“Video games. The two sides of the screen”: what is their impact on society

Running, jumping, embodying a body, creating an avatar, among other things are activities that gamers (professional players) perform every day with the help of any device, and it seems that without any benefit to society. However, the exhibition called “The two sides of the screen” will demonstrate the positive impact that playing games can have, whether you are a gamer or not.

Some video games have even been used as therapy to lead people to change, generate empathy or replicate fantasy constructions to real life. And it is that the exhibition will seek to transmit and understand the phenomenon of gamer culture, that is, the impact it has achieved on various areas of citizenship, this was announced by Nidia Chávez, director of the Telefónica Movistar Foundation, the company responsible for organizing and presenting the project in Mexico, which was also in Spain and Sinaloa.

In an interview with the director of the Foundation and during a tour of the exhibition she presented together with Ana de Saracho, director of Public Affairs at Telefónica and which will be exhibited until May 29 at the Cultural Center of Spain and Centro Multimedia from the National Center of Arts, said that it is an exhibition to know and learn how the world of video games has impacted citizens.

“Video games have an influence on your life because they also serve to test applications, test different experiences between users and get closer to people.”

He stated that this is a cultural phenomenon that impresses, in addition to the fact that everyone at some point in life “have ever played”. In this regard, we will present some examples of video games that have achieved a benefit for society.

What is the impact of video games on society?

Bárbara Perea, advisor to Fundación Telefónica Movistar, in the area of knowledge and digital culture, announced that the “other side” has to do with the way video games are inserted into the social fabric, since we have all been exposed in some way with navigation tools that are based on video games such as mobile banking applications.

Electronic games have always been present in the lives of citizens, even they have always had a strong influence worldwide. Proof of this are the consoles, which were among the first computers that Mexicans had access to, such as Atari, Nintendo, among others.

An example: those games that are based on the creation of avatars allow people to assume roles and even create empathy, since they can have important social changes.

Even in Spain, a therapy against domestic violence is used, where perpetrators are invited to inhabit a girl's body, so feeling vulnerable when occupying another body is a way to generate empathy and part of the world of video games.

The Perfect Woman game also invites you to build your own avatar. However, it stands out for the social issues of inequality such as education and relative, since it is possible to create its own body based on the experience of being a woman, as well as the environment in which she is managed when she works, if she has children, among other issues.

Another example of citizen participation is that related to Minecraft, the video game that builds the taste of young and old.

In the same European country, another exercise was carried out with this game, where some young people and infants were invited to redesign urban service spaces and with the intention of improving society. What was found were better designs of playgrounds, green areas, schools, among other things.

According to Bárbara Perea, this initiative of the youth community was sent to the Madrid council, to see how this could influence the future of urban planning.

“If we are used to these exercises of citizen participation since childhood, then when we are older, it is easier for this to become a habit and we are not passive societies and have citizen participation in the construction of cities.”

Gamer Culture

During the presentation of the exhibition, he reiterated that: “video games are not just entertainment vehicles, they are ideological vehicles and undoubtedly the most important cultural medium of our time”.

And it is that according to the advisor, a wide variety of studies have been carried out where it has been detected that some areas of the brain improve by playing. Even in the exhibition some samples of colorful and 3D brains were placed, representing the areas and cognitive abilities that have improved while playing.

“When parents think that children are wasting their time, they are not, on the contrary, they are building societies of citizen participation, they are improving their cognitive functions, developing extremely important mutual cooperation skills that will be the future of a more empathetic and more cooperative humanity,” he said.

Growth of video games

“The two sides of the screen” also shows the process of designing a video game, which according to Javier Cano, advisor of the exhibition that was already in Spain - during 2020 and in Sinaloa in 2021 - there are video games that have been created in up to two days.

One of the main purposes is to bring people closer through connectivity and digital skills. During the pandemic, the level of growth of video games had the greatest impact, rising by 5.2% in a year.

In addition to the fact that there are already almost 75 million players in Mexico. Gamers prefer smartphones to enter this digital world, as it is the device that ranks number one with 75% preference.

In 2020, around 2.7 billion players generated revenues of about 175 billion dollars.

The Videogames exhibition “The Two Sides of the Screen” will be available to the public completely free of charge at the Centro Cultural España, located on Calle de Donceles 97. Colonia Centro in Mexico City.

KEEP READING