Question of the Day, July 11, 2010

[The Escapist Staff]

Question of the Day, July 11, 2010



Researchers from Texas A&M and Harvard Medical School challenged an earlier study that linked children's poor attention span to gaming - do you think gaming affects it?

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[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Technically I should have said yes, but not the way they think.

I asked my parents about this once, and they confirmed that when I started gaming was when my attention span actually got better, and I started focusing on things for a worrying amount of time for an eight year old. Basically my parents were worried not that I was getting some sort of attention disorder but that I was developing OCD or something as a result of my gaming.

Then again, there were a lot of other things happening around that time, so the gaming may have had no effect, or its detrimental effect may have been balanced out by the other factors, but going by the evidence of what happened when (correlation not causality, yes I acknowledge that) gaming increased my attention span.

 

[Aggressor and Usurper]

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sorry, what?

OT: I think it does, a little. Even before I played videogames I had a terrible attention span, and I'm sure it does worsen it, but not enough to be anything serious. It wouldn't change much if I stopped playing games.

 

[Hexenwolf]

Yeah, the question is ambiguous. I do believe gaming affects attention span, but not negatively.

OT: I think it does, a little. Even before I played videogames I had a terrible attention span, and I'm sure it does worsen it, but not enough to be anything serious. It wouldn't change much if I stopped playing games.

Just curious, when you say "I'm sure it does worsen it..." what inspires you to be sure of that?

 

[A Raging Emo]

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sorry, what?

Damnit! I was ninja'd ont he second post!

 

[iLikeHippos]

Well, I often experience the times where I just zoom with a sniper rifle all lazily ans trigger the shot when they've moved out of the way.
Than 1 second afterwards I go like "what the fuuuuck... ?"

But I don't think it has to do with gaming at all; It's because I am tired/sleepy/drowsy, which I feel like I am at those times. And doesn't gaming make you use your brain, thus draining you? Like when you do math?

Other than that, I also experience times when I act like that in social life as well, but I got that from my genes; my father is a 50 year old doctor, and he is a mother####### wreck.

 

[Aggressor and Usurper]

Yeah, the question is ambiguous. I do believe gaming affects attention span, but not negatively.

OT: I think it does, a little. Even before I played videogames I had a terrible attention span, and I'm sure it does worsen it, but not enough to be anything serious. It wouldn't change much if I stopped playing games.

Just curious, when you say "I'm sure it does worsen it..." what inspires you to be sure of that?

Well, if I'm playing video games, or in the hours after, people need to say things to me a number of times more than they do if I haven't. It's the same case with almost everyone I know.

 

[Arcanite Ripper]

If that was the main reason, I wonder why they picked children only to do their research. If there is a link, surely an adult would be factored the same. A study on attention-span "measuring" from child to adult might be an interesting find as well. I don't know, they probably have a better reason then me...

OT: All I can do is self-reflect for some evidence, so i'll say no. When I play a video game, read a book, stick to a chore etc. I focus on my task until finished, or I lose interest...

Damn, caught in my own trap. Maybe.

 

[Banana Phone Man]

Depends. I focus on the game then yes however I lose focus on what is going on around me.

 

[Gudrests]

it makes a type of....wanted ADD...where if you want to pay attention to a certian thing and your interisted....you will pay attention to that and only that...but if you get bored...you look for something else

 

[Hexenwolf]

Well, if I'm playing video games, or in the hours after, people need to say things to me a number of times more than they do if I haven't. It's the same case with almost everyone I know.

People need to repeat things to you more than usual when you've really played videogames?? I mean, I can understand it when you're actually playing, because you're obviously distracted, but afterwards too? Does playing videogames somehow affect your hearing?

 

[tkioz]

What they call effecting my attention span I call the ability to multi-task, I play a game in one window, read a web page in another, have google docs open in another, be fiddling with some code, and about a dozen other things all at once, flicking between them when the mode strikes.


What's wrong with that?

 

[reg42]

I wouldn't know. I've been playing games as long as I can remember.

 

[Syphous]

it makes a type of....wanted ADD...where if you want to pay attention to a certian thing and your interisted....you will pay attention to that and only that...but if you get bored...you look for something else

ADHD, I was diagnosed with that once but never followed through with meds or anything.

 

[Spygon]

As i said before my attention span effects my gaming and alot of other things.I get bored easily so i game,read or watch things like every human being does when there bored.

 

[The Great JT]

Kind of the opposite, really. When I'm playing a game, I tend to get really focused on it.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

I doubt it... I've never had much of an attention span to begin with...

 

[wooty]

Nah, my attentions span is.....errr.....yeah its........terracotta?

 

[enzilewulf]

A little. I can get into a game yet still knowing whats going on around me and know if some one talks to me.

 

[Jonluw]

I don't know really, but I haven't been gaming a lot lately, and my attention span isn't very bad.