Are video games bad for you???
so here is why I am asking
Whenever I ask my mother to let play a video game more than once a week (I play once on a friday for about 2.5 hours) she always says no despite the fact that I study nearly everyday for 3+ hours and am highly motivated doing very well in all of my chosen subjects. Whenever I ask she will always say that they are bad for the brain as they destroy brain cell. She also says that it will rid me of my motivation, I hate coming second as I only like being best at the subject and also hate being beaten so how will it affect my motivation?
any help
Sorry if I came across as being cocky.
Whenever I ask my mother to let play a video game more than once a week (I play once on a friday for about 2.5 hours) she always says no despite the fact that I study nearly everyday for 3+ hours and am highly motivated doing very well in all of my chosen subjects. Whenever I ask she will always say that they are bad for the brain as they destroy brain cell. She also says that it will rid me of my motivation, I hate coming second as I only like being best at the subject and also hate being beaten so how will it affect my motivation?
any help
Sorry if I came across as being cocky.
Scroll to see replies
Apparently studies have shown that they help with concentration, memory and navigation skills as well as reaction time, hand-eye co-ordination and development of grey matter in the cerebral cortex.
However, I don't think that they have really been around long enough in their current incarnation for anything conclusive to have been published yet. I also think that it depends on the type of game you play. For example, tetris might help with certain things - and the game used in the study I mentioned was supermario for example. So things like Call of Duty may decrease attention span for example.
However, I don't think that they have really been around long enough in their current incarnation for anything conclusive to have been published yet. I also think that it depends on the type of game you play. For example, tetris might help with certain things - and the game used in the study I mentioned was supermario for example. So things like Call of Duty may decrease attention span for example.
Original post by natninja
Apparently studies have shown that they help with concentration, memory and navigation skills as well as reaction time, hand-eye co-ordination and development of grey matter in the cerebral cortex.
However, I don't think that they have really been around long enough in their current incarnation for anything conclusive to have been published yet. I also think that it depends on the type of game you play. For example, tetris might help with certain things - and the game used in the study I mentioned was supermario for example. So things like Call of Duty may decrease attention span for example.
However, I don't think that they have really been around long enough in their current incarnation for anything conclusive to have been published yet. I also think that it depends on the type of game you play. For example, tetris might help with certain things - and the game used in the study I mentioned was supermario for example. So things like Call of Duty may decrease attention span for example.
what would you say about GTA V
It depends on the game - a violent game (mainly Grand Theft Auto being played by people below the age rating of 18) can promote certain behaviour. However, I think that it's because your parents feel that you should focus more time on studying. I mean, if you have time for free play, then why are you only studying 3 hours a day? (I personally am a vivid gamer but I get this all the time, I am barely able to play on a saturday/sunday morning if I have studying to do, which I do.)
Games can be great for hand-eye coordination and motivation. They also help think outside the box (when completing complicated puzzles etc.) and I have seen people are better at things such as driving if they are able to play games without having to think too much about the controls being used.
But like anything that involves being too attached to something, you could lose interest in the real life and break relationships with other people. Also, even if you are focusing on a TV screen or a book, your eyes can become damaged with that much concentration. But I do not see a cause for worry if you are only playing for a few hours on a friday.
You can just please your parents by waiting until exams are over.
Games can be great for hand-eye coordination and motivation. They also help think outside the box (when completing complicated puzzles etc.) and I have seen people are better at things such as driving if they are able to play games without having to think too much about the controls being used.
But like anything that involves being too attached to something, you could lose interest in the real life and break relationships with other people. Also, even if you are focusing on a TV screen or a book, your eyes can become damaged with that much concentration. But I do not see a cause for worry if you are only playing for a few hours on a friday.
You can just please your parents by waiting until exams are over.
Original post by TheAdventuresOf?
what would you say about GTA V
Umm well...You get to customise cars which helps your creativity
You get to...........Yeah thats all I can think of lol
Yes, first person shooters make you into serial killers and make you run amok...
Spoiler
Original post by leonorago
It depends on the game - a violent game (mainly Grand Theft Auto being played by people below the age rating of 18) can promote certain behaviour. However, I think that it's because your parents feel that you should focus more time on studying. I mean, if you have time for free play, then why are you only studying 3 hours a day? (I personally am a vivid gamer but I get this all the time, I am barely able to play on a saturday/sunday morning if I have studying to do, which I do.)
