On video gaming, it didn’t specify which games they were talking about. For example, did war games make them
smarter? Or driving car games? I would suspect word games and educational games would work to raise the IQ’s. But we used to have a military recruiter locally who let kids play war games after school for free. Didn’t turn out well.
As far as the gun control legislation? I’m not holding my breath. Lots of good gun control legislation has come and gone because it was blocked in the Senate.
Sure, attention span and reading vocabulary saw a minor increase - however, they’re being exposed to things like violence and (mentioned above) guns, music with vulgar language
What’s the proper age to get your kid a video game ???
I don't partake in gaming, just never interested me much at all. I did enjoy playing Pac-Man, Asteroids, and Mario Bros. in my younger days (dating myself here).
I guess a little gaming wouldn't hurt according to your newsletter today. As they say, though, everything in moderation. It is the spending hours on end gaming I have a problem with. It's okay to have a hobby, but it needn't become an obsession. There are so many other things worth our time apart from gaming, including reading Understandably.
Who funded the studies? What kind of video games did the kids play? I would think some of the games I have seen would lead kids to be more violent and be bad drivers.
More employers are looking for soft skills these days, which require more than just intelligence. Don't develop them sitting in front of a monitor.
Or, are kids with a higher proclivity toward playing video games also the ones with the better “chance” of increasing their IQ to begin with? To put it another way: Do the smarter ones gravitate more toward playing video games? Inquiring minds wanna know.
Thanks for sharing the story about Mikaila Ulmer. What an inspirational young woman!
A personal comment on video games. I'm a GenXer and I have a lot of friends who were gamers growing up and in college. Some played more violent games like Halo or Final Fantasy. Some (like me) were hardcore into Zelda, Super Mario Bros, and Tetris. All were very intelligent and high performers. Many are still gamers. There are a lot of critical thinking skills that are learned and can grow with these games. It is also a great way to blow off some steam or take a break from the rigors of the day.
My girls are 5 and they have been playing kids games on their Amazon fires for a couple years now. Some are just for fun. Some have helped them learn their letters, numbers, colors, etc. These are just a small part of their learning and development, but I have seen the critical thinking they do as well as the enjoyment they receive from the games.
Yes, moderation is key and having a variety of interests. But bingeing occasionally can be good for the soul.
I'll give the "video-game-to-IQ-increase" a "hmmph". While it can assuage feelings while watching your child/grandchild work out those games, the loss of IQ increase, compared with watching the real world go by, doesn't impress me. I took my grandson's iPad during a day-trip that he and I took last summer. He was able to see so much more than an iPad screen with games. He saw "the world".
Maybe if it's a choice between four walls of a room, and playing games, well.... Otherwise, give me "the world".
Video games seem to suffer the same image problem that comic books did in the past. Horror and Crime titles from EC Comics let to a kind of panic. But most readers who look back find that EC books, while often lurid, were some of the most artful and well crafted examples of the comics medium. Games are still in the same boat. They get painted with the brush of Grand Theft Auto, which is unfair. And similarly anybody who is paying attention know that Grand Theft Auto games are both innovative, extremely fun and also contain well-written, biting satire of America. All that gets lost.
No research, scientific or otherwise, has gotten the desensitization accusation to stick. People who don't play games can't get their heads around the abstraction - games that appear violent are just an avenue for competition, challenge, teamwork and strategy. Just like popular contact sports. Though playing Call of Duty as a teen won't get you a concussion.
I’m interested to know how spending all that time playing video games impacts their social skills?
Bothers me when I go out to a restaurant or anywhere and see families sitting and having no conversations because they are all on their cell phones. No interaction between kids & parents. Very Sad!
Bill, I can't vouch for the study, but I have a personal case of one to tell you about. My grandson, Eric, started playing video games when he was seven years old. He must have played at least three to four hours a day. I watched him getting faster at decision-making within a year. His responses and hand-eye coordination became amazingly fast. By the time he was ten years old, he was beating all sixteen-year-old competitors at video games at an arcade. Before he started playing he was a lively kid, but he had no interests and appeared to be heading toward a mediocre life with mediocre intelligence. He had no interest in anything except skate boarding and playing with neighborhood friends. His school work from the beginning was disappointing. But he grew up to be a different kind of man. He received a bachelor's degree in communications, and at the same time and for years afterwards coached high school and college volleyball teams. He was himself a crack volleyball player until physical ailments brought on by his energetic and truly speedy responses on the court ended his playing career. Phenomenal speed and instantaneous decision-making made him the star and captain of every team he played with. Now at thirty-seven he is an accomplished communicator, working for a large California-based corporation while living in Boston for a year coaching a local college volleyball team. His is a personal real-life example of the effect of video game playing at a young age that most people frowned on as being deleterious.
Reading over what some of the naysayers are saying, I want to add something I neglected in the story of my grandchild. He has been a social animal since he was five years old. He is the star of the family. We all brighten up when he appears. And he has the most amazing network of loyal friends I have ever known in my 94 years.
results, negligible at best....control group or group B should read a list of classic novels and look up words in thesaurus for same amount of time, let's see how high their IQ goes....also, who paid for the study?
On video gaming, it didn’t specify which games they were talking about. For example, did war games make them
smarter? Or driving car games? I would suspect word games and educational games would work to raise the IQ’s. But we used to have a military recruiter locally who let kids play war games after school for free. Didn’t turn out well.
