Online gaming is currently one of the most popular leisure activities among college students. However, there have always been questions about how harmful gaming can be to children and their development. Does the same apply to college students or adults? Let’s dig into the positives and negatives of online gaming for college students.
Pros of Online Gaming Among College Students
Online gaming offers some unique benefits to college students, such as socializing and stress relief. Here’s an in-depth look into the various benefits.
It Is a Way to Socialize and Maintain Friendships
Making friends in college takes time, especially for individuals who like spending more time indoors. Online gaming provides an avenue to make friends with people from across the globe and build a social circle. Online gaming communities can provide the sense of community everyone needs. Besides, gaming online is a great way to stay in touch with your friends when you move to college and can’t meet regularly anymore.
Relieves Stress
College can be a tough time for students because of academic pressure. Students must balance academics with social activities and personal responsibilities, which is often tough to achieve. Besides, assignments can become overwhelming due to tight deadlines, which is also a reason some students have to seek assistance from platforms like EssayUSA writing service to beat deadlines.
All these can result in stress, and online gaming provides a good channel for relieving it. Online gaming grants students a temporary escape from their life’s stressors and allows them to explore a fantasy world that helps them relax and relieve stress. It also provides an opportunity to vent and release their pent-up aggression or frustration through competitive gaming.
Enhances Critical Thinking and Solving Ability
Most online games involve solving challenges and puzzles that require players to think critically and apply problem-solving skills. Others even require players to develop creative strategies to win, and by playing, they sharpen their cognitive skills.
Fosters Collaboration and Teamwork
Student gamers who play online multiplayer games learn to work as a team and collaborate with other players to win games or complete objectives. Hence, they develop better teamwork and communication skills that will serve them during group assignments and projects. Learning to work as a team will also be useful in their future careers.
Boosts Creativity and Imagination
Some online games let players express their creativity and imagination by building and designing structures and characters in virtual simulations. They are a great way for students to express themselves. Additionally, online games now have beautiful graphics, artwork, and animations that inspire gamers to express their creativity through fan art, cosplaying, and other forms of interpretation. They also encourage creativity among future game developers and graphic designers in college.
Cons of Online Gaming to Students
Despite the above benefits of gaming, student gamers also risk some negative effects. The main ones include the following.
Dips in Academic Performance
Excessive gaming can take a student’s time and attention from academics, causing poor academic performance. When students prioritize gaming over classes, studying, and assignments, they risk falling behind academically, which results in poor grades and missed deadlines. Moreover, collegians who spend most of their time gaming struggle to concentrate in class, which affects their learning.
Social Isolation
We’ve mentioned that online gaming can help students make friends and facilitate social interactions. However, it can also contribute to isolation when students spend too much time in front of their screens instead of outside activities.
Excessive gaming also affects real-world relationships because the gamer will have less time to spend with friends and peers. In time, they may feel disconnected from the real world and experience loneliness.
Physical Complications
Students who spend too much time gaming are at risk of health complications like obesity and eye strain. Sitting for too long without breaks can affect your posture and physical well-being. Also, when individuals often spend all night gaming, it affects their sleep schedule and contributes to fatigue and sleepiness during the day. Frequent late-night gaming can also disrupt their sleep patterns and contribute to exhaustion and insomnia.
Financial Costs
Students addicted to gaming can spend loads of money purchasing games, subscriptions, and micro-transactions. They will also need to purchase gaming consoles or own computers powerful enough to handle their games, which are often expensive. These purchases can strain a student’s budget and cause financial difficulties in college, especially for students who start prioritizing gaming expenses over essential needs like books.
How to Deal With the Negatives of Gaming
The negative impacts of gaming can outweigh the benefits when a student is not careful. That’s why it’s important to understand the risks and how to manage them. Here are some ways to avoid the negative consequences of gaming in college.
Set Your Priorities and Boundaries
Limit your gaming habits by allocating specific times for gaming and keeping your education your priority. Create a schedule that prioritizes your academics and helps you use gaming as a reward for hard work.
Be Physically Active
Add physical activities to your daily schedule to counter the inactive nature of gaming. Take breaks from gaming to engage in physical activities like exercising and taking walks. Taking breaks from the screen helps to prevent complications from screen time.
Maintain Real World Connections
Make an effort to engage in real-world interactions and relationships outside gaming. Take some weekends away from the screen to attend social events and interact with peers. It will help develop and maintain friendships and prevent social isolation.
Manage Your Finances
Financial responsibility can help you prevent spending too much money on gaming expenses. Create a good budget and allocate your finances to prioritize your needs over luxuries like gaming subscriptions. Also, look for discounts on gaming expenses to save money.
Closing Remarks
Online gaming is a reliable source of enjoyment and a temporary escape from the stressors of college life. Nevertheless, it requires students to take a balanced approach to gaming and their studies and be aware of the consequences of excessive gaming.
Understand that while casual gaming might be a relaxing way to cope with stress, addictive gaming behavior is a poor coping mechanism for stress. So, practice moderation in online gaming and be open to seeking professional assistance for mental health.