Games can be great for hand-eye coordination and motivation. They also help think outside the box (when completing complicated puzzles etc.) and I have seen people are better at things such as driving if they are able to play games without having to think too much about the controls being used.
But like anything that involves being too attached to something, you could lose interest in the real life and break relationships with other people. Also, even if you are focusing on a TV screen or a book, your eyes can become damaged with that much concentration. But I do not see a cause for worry if you are only playing for a few hours on a friday.
You can just please your parents by waiting until exams are over.
Games can be great for hand-eye coordination and motivation. They also help think outside the box (when completing complicated puzzles etc.) and I have seen people are better at things such as driving if they are able to play games without having to think too much about the controls being used.
But like anything that involves being too attached to something, you could lose interest in the real life and break relationships with other people. Also, even if you are focusing on a TV screen or a book, your eyes can become damaged with that much concentration. But I do not see a cause for worry if you are only playing for a few hours on a friday.
You can just please your parents by waiting until exams are over.
i study a minimum of 3 hours a day plus homework and gym for 3 days or 4 days so would like to relax
Original post by SmallDuck
Just for a chill out they are fine, but should not become a lifestyle.
Don't see why not. Pro Starcraft players for instance make a pretty significant income as do others in the big e-sports.
The fear over gaming causing you to degrade into a socially inept retard are the same ones that said TV would destroy peoples creativity, no doubt the same argument was made about books.
Original post by SmallDuck
Just for a chill out they are fine, but should not become a lifestyle.
This.
They aren't necessarily bad for you but- like TV- it's best not to spend hours on end playing them. Playing for a couple of hours every now and then is fine and all in good fun (which is what you do). But I'm sure there are far more productive things people could be doing than spending whole days playing computer games.
"I hate coming second as I only like being best at the subject and also hate being beaten so how will it affect my motivation?"
There's one of the reasons why playing multiplayer games could indeed affect your motivation. Coming second instantly makes anyone, no matter what their achievements in real life, feel like a loser. And then makes becoming a winner in it (the mere rearranging of pixels on a screen) reach strange levels of importance.
If your grades are relatively OK you might think you can afford to spend ages playing videogames. But until the imaginary day arrives when it means that you can get a job on the back of having a YouTube video of yourself pulling off a killstreak then you need to lay off multiplayer games entirely. Of course some can but .. we don't live in San Fransisco. We don't generally have that natural cool. Chances are tiny.
And this is entirely separate from arguments about games improving strategic thinking and hand eye coordination. Of course they will to some extent. But if you're going to become a pilot for instance then they're going to care about whether or not you ever played videogames lowish down the scale (although WE know that they can provide excellent training in courage under fire etc) and care about your academic history / other factors a lot more. It's just not easy to give a potted history of what videogames add to people as individuals. At the end of the day you're immersed in someone else's creation that is not your own. It looks like drowning rather than immersion to many non-players.
What could be useful to your frame of mind in small quantities on the other hand is to reward yourself with a game that is calming, a touch puzzle solving, a touch arty such as The Unfinished Swan or Quantum Condundrum.
It's not that these games are lacking in action. There is action but they allow the mind to have space to breathe and for you to feel like you are being told a wonderful story rather than that everyone is out to get you as a multiplayer, even team based ones, can do. And does having a feeling of bonding in team based videogames foster that in real life as well? Intuition tells me that I doubt that there is any really meaningful connection between the 2 things. To have to use faceless strangers across the world as a team rather than people you've known for years suggests evading from relationships and replacing them with pseudo ones no matter how friendly that American or French accent. (work on getting to a US university if you want to meet people like that).
But intersperse this with reading outside of the bare minimum for your courses. Get loads of books out from the library and then you can pick what to read as you choose. Watch some quirky documentaries like Jonathan Meades'.
So stick to the studying and listen to your parents and get in the very best university that you can. You've a lifetime to catch up on all the best work of this still relatively new medium videogames.
There's one of the reasons why playing multiplayer games could indeed affect your motivation. Coming second instantly makes anyone, no matter what their achievements in real life, feel like a loser. And then makes becoming a winner in it (the mere rearranging of pixels on a screen) reach strange levels of importance.
