I'm kind of tired of people blaming video games all the time for ruining our society. Video games rule. I don't know about you, but there is nothing in the world that makes me happier than beating a game that I love. People always get mad at video games because they just don't understand them. I think that video games have brought a ton of good in to the world. Here are ways that video games have saved our society.
Crime Is Lower
I know that when I was a kid, I pretty much only got in to trouble when I was bored. I was usually bored because my mom was making me go outside instead of playing video games. Video games provide really fun and cheap entertainment that definitely keeps people indoors. It's a fact that crime has dropped significantly since the 1990's. That's right about the time that home video game systems started getting awesome. Why would you go out and steal cars and go to jail when you can just stay at home and steal cars and eat some Doritos?
Video Games Make Tons Of Jobs
Video games are a huge industry. They make more profits than the movie and music industries combined. One estimate I saw for 2012 said that it was a $70 billion dollar industry last year. An industry that big needs a ton of highly skilled people to fill those jobs. If video games weren't as popular as they were, just think about how worse off we would be economically right now. The unemployment rate would be insanely high. I'm hoping that one day video games will be so popular that we will just be able to use them as currency instead of paying for things with money.
Video Games Turned Everyone In To Nerds
If you can believe it, there was a time when nerds weren't cool. I know that may come as a shock, but long, long ago, you could be beaten up because people knew that you loved video games. Nowadays, everyone plays video games. The video game craze is at the forefront of nerding up our entire society. More nerds means more people in technical fields. That means more innovation. THAT MEANS WE'RE GOING TO FINALLY GET JETPACKS, YOU GUYS!
Greatest Medium For Storytelling Ever Created
At it's core, all entertainment is some sort of storytelling. After thousands and thousands of years, we have finally achieved that greatest way to tell a story that has ever been. When video games are at their best, they completely immerse you in the universe that you are playing in. Would you rather have someone tell you a story and try to picture it in your mind or play the story as it happens? I'm just glad I don't have to use my imagination anymore. My brain doesn't have full HD.
Video Games Will Teach You Stuff
When I was in elementary school, I played games like Number Munchers and Oregon Trail pretty much everyday. I didn't think I'd ever need those skills, but you'd be surprised at how often I've had to ford a river while quickly doing addition problems on a grid. I never would have known how to do that that without playing those games. I bet kids these days have even better educational games than I did when I was a kid. Of course, knowing public schools, they probably are using the same computers that I did.
Playing Games Makes Your Brain Good
It has long been known that video games help improve things like vision and motor skills. New research has shown that video games also help to keep you sharp as you start to age. That's pretty important since we're all probably going to be immortal once they figure out how to mix our DNA with jellyfish DNA. It would really suck to live forever and not be able to appreciate how awesome living in the future is.
They Help You Make Friends
I don't care who you are. If you're in to video games, then we at least have one thing that we can bond over. I've made tons of friends from a night of playing Street Fighter or Halo that I would never have gotten to know without video games. It's not just real world friends. I've made tons of friends all over the world just because we are in to playing the same type of games on-line. Some people have even fallen in love through video games and gotten real life married in game. That's why I'm planning on getting married one day in Minecraft. It might be a hard sell for most girls, but the right girl would definitely appreciate that I built her an entire island made out of diamond.
Playing Games Are Better Than Taking Drugs
Some patients with chronic pain have been able to better manage that pain while in a virtual reality environment versus traditional drug therapy. Of course, this isn't going to work for everybody. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work for me since my chronic pain comes from all of the blisters on my hands from playing video games all day long.
What other ways have video games saved society? Let me know on twitter @zachlunch or in the comments below!
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