Get the feedRe: In Praise of Gaming
Thursday, Oct 15th 2009
Our teammate Mike adds, in response to David's post:
Great discussion. There is some pretty compelling science on the benefits of certain video games for hand-eye coordination, but no need to look at the science behind some of those breathtakingly violent games.
But it was Nathan's point about conflict resolution and the media that really sparked my attention. There is a great book that every parent should pick up called Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merriman. It is a great counterintuitive look at the behavioral psychology behind raising kids, that began with these two articles in New York Magazine.
and
One of the chapters of the book dealt with research that monitored children’s behavior after watching television shows. One group watched a steady diet of PBS Kids – Arthur, Clifford, et cetera, while the other group watched shows with some intensity and violence, like the Star Wars movies. While there was not much of a change in the kids who watched Star Wars, the kids who watched Clifford and Arthur actually experienced more of a spike in their aggressive behavior. The reason was that the shows spent so much time illustrating the conflict, and only the last 30 seconds or so resolving it, that kids started to think that the normal way to behave was to always be disagreeable and combative. So sometimes our instincts on what our kids should watch are more harmful than helpful.
Obviously lots more to talk about here, but if you get a chance check out the two links above. Pretty amazing stuff . . .
Nancy French
Nancy French is an author, commentator, and mother. Her next book, about the year her husband spent in Iraq is due out July 4, 2011. Connect with her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NancyAndersonFrench and follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nancyafrench.
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