If your grades are relatively OK you might think you can afford to spend ages playing videogames. But until the imaginary day arrives when it means that you can get a job on the back of having a YouTube video of yourself pulling off a killstreak then you need to lay off multiplayer games entirely. Of course some can but .. we don't live in San Fransisco. We don't generally have that natural cool. Chances are tiny.
And this is entirely separate from arguments about games improving strategic thinking and hand eye coordination. Of course they will to some extent. But if you're going to become a pilot for instance then they're going to care about whether or not you ever played videogames lowish down the scale (although WE know that they can provide excellent training in courage under fire etc) and care about your academic history / other factors a lot more. It's just not easy to give a potted history of what videogames add to people as individuals. At the end of the day you're immersed in someone else's creation that is not your own. It looks like drowning rather than immersion to many non-players.
What could be useful to your frame of mind in small quantities on the other hand is to reward yourself with a game that is calming, a touch puzzle solving, a touch arty such as The Unfinished Swan or Quantum Condundrum.
It's not that these games are lacking in action. There is action but they allow the mind to have space to breathe and for you to feel like you are being told a wonderful story rather than that everyone is out to get you as a multiplayer, even team based ones, can do. And does having a feeling of bonding in team based videogames foster that in real life as well? Intuition tells me that I doubt that there is any really meaningful connection between the 2 things. To have to use faceless strangers across the world as a team rather than people you've known for years suggests evading from relationships and replacing them with pseudo ones no matter how friendly that American or French accent. (work on getting to a US university if you want to meet people like that).
But intersperse this with reading outside of the bare minimum for your courses. Get loads of books out from the library and then you can pick what to read as you choose. Watch some quirky documentaries like Jonathan Meades'.
So stick to the studying and listen to your parents and get in the very best university that you can. You've a lifetime to catch up on all the best work of this still relatively new medium videogames.
(edited 9 years ago)
The pseudo-science your mother has used is pretty much the exact same words said by parents and fearmongerers in decades past about:
- Television
- Action films
- Gangster films
- Comic books
- Blues music
- Rock music
- Rap music
- Rock music again
- Conkers
- Trading card games
- Contact sport
- A lack of contact sport
- Other kids' parents
And so on
This reasoning is used by parents when they want an excuse for their own bad or lazy parenting. If they have a problem child, they'll blame everyone but themselves, and inanimate objects are easy targets. I quote, word for word, Alan Titchmarsh: "you can't stop children getting into a house and putting a video [game] on. You can stop them going into a cinema." He's blaming video games, rather than his own supposed inability to stop a small child buying or playing an 18-rated game, or any game at all, in his own house.
Chances are also high that people who ridicule something like video games, urging people to "go outside" or do something productive, then spend the rest of their day in front of the TV. It's all very Matilda.
Parents can't be reasoned, particularly the closed-minded type, so you just have to hope she eases off when you're in your 20s, though you'll have to stand your own ground and chip away at her possibly, hoping she twigs that you don't stay a child forever. Otherwise, you have to wait until she dies or you move out, and both of those might not come as soon as you might like.
- Television
- Action films
- Gangster films
- Comic books
- Blues music
- Rock music
- Rap music
- Rock music again
- Conkers
- Trading card games
- Contact sport
- A lack of contact sport
- Other kids' parents
And so on
This reasoning is used by parents when they want an excuse for their own bad or lazy parenting. If they have a problem child, they'll blame everyone but themselves, and inanimate objects are easy targets. I quote, word for word, Alan Titchmarsh: "you can't stop children getting into a house and putting a video [game] on. You can stop them going into a cinema." He's blaming video games, rather than his own supposed inability to stop a small child buying or playing an 18-rated game, or any game at all, in his own house.
Chances are also high that people who ridicule something like video games, urging people to "go outside" or do something productive, then spend the rest of their day in front of the TV. It's all very Matilda.
Parents can't be reasoned, particularly the closed-minded type, so you just have to hope she eases off when you're in your 20s, though you'll have to stand your own ground and chip away at her possibly, hoping she twigs that you don't stay a child forever. Otherwise, you have to wait until she dies or you move out, and both of those might not come as soon as you might like.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by JC 042
watching TV or reading a book, absorbs your attention and damages your eyes by a minuscule amount each time.
Pardon?
