Media Journal #2: Video Gaming and Stress Relief

This week I researched stress and gaming to see where it lies as a relief or not.

I chose this picture because this is reality, some people use VR to relax and escape stress. I also found it funny because someone is obviously in the background disapproving of his choice of stress relief.

Video Games and Stress

As children we all used to huddle around Game Cubes, Playstations, Nintendo DS, or Xbox playing our hearts out. This was a source of entertainment for kids, it let them use their imaginations and transport them somewhere other than a basement on a rainy day. Now, we are adults and the gaming hasn’t stopped. We go to school, work, and help with our families, which can be stressful. As we play games as adults, we must ask ourselves: is this for entertainment or is this for stress relief? Can gaming been seen as stress relief? This is what my article wanted to tackle.

Stress can take a toll on your mind and your body. You might find yourself lashing out at friends and family or even isolating yourself. You might also find yourself distracted and slacking on work. According to the The American Psychological Association, 43% of women and 51% of men have experienced negative side effects because of stress. Some cases are so severe they turn into heart disease or diabetes (Carroll, 2019). A new study has been done by researchers in the United Kingdom. They chose to do qualitative research in the form of an interview. They interviewed people between 18 and 30 years of age and asked them why they played video games. Over half (55%) of them said that it was to alleviate stress (Head).

Another study was done that dealt with playing video games during short work breaks. This study was conducted by Dr.Rupp of the University of Central Florida (Carroll, 2019). They were given 3 options during the break: sit quietly, do a relaxation activity, and play a video game. Out of all three of the options, those who chose to play the video game were the most capable of attacking a task after the break (Carroll, 2019). The other people in the other two categories admitted to feeling unmotivated.

Another thing that is considered when people are playing video games are the skills that are necessary to succeed in the games. Some games require people to act like they are in real-world scenarios where they must deal with stressful things such as a countdown clock. A natural part of gaming is recognizing sources of negative feelings, facing adversity, and practicing proper stress management techniques to solve the problem (Carroll, 2019).

Research was conducted in Bethesda, Maryland by the National Institute of Mental Health. They gathered a group of veterans and placed them in front of a game with two images: one neutral and one threatening (Carroll, 2019). The point of the study was to see how they interacted with the potentially triggering image and if consistently seeing it would help them lower their PTSD by giving them a choice. The study was deemed successful as over a four week period the veterans noticed a decline in stress related to the triggering images (Carroll, 2019). These results served as ammunition to continue the studies of video gaming and PTSD.

We see nowadays that gaming is a huge part of our culture. People build careers out of it, children escape the world with them, and some adults use them to reduce stress and relax. There has always been a bias that video games “ruin your brain” as our parents used to say. These new studies and researchers looking into gaming for other purposes can help us understand how these games can be tools. For people such as veterans suffering from PTSD it might be as simple as slowly combatting triggering scenarios. Contrary to popular belief, video games might not be ruining the world but helping it.