Slashdot Mirror
No Video Games on School Nights
Donkey Konga writes "In the latest round of the ongoing debate on the effect of video games and TV on academics, a new study in Pediatrics says that any amount of gaming is too much if if happens on a school night. '"On weekdays, the more they watched, the worse they did," said study coauthor Dr. Sharif. Weekends were another matter, with gaming and TV watching habits showing little or no effect on academic performance, as long as the kids spent no more than four hours per day in front of the console or TV." Of course we all know that correlation does not equal causation, but the study is sure to get many parents thinking about how much time in front of the Xbox and idiot box is too much."
I sense a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of students suddenly cried out in terror and then were suddenly silenced...
MODERATION is the key here. When I was a kid, my parents limited everyone to 1 hour on the computer per day once all the chores and homework was done. My family did just fine academically, thankyouverymuch. Remove the kids who spend an average of 2 hours or more after school in front of the TV or computer and see how the statistic looks.
Why are they valuing academic performance and not gaming skills?
Fair enough, but it's equal time for equap pay. You know what that means, parents. No TV for you on work nights.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
You really can't make generalizations about children when it comes to things like this. Different children develop differently, and generalizations become too broad to be useful applications. But here are the rules for my kids. The homework is done first. After that they get a modest amount of playtime. We check the homework, if the homework is done well then the kids deserve a little playtime.
who watches videogames?
So does that mean that if I stop being an academic and go back into industry, I can watch TV safely again?
While the study may be correct in its findings, I must take issue with your conclusion, "[T]he study is sure to get many parents thinking about how much time in front of the Xbox and idiot box is too much."
If history is any guide, the parents who have failed to monitor their childrens' study habits and recreational activities in the past will continue to do so. And those parents who have been responsible in their child-raising duties will also continue to do so.
The study will have no effect whatsoever.
Yes, IAAP. (I am a parent.)
Trust not a man who's rich in flax / His morals may be sadly lax
Time spent playing games is subtracted from the total time available for studying. As study time decreases because of an increase in gaming time, homework assignments get less attention. As homework assignments get less attention, practice in those subjects, which is the purpose of homework, is reduced and the level of knowledge gained by the student/gamer is reduced.
Connecting the dots is as easy as 123.
wtf, I playied vedeo gaymes all teh time. Me turned out phine!
I spent insane amounts of hours EVERY weekday playing starcraft/red alert/whatever else was out at the time, and my grades were-- Ok, i see your point.
My parents limited me to _only_ holidays and vacations. I'm still in school, and not on the street. So I guess I did not turn out bad.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
No games on school nights. Ruin all the fun. Next thing you know, they will tell us maturbation makes you go blind!
:(){
OK, not much experience yet. My son is only 6. But I can tell you that he is WAY too wound up after the excitement of video games if it's right before bed time. If he's allowed video games after dinner, he has trouble getting to sleep at a reasonable hour and that absolutely DOES effect him in school. So our house rule is now that if there's video games, it happens AFTER homework and BEFORE dinner.
Stop! Enough said.
Isn't Xbox and the idiot box redundant?
I am in grade 10. I use my computer all night, and will sometimes play games (or read wikipedia! Great passtime.). Every day of the week. My average last year sat at around 87%. I cannot stress enough that the same thing is not always true for everyone. Some people would never do a good job on their homework if they sat around watching TV or playing games all the time, for others it works fine. Also, moderation is key. You need to know when to say "enough playing games, time to get homework done". Of course, for some people, it's best to do homework first, but I never do that! ;)
Also, some people have suggested time spent playing video games could instead be spent studying. In practise, everyone seems to do the bare minimum and never studies if it's not required.
s.clementmonkey@sympatico.ca, remove the 'monkey'.
The conclusion may be true, but parents need to be careful how they define "playing video games". Much of my childhoot computer recreation time was spent programming for fun. Often testing games that I had programmed. That would certainly have IMPROVED my grades.
I'm not sure that self-rating academic performance is a good way to gauge these students. Maybe it'd be better to say that kids who play less videogames have more confidence in their work.
