Even there's a study to prove (and disprove) just about everything, but sometimes a little panacea to help ease our anxieties and foster our addictions. (Cellphones not causing cancer is one that jumps to mind.) Today's comes from the University of Rochester, which, contrary to what your mom always told you would happen to your eyesight, showed that all those hours of Gears of War might just pay off: apparently tested subjects who play action games for a few hours daily experience a "substantial increase in the spatial resolution of their vision", making them about 20% better at identifying letters amidst visual clutter (a test similar to the one the DMV administers to see if you're fit to operate a vehicle). Unfortunately, reducing the eye-strain with less brain-draining titles (like puzzle games, for instance) wasn't found to work -- only action gamers, who need to look closely to find their prey, were shown to increase their acuity. That is, from a couple feet's distance, anyway. We'd really like to see the followup study that shows how near-sightedness is affected by staring for hours at a virtual space represented on a two-dimensional plane. Until then, tell your spouse you're working to improve your vision the next time you're demanded to give up the TV or your computer for more mundane activities.
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