Games Help You Multi-Task.
The fact is computer games help you multi-task. The modern world is full of non-stop action — instant messaging, e-mail, video games, and it all seems to be happening at once. If you're over 30, you've probably wondered why younger people aren't overwhelmed by all this stimulation. But their brains are simply trained to handle it. Sustained practice at multi-tasking increases one's ability to pay attention to many things at the same time. A major source of practice is playing action video games — you know, the kind most parents hate, where the aim is to shoot as many enemies as possible before they shoot you.
These games require players to distribute attention across the screen and to quickly detect and react to events. In one study, college students who played action games regularly processed information more quickly, could track more objects at once, and had better task-switching abilities.
So, allowing your children to play computer games may not be such a bad thing after all.
