• Question: Does video games affect your mental health and if so how?

    Asked by anon-234524 to Phill, Liam, Kohinoor, Karolina, Jack, Debbie on 10 Nov 2019. This question was also asked by anon-234527.
    • Photo: Karolina Urbanska

      Karolina Urbanska answered on 10 Nov 2019:

      For most people, video games are just fun and a good way of relaxing, but even behaviours that are generally seen as positive can be destructive in certain circumstances.

    • Photo: Liam Wignall

      Liam Wignall answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      This is still an ongoing debate. Most people can engage in video games with no negative repercussions, but there are some examples of people who feel their video game use is problematic and has negatively impacted their mental health. One of the more recent examples of this is Loot Boxes (when you pay for a box of character skins and items, but what you get is random each time). This doesn’t feel like it, but it is a form of gambling – we spend money and are sometimes rewarded with what we want. This can lead to other self-destructive behaviours (which will impact mental health). However, it’s always important to remember that video games can improve mental health too, through stimulating thinking and opportunities for social interactions.

    • Photo: Debbie Kinsey

      Debbie Kinsey answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      Video games can have positive and negative impacts on people’s mental health, and it can be different for everyone. For example, some games have a lot of social interaction and you play and chat to people all over the world. If people get insulted and bullied in those social games, it can have a real negative affect on their mental health. But other people can have positive, friendly social interaction in the game and generally positive social interaction is good for your mental health.
      There are also different ways games are designed which can have good and bad impacts on mental health, like Liam talked about with Loot Boxes.
      So, like most things, there are good and bad things about video games for your mental health, and they can affect different people differently.

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