Video Games: What is the verdict?

I’ve always been curious about the short and long term affects of gaming. I’m pretty bad at the traditional gaming experience, but I spend a lot of time playing games on my iPod touch, and these are definitely considered video games. We just covered video games this week in my Media, Family, and Human Development class so I though I would post about it for those of you that are interested in this as well. It won't be quite the same as hearing from a PhD., like I had the opportunity to do, but hopefully I will get most of my facts right and keep this bias-free. Also, there will be a main take home message posted at the very bottom, in case you just want to skip to that.

 

So, to start out with, here are some stats about video gaming: (Remember, these are averages…)

Children/Adolescents: 1 hour per day (Kaiser, 2010)

Boys: 13 hours/week (Gentile et al., 2004)

Girls: 6 hours/week (Gentile et al., 2004)

Emerging Adults (ages 18-25): 22% males and 5% females play at least once a week (Padilla-Walker, et al., 2010)

Boys with authoritarian parents: more likely to develop a video game addiction.

There are 5 video game dimensions to keep in mind when considering the effects of video games (Gentile, 2011). These are:

            1. Amount

            2. Content

            3. Structure

            4. Context

            5. Mechanics

AMOUNT:

•  The overall amount is most related to school performance. (This is because kids that play a larger amount of video games have less time to spend on homework.)
•  Amount is also related to health outcomes. Studies have found that an increase in gaming is correlated to obesity, and less commonly, seizures and tendinitis.
•  Learning outcomes through video games: Video games teach in a very effective way. People will typically spend a large amount of time defeating a new game. This is what we call Mass Practice. After defeating the game, people usually switch to distributed practice, which means that they play the game for a more reasonable amount of time (maybe an hour) every day. This is the ideal way to learn, and because of this, video games are very effective teachers. 

Pathological Video Game use (aka Video Game Addiction):

            There are six characteristics of an addiction (Brown)

                        1) Salience (dominates life)

                        2) Euphoria or relief (provides a “high” or reduction of unpleasant feelings)

                        3) Tolerance (over time need more to achieve the same “high”)

4) Withdrawal (unpleasant physical effects or negative emotions when unable to engage in the activity)

                        5) Conflict (with people at work, friends, self, family)

                        6) Relapse and reinstatement (continues despite attempts to abstain)       

            

            Characteristics of pathological gamers:

•  Higher impulsivity, physical and relational aggression and victimization, HAB, ADHD, anxiety, social phobia, and depression.
•  Lower social competence, emotion regulation, empathy, school performance, goal setting, and worse parent/child relationships.
•  These show LONG term effects.

LDS For The Strength of Youth’s stand on video gaming:

Take care that your use of media does not dull your sensitivity to the Spirit or interfere with your personal relationships with others. Spending long periods of time using the Internet or a mobile device, playing video games, or watching television or other media can keep you from valuable interactions with other people. (My professor got to add the bolded line… cool, huh!)

LDS stand on video games: (New Era, July, 2011)

•  There are many video games that are clean, challenging, and fun, and some multiplayer games can be an enjoyable social activity. The Church is not against video games, but youth are urged to be smart in their selection of games and the amount of time they spend with them. We have been commanded to use our time wisely (see D&C 60:13). Just because something is clean and fun does not mean it is worth doing.
•  It is all right to spend some of your time playing video games that adhere to the media standards found in For the Strength of Youth. But be willing to set down the controllers or turn off the computer and move on to something else. Don’t let video games keep you from worthwhile activities like exercising, studying the gospel, doing schoolwork, or spending time with your family.

CONTENT:

Prosocial games (Greitemeyer, et al., 2011)

            Increased empathy, decreased aggression after playing these games

            Game Example: Lemmings

Math/reading games (Din, 2001)

            Increased scores in math and reading

Sexual Games (Yao et al., 2010)

More likely to be accepting of rape myths (rape myths are the idea that a woman deserved to be raped because she dressed or acted a certain way).

Violence (Anderson et al., 2010)

Increased aggression, decreased empathy and decreased prosocial behavior after playing these games.

*Content of game is very predictive of behavior and attitudes after playing the game.

STRUCTURE:

•  Games that require constant scanning of the screen and require you to maneuver the view are correlated with improved visual attention skills.
• Games that require use of 2D representations to provide 3D information and navigation are correlated with improved ability to use and understand 2D and 3D.
• Games that are more realistic are better teachers. Learning and transfer happen faster in these games.
• Laparoscopic surgeons study (Rosser et al 2007)
•  Found that video game play (particularly of games that require you to maneuver and manipulate the view) was related to advanced laparoscopic skills. These doctors were 27% faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37% fewer errors.

CONTEXT:

Playing video games with parents is good for adolescent girls (Coyne et al., 2011)

•  This is probably because the parents (particularly fathers) are able to bond with daughters in an activity that they both enjoy without a lot of pressure.
• Correlated with less depression, less anxiety, feeling more connected with parents.
• These positive outcomes disappear if playing an M rated games together.

Male Bonding experience?

• Studies are yet to be done in this area, but many boys claim that video gaming is a bonding experience.

Intergenerational studies (Grandparents playing with grandkids) (Aarsand, 2007)

•           GOOD for the relationship because the child is able to feel like the expert and can teach the skill to the grandparents.

Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) (Smyth, 2007)

•  People feel more socially connected as a result of these games – can chat with people.
•  Study found that after 6 months of playing these games people reported making the most friends through these kinds of games. However, participants did worse in school and got less sleep.
•   It is important to remember that virtual friendships cannot replace the benefits of relationships in the real world.

MECHANICS:

Mechanical devices that are closer to reality are better teachers. These games allow for faster transfer into the brain.

•  Examples: using a steering wheel as opposed to the traditional controller, or dance games that use your body as the controller, or wii games that use body motions in place of buttons.
•  Making punching motions to fight someone in a wii game is associated with higher aggression than pushing buttons.

Using video games in nursing homes:

•  Wii is easier than other games and is very successful in nursing homes. Allows the elderly to be active and to have fun.
• World of Warcraft: studies show that it can improve cognitive ability in the elderly.

Take Home Message:

Video games are excellent teachers. Video games will “teach” you whatever skill is necessary to play the game. Video games can teach anything from aggression to prosocial behavior, and can be useful in helping kids learn math and reading. While some games can teach positive skills, it is important to avoid the mindset that these “good” video games will teach your kids in your place. Nothing can replace human interaction in this respect. However, research shows that video games are associated with both positive and negative outcomes.