Study "Strongly" Links Gaming With Kids' Poor Attention Spans
- Thread starter John Funk
- Start date
That kid is staring right into my soul...
OT: they dont pay attention because they are bored by what they see. I dont know what there bored with but i can safely guess that its mundane compared to some of the games out now.
OT: they dont pay attention because they are bored by what they see. I dont know what there bored with but i can safely guess that its mundane compared to some of the games out now.
This is furthur proof to me that parents simply use gaming as a free "blaming bucket" and nothing else.
I play more games than humanly possible, yet my attention span is so high, that I have trouble striking conversation with kids at school. I can stay on a subject or listen a single topic for hours and collect, store, and revise that info.
And, if my studies have proven correct, this is more or less an age related problem. Kids, good or bad, athletic or not, gamers or not, just kids in general, have extremely short attention spans. We may be able to attribute this to the lack of work and discipline childeren recieve, and not gaming.
And in all honesty, a small attention span to me is more a character trait, rather than a disorder caused by entertainment.
All of these threads claiming bad things about games. Next they'll be saying it litteraly fries your brain or enslaves you (well, that last part was true).
I play more games than humanly possible, yet my attention span is so high, that I have trouble striking conversation with kids at school. I can stay on a subject or listen a single topic for hours and collect, store, and revise that info.
And, if my studies have proven correct, this is more or less an age related problem. Kids, good or bad, athletic or not, gamers or not, just kids in general, have extremely short attention spans. We may be able to attribute this to the lack of work and discipline childeren recieve, and not gaming.
And in all honesty, a small attention span to me is more a character trait, rather than a disorder caused by entertainment.
All of these threads claiming bad things about games. Next they'll be saying it litteraly fries your brain or enslaves you (well, that last part was true).
GOOD NEWS EVERYONE. [http://www.murrayewing.co.uk/mewsings/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/farnsworth.jpg]
I've conducted some research and found groundbreaking evidence which shows kids who do something that interests them... often keep their interest aimed toward that thing! It affects the attention span in times of boredom, like school and gardening.
Another study I conducted on the beehive planet shows that bees are likely to produce honey, as opposed to bears, one-hundred percent of the time!
... Hwuzzat? Everyone knew these things anyway? Well, at least we got renewed.
(In all seriousness, though; this is bullshit.)
I've conducted some research and found groundbreaking evidence which shows kids who do something that interests them... often keep their interest aimed toward that thing! It affects the attention span in times of boredom, like school and gardening.
Another study I conducted on the beehive planet shows that bees are likely to produce honey, as opposed to bears, one-hundred percent of the time!
... Hwuzzat? Everyone knew these things anyway? Well, at least we got renewed.
(In all seriousness, though; this is bullshit.)
The biggest problem I have with this article isn't what the article itself says. To be honest, I wouldn't doubt that gamers are morel likely to have ADD or ADHD. What the study doesn't say however, is whether or not these are true cases of ADD/ADHD, or the kid just wasn't paying attention and the physicians decided the best course of action was to just throw a disorder on the kid and medicate him.
You can't "cause" adhd.
Grr.
As someone who didn't even go on a computer til I was 10, and was diagnosed with ADHD long before that, I take severe issue with this study.
People with concentration disorders more likely to binge on tv would have been a better headline.
EDIT: And don't anyone bullshit me that "You probably don't have it properly" because whilst a lot don't, I'm one of those who most definitely do.
Grr.
As someone who didn't even go on a computer til I was 10, and was diagnosed with ADHD long before that, I take severe issue with this study.
People with concentration disorders more likely to binge on tv would have been a better headline.
EDIT: And don't anyone bullshit me that "You probably don't have it properly" because whilst a lot don't, I'm one of those who most definitely do.
The point of the article is that a study about gaming was released. You've just gotten cynical from seeing so many biased studies that you can't recognize an unbiased one when it's there in black-and-white. Normally I'd completely agree with you because most studies (and their coverage) is heavily manipulated, but we need to recognize when the media is responsible about these things otherwise there's little hope left of people hearing the truth.Therumancer said:
I will concede this for the researchers; I could have told you that... there was a relation between poor attention spans and video gaming. 
That is to say, electronic media that requires visual stimulation with a monitor.
I'm going to use me, and only be for my example, since I cannot speak for others. When I game, I'm focused. I have goals, interest, and I'm paying attnetion to the story. When I'm playing a good game, I can sit there for hours, just locked into it. Now, take the same span of time, and sit me in front of my work desk wherein I'm drawing, designing, writing, and I become very unfocused. Here's something I love to do, but I cannot seem to focus! (Eventually, through much tossing and turning, I do find focus, but it's a labor to get there.)
If I'm sitting at my work desk, and I need my laptop for any reason, I find I will gravitate to the internet, check e-mail, facebook, all my haunts, youtube, whatever. I will become so distracted with this thing, that I will lose all focus on my job, my task.
All I can really say, is that with entertainment media things are always changing. Environments are shifting, plot is flowing, enemies are being crushed. The player is actively engaged, and the focus a player has shifts with each new scenario. I believe this is true with the internet, and TV. With the internet, you go to a new page. With TV, you flip the channel. (When I get restless and bored online, I have to force myself to shut it off, and walk away. I always find something better to do, but with the ever changing environments on the internet, it's hard to lose interest in something that is always so fluid and captivating.)
My own personal experiences is no subsitute for a professional study, but I can say that I support the correlation between gaming and low attention spans in people. Not just our youth. People.
That is to say, electronic media that requires visual stimulation with a monitor. I'm going to use me, and only be for my example, since I cannot speak for others. When I game, I'm focused. I have goals, interest, and I'm paying attnetion to the story. When I'm playing a good game, I can sit there for hours, just locked into it. Now, take the same span of time, and sit me in front of my work desk wherein I'm drawing, designing, writing, and I become very unfocused. Here's something I love to do, but I cannot seem to focus! (Eventually, through much tossing and turning, I do find focus, but it's a labor to get there.)
If I'm sitting at my work desk, and I need my laptop for any reason, I find I will gravitate to the internet, check e-mail, facebook, all my haunts, youtube, whatever. I will become so distracted with this thing, that I will lose all focus on my job, my task.
All I can really say, is that with entertainment media things are always changing. Environments are shifting, plot is flowing, enemies are being crushed. The player is actively engaged, and the focus a player has shifts with each new scenario. I believe this is true with the internet, and TV. With the internet, you go to a new page. With TV, you flip the channel. (When I get restless and bored online, I have to force myself to shut it off, and walk away. I always find something better to do, but with the ever changing environments on the internet, it's hard to lose interest in something that is always so fluid and captivating.)
My own personal experiences is no subsitute for a professional study, but I can say that I support the correlation between gaming and low attention spans in people. Not just our youth. People.
