Are video games really a waste of time?

[Nemiroff]

Everyone always used to say that video games rot your brain, but I would imagine it being a very healthy activity. Your mind is constantly strained, thinking, calculating, planning. In your average modern day video game one must concentrate on multiple meters, your surroundings, as well predicting your opponents moves and controlling your own.

All this thinking, concentration and strain must give the brain a pretty good workout, also considering many games have puzzles, video games must be extemely educational!

[J. Askiloupos]

It's more a matter of how much time that one devotes to gaming as opposed to activities that are actually constructive in daily life. In the case of high-school and college students, who form a significant part of the Volconvo demographic, that means homework. In the case of the older members, jobs and family life.

[butterbut]

You don't get anything from a video game that you can't get somewhere else, like sports or something.

[bishop]

for the people who joke about video games being a waste of time, i'd ask them how much time a day do they sit themselves in front of the boob tube, which is arguably even more mind-numbing.


my favorite game on my nintendo ds remains tetris. that's one game this will definitely hit on your critical thinking skills. watching the red sox or wolf blitzer on the other hand...

[Osborn F Enready]

Video games, at least some of them, are very good at teaching many things.

Basic problem solving and observation.

Paying attention to detail.

Accomplishing set objectives.

Using your mind, before your hands.

Allowing several tactics for achieving the same end, and being able to weigh cause and effect of those methods.

Interactivity is usually better than simply "watching something" if you intend to "store and access" that information later.

[Nemiroff]

"It's more a matter of how much time that one devotes to gaming as opposed to activities that are actually constructive in daily life. In the case of high-school and college students, who form a significant part of the Volconvo demographic, that means homework. In the case of the older members, jobs and family life. "


thats similar to someone studying too much, eventually your just stuck in a room without a life, everything is bad when done too much, but that is irrelevant. Also, outside of educational benefits, many of them tell an intriguing and creative story as well as many entertaining and fun senarious. Combined with different games for different skills, we could change the entire curriculum in schools to different video games, games for math, for english, phys ed can have some reflex and vision training as well as multitasking.

Kids might actually learn more not because the material is better, but because they might actually want to participate.

[Jack]

I agree with J. Askiloupos. Any one thing done to excess and the exclusion of other activities can become a detriment to your life.

[another day]

I believe playing video games is bad for people. It fades the soul, fades creativity and turns you into a robot plugged into sensory activity and devoid of reality.

That's just my opinion. And I used to play alot of video games, but I won't touch them anymore. They just aren't cool.. not real, not soulful, they are a waste of your time on earth. They are the digital equivalent of heroin and cocaine.

[Winter wind]

Video games have the potential for good and evil just like movies, books, and people for that matter.

You have games with rich story lines that pull you in and ask you to consider the difficult questions and advocate creativity and hard work.

Then you have games that are pop-culture trash at best, that corrode the mind, spirit, and body.

[ZNFYRH]

I've actually studied this!

(said with excitement)

Your brain has the same wave patterns when you are sleeping, watching TV, and driving long distances (highway hypnosis). Your brain is effectively off... serving only to perform basic autonomic functions and the occasional muscle reflex action.

Video games, however, can engage both halves of the brain, increase synaptic linkage and response between and within both sides, increase hand-eye coordination, increase three dimensional spatial awareness (four dimensional, if you get good at "Timeshift"), engage problem solving creativity, thinking outside the box, and a multitude of other things that all normally require individual stimulation with a single activity.

The "rot your brain" comes from 20 years ago when kids were dead to the world playing games. Those same kids are now todays leaders, watching as the fossils born of the 50s and 60s slowly kill the planet, waiting to engage the world in new forms of leadership that are free from older ideas.

At least, that's what I hope.

If any of you have the chance, find and play a new game out there, called "Democracy."

It derives its results from real national statistics and lets you see what happens when you enact certain policies in a nation. You'll never look at politics the same.

That's what video games can do for you... let you be something you're not in a world that is close to our own... so you can see what you would become.

[Nemiroff]

Another day I understand too much of anything is bad but equating video games to heroin is pretty far fetched, especially coming from an ex gamer. Is there a reason behind your views?

[Winter wind]

Well, actually i do agree it is bad for you health. Why, playing some of those old Mario levels or this old game called pit definitely almost gave me aneurysms. :)

I mean, being killed by bowser over 34 times in a row can raise the blood pressure.

