You can use games to improve your social connection, to practice feeling emotions we normally avoid, like guilt or grief or shame. In fact, Dunlap says, parents often overlook some benefits of games: 'They're a tool. One reason for the difference in impact may be that social media is primarily about marketing, or comparing oneself to others, while gaming is generally about socializing with friends, solving a puzzle, or engaging in competition.
'Research has shown again and again and again, time spent playing video games is not predictive of mental health outcomes,' she says. Video games, in fact, do not show the kind of negative behavioral or emotional effects researchers correlate with social media use, says Kelli Dunlap, a clinical psychologist and community director for Take This, a mental health advocacy group within the gaming community. Kids study, play video games, use social media and watch videos on screens, but those do not all have the same developmental impact.
