Scientists believe that "mirror neurons" are to blame.
Has your child made it to the Internet-enabled gadget? Get ready: sooner or later he will find a video or online broadcast in which someone is playing computer games, and with a high degree of probability he will "stick" to them for a long time. Parents are furious and do not understand why it is interesting to watch for hours as some stranger shoots a laser weapon at virtual monsters or kicks a ball in cyber football. And in fact, the "mirror neurons" are to blame. They make our kids stare at screens and enrich the eSports business.
"Monkey" contribution to science
People learned about "mirror neurons" decades ago. In the 1990s, scientists decided to figure out how the brain gives commands to the muscles, and attracted monkeys to experiments. The monkeys were hung with electronic sensors, and tried to catch neurons that are triggered when the animal performs certain actions. Everything worked out - scientists really found cells that were excited, for example, when a monkey took an apple and pulled it into his mouth.
And then chance intervened in the experiment. The experimenters did not remove the sensors from the monkeys and sat down to eat in the same room. And suddenly they saw that some neurons in the monkeys watching their dinner were firing in the same way if the animals themselves brought food to their mouths. This is how scientists managed to find "mirror neurons" - they fire not only when you perform some action, but also when you observe how someone else is doing it.
Worried about themselves
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Over the next years, coherent theories have developed how "mirror neurons" helped humanity learn. How children, observing their parents, repeated the same actions after them, and most importantly, their facial expressions. How students, looking at their teachers, adopted crafts. But they were all shattered by the opinions of skeptics: many scientists doubted the existence of "mirror neurons" in humans, or even that they perform such complex functions. And some researchers are inclined to believe that "mirror neurons" are not the driving force of evolution, but just a by-product of social interaction.
But one way or another, theories are now being put forward that it is these "mirror neurons" that make children watch for hours as someone else plays computer games. During such broadcasts, observers, as it were, become participants in the process, connect what is happening with their own experience, and worry about an outside player as for themselves.
Business on neurons
There are several other factors that attract viewers to video games. First of all, this is an escape from our reality into a virtual one. And the organizers of e-sports competitions and online broadcasts learned to use all of them very well. For example, last year 12 million people were interested in esports in the country, and the volume of the Russian esports market was estimated at 42-55 million dollars. Judging by how real sports have collapsed with the pandemic, in 2020 the income of virtual players should grow quite decently.
And then there is a sector that is not considered esports, but still generates very strong traffic. For example, “wild” gamers chose the Twitch video platform for broadcasting their games: in 2019, 17.5 million users came to it a day, and watched about 600 billion minutes of gameplay. Of course, businessmen from cyber games are trying to monetize such interest and shove more advertising into such an interval of minutes of video viewing. "Mirror neurons" to help them.
ANDREY VDOVIN