succeed in the game but also in real-life situations requiring you to make critical decisions.
Self-Analysis
Playing online games also helps you practice being more self-critical. After every game you examine your own performance and ask yourself what worked and what didn’t so that you will play better next time. You are thus more prepared to admit your own mistakes and understand what went wrong, which means being quite honest with yourself.
You keep asking yourself how you are doing in the grand scheme of things and how you could do better. This habit you form, will not only come in useful in improving your game but will also help you to assess your own life. This will certainly improve the quality of everything you do in life.
Fostering Creativity
When you are playing an online game of any sort, you will be faced with an on-going number of challenges and it will be your job to determine what to do and how to react to those challenges. In these situations, you will be forced to get creative to figure out what to do next.
Sometimes the act of being creative and coming up with an innovative approach to a situation can be the difference between winning and losing. This is because if you are always doing the same thing, your opponents will realize that you are predictable and they will find a way to take advantage of that. A creative player is always a tough opponent to beat because no one will be able to predict what he/she will do next.
The same applies to life. Finding creative solutions to life’s challenges will give you a huge advantage in the world and will help you forge a path of your own.
Practicing Your Communication Skills
Another way that online games could make you smarter is the fact that they also allow you to practice your communication skills. If you are working as a team within a game with someone else, you will need to communicate effectively with them to determine what they are doing. You will also need to listen to what they have to say, which includes their suggestions and criticisms.
The communication skills you would be developing thus would help you in every aspect of your life. For example, it will improve your ability to work as a team in the workplace, or do well in a setting where you are required to collaborate with someone else.
From improved communication skills, to more critical thinking, to greater creativity - playing online games can really help you grow as an individual and do well in life.
As you play, keep moving up to higher levels of more challenging play so that you will continue to face new problems and improve your abilities. After a while you will be amazed at the complex challenges that you can achieve in the online world. Take the confidence that you have gathered and the skills that you have learned and apply them to your real life situations as well and you will be amazed at how far you can go!
When you learn how to play poker for free you will discover that the challenges of online gaming can actually sharpen your mind and develop your thinking skills.