[kubedawg]

Video games are not a waste of time because you are doing something you enjoy doing. Video games are not addictive, if you screw up your life by playing too much video games, it's your own stupidity. Video games do not cause real world violence. The difference between right and wrong/real and fake is taught by parents and the ESRB ratings system prevents kids from playing violent games.

Playing video games is a lot better than watching TV because your mind is more focused, and actively working. Unlike sports, though, playing a lot of video games can cause health problems. Sitting in a chair for more than a certain period of time every day, drinkin mt. dew and eating fast food all play a part in why people might think video games are a waste of time.

I've met literally hundreds of people online, playing video games... I get to find out about different people living in different states, or even countries, and I get to learn a bit about their culture, which is hardly a waste of time. Playing online games that are available world wide have opened my mind up about how the US is not the greatest country in the world, and also makes me want to travel more.

So I end with, video games are not a waste of time, unless you make it so. As long as you are truly happy, it's not a waste of time.

[Nemiroff]

Most people, myself included kill themselves with dew and fast food with or without cidru games and the Nintendo Wii solved the whole lazy issue. I got me one and a pair or weights, Wii boxing really works up a sweat!

[bishop]

great post ZNF...

if you have some of the supporting info, please share.

[Athena]

I think it is pretty important that us old folks take advantage of some of the games. Don't tell anyone, but I use children's math programs to exercise my brain, and I love empire building games for escape and just chilling out.

[ZNFYRH]

A quick bit on the different type of brainwaves:

Brain wave Functions Alpha  Beta Theta Brainwaves

Theta waves are the type I'm talking about. Limited brain engagement, daydreaming, etc.

It has a great bit about what your brain does when driving.

From viewing the brainwaves on that page, or others, you can reference low alpha-waves, the waves that occur while watching television.

TV Alters Brainwaves (!)

More on television.

And that's not even from brain activity... it's from the hypnotic effect of how televisions actually work... the constant scanning and refreshing of the screen.

LCDs, Plasmas, etc., are a bit better for you. They refresh pixels, not scanlines, so you don't have the actual hypnotic effect of the screen itself.

Movies are different from TV. When you sit down to watch a movie, you already know that it requires 90 to 180 minutes of your attention, which results in active beta waves. But when you sit down to watch TV, you are doing so to kill time. You don't want to really be engaged, unless you're watching a favorite show. Obviously, I'm referring more to the couch potato mentality.

Now, theta waves can be good for creative thought, but the problem is that you are daydreaming... not actively engaged.

Low-end alpha waves are the same as theta-waves (much like a C-sharp is a D-flat on a piano).

If you are squeamish, the following link has a picture of an exposed brain.

Slow Brain Waves Play Key Role In Coordinating Complex Activity

This talks about alpha waves and how theta waves peak with excitability... often how a revelation snaps you from theta to alpha.

It talks about the fourth type, gamma waves, which are responsible for transmission between the parts of the brain.

Just to break down the oscillations in each phase, from the link on Science Daily:

brain waves are classified from the very slowest delta waves (1-3 oscillations per second) seen in very deep sleep, through theta (4-7 oscillations per second), alpha (8-13 oscillations per second) and beta (14-30 oscillations per second) to the most rapid firings in the human brain - gamma oscillations (30-60 oscillations per second).

Before 1998, the highest measure frequency was 70 oscillations.

Since 1998, they have recorded over 200 oscillations per second by measuring directly on the brain, and believe it can get as high as 300 per second.

Relevance?

The most boring video game requires you to see something and respond with your hands. Hand-eye coordination alone puts you in at least low beta, as it isn't always intuitive to move your fingers and hands independently the way you do for video games.

The best kind of video games push your brain into high-gamma, over 100 oscillations. They actually use certain types of games to treat types of ADD, ADHD, and epilepsy, by requiring the patient to manage their brain waves and stay engaged.

So quite the contrary... video games DO NOT "rot" your brain. It engages it into functions that exceed normal daily operation.

[Nemiroff]

And they're fun too

[kubedawg]

Dopamine is released when playing video games, just like when doing something else that is entertaining/pleasurable, such as having sex, watching TV, excersizing, doing drugs, etc.

[Osborn F Enready]

That was a great post ZNYFRH, thanks.