Dropped 40 hours in to Diablo 3 this last couple of weeks.
Still been working.
Still been working out.
Still doing my extra curricular activities.
Still spent time with my friends.
Generally just play in the evening. I had a mammoth session on Sunday, but I'd planned that. Did all my chores on Saturday and had drinks with friends in the evening. Hangover game days are awesome.
Still been working.
Still been working out.
Still doing my extra curricular activities.
Still spent time with my friends.
Generally just play in the evening. I had a mammoth session on Sunday, but I'd planned that. Did all my chores on Saturday and had drinks with friends in the evening. Hangover game days are awesome.
Original post by ozzyoscy
Pardon?
I'm ridiculing the negative health claims against video games.
Original post by mikeyd85
Still been working.
Still been working out.
Still doing my extra curricular activities.
Still spent time with my friends.
Generally just play in the evening. I had a mammoth session on Sunday, but I'd planned that. Did all my chores on Saturday and had drinks with friends in the evening. Hangover game days are awesome.
Played over 100 hours on the WD I created at ROS launch.
Not bad considering been working full time
Hardcore JRPG addict here. The type that pulls all nighters to complete any games bought within 2-3 days and frequently reaches the max level several chapters before the final boss.
- A*s in all my GCSE mocks (apart from English Literature where I got an A... but being fair, I haven't read the book yet.)
- Constantly been told to 'stop mass producing work' for art.
- Came top in my school for the intermediate maths challenge this year. Selective grammar school.
Personally, I don't see where the hell your mother or the media is coming from. Far better for you than drunk partying and underage sex if you ask me. Yet, for some reason, the media never seems to give one about those activities and even promotes them every now and then...
- A*s in all my GCSE mocks (apart from English Literature where I got an A... but being fair, I haven't read the book yet.)
- Constantly been told to 'stop mass producing work' for art.
- Came top in my school for the intermediate maths challenge this year. Selective grammar school.
Personally, I don't see where the hell your mother or the media is coming from. Far better for you than drunk partying and underage sex if you ask me. Yet, for some reason, the media never seems to give one about those activities and even promotes them every now and then...
Most opinions against it are based on dodgy cases of newspapers making stupid claims to sell papers such as "Person X committed this violent crime and they played Violent game Y"
EVEN READERS OF THE TELEGRAPH KNOW THIS TO BE NONSENSE
This is taken from the Letters to the Editor of yesterdays paper (May 1):
And another, slightly longer one, implies that it may actually have been to do with the child's parents splitting up, not the gaming, based on experience in these sorts of cases while working in the Met.
Not to mention that there are graphs showing at least a correlation (of the negative variety) between violent crime and violent gaming with potential causal links basically being that by letting out stress/anger in the game they don't resort to letting it out on other people/property.
Here's a couple of infographics:
And a graph, although I'm not so sure about it's accuracy, the crime figures near the end don't seem right, but there are various studies from reputable sources showing at least a weak negative correlation:
EVEN READERS OF THE TELEGRAPH KNOW THIS TO BE NONSENSE
This is taken from the Letters to the Editor of yesterdays paper (May 1):
Sir- You report (April 30) that the 15-year-old boy accused of killing the teacher Ann Maguire was a fan of the video game Dark Souls 2. It's tempting to believe that this explains everything, but we must avoid making snap judgement when it comes to murder.
Video games such as Dark Souls 2 are now played so widely among young men that it is statistically very likely that any young male killer will have a connection with violent video games.
Asking if he plays a violent video game is like asking if he wears clothes. The connection is statistically meaningless.
Video games such as Dark Souls 2 are now played so widely among young men that it is statistically very likely that any young male killer will have a connection with violent video games.
Asking if he plays a violent video game is like asking if he wears clothes. The connection is statistically meaningless.
And another, slightly longer one, implies that it may actually have been to do with the child's parents splitting up, not the gaming, based on experience in these sorts of cases while working in the Met.
Not to mention that there are graphs showing at least a correlation (of the negative variety) between violent crime and violent gaming with potential causal links basically being that by letting out stress/anger in the game they don't resort to letting it out on other people/property.
Here's a couple of infographics:
And a graph, although I'm not so sure about it's accuracy, the crime figures near the end don't seem right, but there are various studies from reputable sources showing at least a weak negative correlation:
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