Gaming addictions & others

[snapdragen]

And well, it shouldn't be odd in the 21st century, but twice in last few weeks, I saw a parent wheeling their child around (big enough to walk, around 4-6 yrs. old) outside. Child had a minature like laptop tucked in front while inside the stroller and manoeuvring the buttons. Probably it was a game? Ok, I'm not a parent but it is strange to see this with the child's fascination but totally disinterested in his/her outside immediate surroundings. Maybe it's the new way of keeping a kid from howling in public..

Any chance this child was disabled in some way? We have a couple of different schools near my office for the disabled, lots of different wheelchairs/strollers etc.

[Irulan]

Any chance this child was disabled in some way? We have a couple of different schools near my office for the disabled, lots of different wheelchairs/strollers etc.

Nope. At least I doubt it. I was out for a ride this fall, and some folks were wheeling what must have been a healthy looking but bored looking 7 year old(ish) kid watching a DVD.

That being said, it's not all bad. I have a geek child, plays LOTs of video games but does a few other things. He is graduating this May with an Electrical Engineering degree, near the top of his class, with a very good job lined up. I'm sure his interest in games/electronics have something to do with his success.

[shootingstar]

Any chance this child was disabled in some way? We have a couple of different schools near my office for the disabled, lots of different wheelchairs/strollers etc.

It was not readily apparent to me as a pedestrian passing by the parent and kid in stroller. I know what you're asking since I did work at rehabilitation hospital for spinal cord injured adults for a few years ages ago. Beside our facility, was a pediatric rehabilitation hospital for children with various disabilties, cerebral palsy, MS, cystic fibrosis, etc. in addition to spinal cord diseases.

It appeared to me at glance, the child was at least normal in hand function and hand-eye neurolocomotor skills, because child's fingers were moving ...FAST.

I do have a pedestrian interest in this ....as a librarian. I am not a children's nor school librarian but have noticed in the professional literature for librarians, in past 2 years, a niche interest of some public librarians interested in gaming as learning strategy..for information literacy skills and secondly, as another resource to draw in more children and teenagers into the library. The reality is use statistics particularily among teenagers for using their public library, are dropping if the library director doesn't reinvent some of their services/diversify their range of resources. And use statistics affects how the library will be funded in the future.

I am not convinced when people talk about the real learning benefits of video games if those benefits can be applied to alot of video games. It would seem a video gaming software company should hire some staff who have specialized knowledge of adult and child cognitive development and learning.

By the way, the person I spoke with she has: her undergraduate university degree in Chemical Engineering. Then her visual arts degree from a public, well-known art and design college. Her first love is the latter which includes computer animation design. So she is someone equipped with strong analytical skills to write programming, etc. and visual design...but learning skills and cognitive development is probably she is picking up as she goes along if she is paying attention to this.

The companies don't care, as long as these games are truly fun...they are to make money.

There's nothing inherently wrong with some video game playing. Even if there is the occasional mildly violent video game, But for a child, it would seem for the child's long-term benefit, that they have passions/interests aside from video games and computers.

[Veronica]

I'm currently addicted to Fallout 3 - a video game.

A couple days ago I was addicted to Simple Genius.

I'm always addicted to good chocolate and pie.


Veronica

[OakLeaf]

I'm old school. I haven't been able to graduate from NetHack and Bejeweled.

[Tuckervill]

By Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote Blink and Outliers, a review of the book, Everything Bad is Good for You
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/200...0516crbo_books

Addresses the video game issue.

Karen

[LBTC]

With a long spell of time off I have learned (again) that it's a good darned thing we haven't invested in any of the gaming systems!! Skype (the VOIP system) has a game called Jeweller's Adventure (probably a knock off of Oakleaf's Bejewelled). I can't believe how much time I have wasted playing this game!!! Yes, I'd be an addict if I had the games in the house. Much like I'd be 40 pounds heavier if we bought chips all the time.

Hugs & butterflies,
~T~

[salsabike]

By Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote Blink and Outliers, a review of the book, Everything Bad is Good for You
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/200...0516crbo_books

Addresses the video game issue.

Karen

Here's the part I found really interesting from this review:

"It doesn’t seem right, of course, that watching “24” or playing a video game could be as important cognitively as reading a book. Isn’t the extraordinary success of the “Harry Potter” novels better news for the culture than the equivalent success of “Grand Theft Auto III”? Johnson’s response is to imagine what cultural critics might have said had video games been invented hundreds of years ago, and only recently had something called the book been marketed aggressively to children:

Reading books chronically understimulates the senses. Unlike the longstanding tradition of gameplaying—which engages the child in a vivid, three-dimensional world filled with moving images and musical sound-scapes, navigated and controlled with complex muscular movements—books are simply a barren string of words on the page. . . .
Books are also tragically isolating. While games have for many years engaged the young in complex social relationships with their peers, building and exploring worlds together, books force the child to sequester him or herself in a quiet space, shut off from interaction with other children. . . .
But perhaps the most dangerous property of these books is the fact that they follow a fixed linear path. You can’t control their narratives in any fashion—you simply sit back and have the story dictated to you. . . . This risks instilling a general passivity in our children, making them feel as though they’re powerless to change their circumstances. Reading is not an active, participatory process; it’s a submissive one."

[lph]

Yep, that is a really good point. Books have an undeserved good reputation compared to video games and tv, and this comes from an avid reader who rarely plays video games.