The holiday season is upon us… at no time of the year do we hear more ”oh no, my husband shorted out the house with a million Christmas lights, now I lost all my pictures of Aunt Pollie handing out fruitcake.”
So.
Make sure to back up all of your important files twice. Once in the house (external hard drive, raid, etc) and once out of the house (put on disk and stored In the car, safety deposit box, Aunt Pollie’s etc.) .
OK, now that I have gotten that off my chest, time to get to the article for the month.
I know you have heard this argument before… the question being, “are video games bad?”.
First, do video games make kids more violent. Well, it has been said that kids that play games are actually more stable because they have a way to take out their aggressions. In some experiments, this was found out to be true. They can also be a good way to work out anxieties.
The problem with labeling video games as being the source of all evil is that most of what we hear in the news is not scientifically supported. If you take any two teenage crimes, yes, they most likely did play violent video games… They also ate lunch, read a book and went to a movie, yet, none of these things are blamed for it.
Second, games are expensive. Well, if you figure that for one $50 game, that can keep the child (not to mention you and me) busy for 40 hours or more. Take that in comparison to movies (40 hours is about $140 not including popcorn), cruising etc.
Third, there is more and more evidence that games can be used like the proverbial carrot. Even some companies (with grown up’s working there) have started trading performance for online game playing time at work. They are finding that if you trade like this, many employees will be more productive because they know that they will receive a reward for doing so, (since a paycheck usually pays you for time spent and not quality of the time.)
I have also found (while researching this article) that most people ‘can’ tell the difference between the real world and the vid screen. One notable person, who plays FPS (first person shooters) quite a bit noted that one day he was riding the bus to work. Gunshots rang out. In the games he would have immediately gone for cover, but, while sitting there, he and most of the people around him, instead of diving for cover just looked out the window to see if they could tell where the noise was coming from.
And, as a topper, the Nintendo Wii especially has become popular in many nursing homes. It is a great way to get together with friends and be social, helps hand eye coordination, and is a form of exercise.
Now for the bad news. Like all good things, there needs to be a limit. There are reported cases of back problems arising because people playing games rarely use proper posture while playing. Wrist damage from using the joystick too much, poor nutrition (snacks being a quicker and easier), and, yes, there are some studies saying that a conflict may become violent sooner if the person plays a lot of violent games.
I can’t tell you what limit you should set, the scientific evidence so far is too thin to make any solid statement. All I can say, is use your best judgement, and, don’t rule out that game Johnny wants for Christmas just because of what you see on the news.
We here at TwoGeeksBlog.com, Byteslaves.com, Conceptsnet.com &Tragiclittlepc.com wish you a happy and safe New Year.
Sven Mogelgaard is the owner of Mill Creek-based Byte Slaves Inc. (www.byteslaves.com) and can be reached by calling 425-482-9529. Will Rutherford is the owner of Bothell-based Computer Concepts (www.conceptsnet.com) and can be reached by calling 425-481-3666.
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