As far as the gun control legislation? I’m not holding my breath. Lots of good gun control legislation has come and gone because it was blocked in the Senate.
Sure, attention span and reading vocabulary saw a minor increase - however, they’re being exposed to things like violence and (mentioned above) guns, music with vulgar language
What’s the proper age to get your kid a video game ???
P.s. lemonade guy is LIT!!!!
I don't partake in gaming, just never interested me much at all. I did enjoy playing Pac-Man, Asteroids, and Mario Bros. in my younger days (dating myself here).
I guess a little gaming wouldn't hurt according to your newsletter today. As they say, though, everything in moderation. It is the spending hours on end gaming I have a problem with. It's okay to have a hobby, but it needn't become an obsession. There are so many other things worth our time apart from gaming, including reading Understandably.
https://www.understandably.com/p/kids-and-their-video-games?r=iyxeo&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Who funded the studies? What kind of video games did the kids play? I would think some of the games I have seen would lead kids to be more violent and be bad drivers.
More employers are looking for soft skills these days, which require more than just intelligence. Don't develop them sitting in front of a monitor.
Or, are kids with a higher proclivity toward playing video games also the ones with the better “chance” of increasing their IQ to begin with? To put it another way: Do the smarter ones gravitate more toward playing video games? Inquiring minds wanna know.
Thanks for sharing the story about Mikaila Ulmer. What an inspirational young woman!
A personal comment on video games. I'm a GenXer and I have a lot of friends who were gamers growing up and in college. Some played more violent games like Halo or Final Fantasy. Some (like me) were hardcore into Zelda, Super Mario Bros, and Tetris. All were very intelligent and high performers. Many are still gamers. There are a lot of critical thinking skills that are learned and can grow with these games. It is also a great way to blow off some steam or take a break from the rigors of the day.
My girls are 5 and they have been playing kids games on their Amazon fires for a couple years now. Some are just for fun. Some have helped them learn their letters, numbers, colors, etc. These are just a small part of their learning and development, but I have seen the critical thinking they do as well as the enjoyment they receive from the games.
Yes, moderation is key and having a variety of interests. But bingeing occasionally can be good for the soul.
I'll give the "video-game-to-IQ-increase" a "hmmph". While it can assuage feelings while watching your child/grandchild work out those games, the loss of IQ increase, compared with watching the real world go by, doesn't impress me. I took my grandson's iPad during a day-trip that he and I took last summer. He was able to see so much more than an iPad screen with games. He saw "the world".
Maybe if it's a choice between four walls of a room, and playing games, well.... Otherwise, give me "the world".
Video games seem to suffer the same image problem that comic books did in the past. Horror and Crime titles from EC Comics let to a kind of panic. But most readers who look back find that EC books, while often lurid, were some of the most artful and well crafted examples of the comics medium. Games are still in the same boat. They get painted with the brush of Grand Theft Auto, which is unfair. And similarly anybody who is paying attention know that Grand Theft Auto games are both innovative, extremely fun and also contain well-written, biting satire of America. All that gets lost.
No research, scientific or otherwise, has gotten the desensitization accusation to stick. People who don't play games can't get their heads around the abstraction - games that appear violent are just an avenue for competition, challenge, teamwork and strategy. Just like popular contact sports. Though playing Call of Duty as a teen won't get you a concussion.
I’m wondering if your followers in Texas support the things their legislature is doing in terms of election denial, LGBTQ issues, etc.
I’m interested to know how spending all that time playing video games impacts their social skills?
Bothers me when I go out to a restaurant or anywhere and see families sitting and having no conversations because they are all on their cell phones. No interaction between kids & parents. Very Sad!
Bill, I can't vouch for the study, but I have a personal case of one to tell you about. My grandson, Eric, started playing video games when he was seven years old. He must have played at least three to four hours a day. I watched him getting faster at decision-making within a year. His responses and hand-eye coordination became amazingly fast. By the time he was ten years old, he was beating all sixteen-year-old competitors at video games at an arcade. Before he started playing he was a lively kid, but he had no interests and appeared to be heading toward a mediocre life with mediocre intelligence. He had no interest in anything except skate boarding and playing with neighborhood friends. His school work from the beginning was disappointing. But he grew up to be a different kind of man. He received a bachelor's degree in communications, and at the same time and for years afterwards coached high school and college volleyball teams. He was himself a crack volleyball player until physical ailments brought on by his energetic and truly speedy responses on the court ended his playing career. Phenomenal speed and instantaneous decision-making made him the star and captain of every team he played with. Now at thirty-seven he is an accomplished communicator, working for a large California-based corporation while living in Boston for a year coaching a local college volleyball team. His is a personal real-life example of the effect of video game playing at a young age that most people frowned on as being deleterious.
Reading over what some of the naysayers are saying, I want to add something I neglected in the story of my grandchild. He has been a social animal since he was five years old. He is the star of the family. We all brighten up when he appears. And he has the most amazing network of loyal friends I have ever known in my 94 years.
I read your letter every day, and always enjoy and benefit from it. Thank you.
results, negligible at best....control group or group B should read a list of classic novels and look up words in thesaurus for same amount of time, let's see how high their IQ goes....also, who paid for the study?