How about having your children do their homework before such actvities are allowed? That's how it was with me, and I certainly spent more than my fair share of time gaming and watching TV.
"You will pay for your lack of vision..." - Emperor Palpatine to Ray Charles
Well I guess when space invaders attack earth I won't be able to help..
:(
Too bad.. I had my shasta and all rush mix tape ready to go
Me and my friends just spent 7 weeks 21 hours a day in the forest killing pigs.
If we hadn't done that we wouldn't be the fat pimply-faced lardballs we are today.
-Cartman
We wouldn't but you would fatass.
-Stan
It's been 9 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment.
If watching games makes kids that bad with schoolwork, imagine if they were actually playing the game!
/* No Comment */
I take issue with this study, as it appears to be claiming that playing video games and watching television are equal. Surely there are more portions of the brain being stimulated when playing video games than when staring at the TV?
Do not read this sig.
Judging by the Ars article, the survey considered TV and gaming to be the same activity. This somehow strikes me as completely wrong. Certainly it's no basis to be drawing conclusions about gaming. All it says is that TV and gaming, in some combination, can harm performance. Cigarettes and sitting on wooden stools, in some combination, can give you lung cancer, but you won't see me selling the stool.
This is strange. I played Nethack for a good hour today, yet I'm doing just fine with my homework.
In fact, I would go as far as to say that that hour helped me. It was a great way to clear my head of discrete mathematics to make way for Shakespearian analysis.
Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
It seems to me that moderate use of video games is only part of the solution. Ultimately, it comes down to parental involvement and interaction. When I was growing up, my mom and I often played the Atari 2600, NES and SNES together. She made it a point to just sit back and watch sometimes, too. This actually served two purposes:
She had supervision over the game console use and game content. She knew what kinds of games I played, how long I played them for, etc. This made it remarkably easy for her to anticipate which games to buy for me as gifts or rewards... Not to mention the fact that she played the hell out of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Metroid and Tetris whenever I wasn't playing.
She also gave me encouragement as I played — sometimes offering other possible avenues of action when I was stumped, soothing words when I was frustrated, or positive reinforcement upon completing a major game objective. If I was acting too rashly in response to a game's difficulty, she would make me quit until I calmed down and approached it again with a fresh perspective and a cooler head.
Ironically, her method of coaching helped to sharpen my natural tendency for analytical thinking, further reinforcing it with the (sometimes negative) quality of persistence (some would also say stubbornness) in coming to an understanding with a thing or concept, or completing a goal. Parental involvement is A Good Thing(tm) for all involved, and a lot of parents nowadays have become disappointingly lax in that department.
One of the best things to do to encourage that such involvement or observation actually takes place? Put the console in the living room. If a kid is going to have his or her game machine and/or computer in their room, that's likely where they'll spend most of their time, thusly putting them outside the sphere of parental influence. Putting the console in a common, non-private area will give the parent(s) the opportunity to regulate usage and observe their child in action; it also affords the parent(s) an opportunity to see how their child reacts to and interacts with the game.
And believe me, if the infamous Chocolate Milk video is any indication, a lot of these kids seriously need parental intervention. I can say, thankfully, that I've never acted like such an out-of-control heathen — I knew the fear of MOM, not God.
Some of the younger generation may look at such a suggestion with great disdain, but take it from someone who actually had a parent take the time to get involved — it may seem lame or embarassing, but is A Good Thing(tm). It's also a necessary thing. Take the time, parents; it does make a difference.
[End of Line]
During high school, I managed at least 7 hours a day on weekdays playing EverQuest (and much more on weekends of course) , and I got mostly As and a few Bs here and there. I probably would have gotten straight As if it weren't for all the gaming, but I still think I did pretty well. I don't regret it. Honestly, though, I multitasked a lot. EQ had a lot of downtime, and it's not the most mentally demanding unless you're on a raid or something. It was pretty easy to work on homework during gaming.
Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this: that you are dreadfully like other people. - James Russell Lowell
If this is the same Dr. Sharif who is responsible for, among other things, the "Robber's Cave" experiment with sweeping ramifications for social psychology, he's about as far from a crackpot trying to jump on the bandwagon as one can get.
I tend to dismiss these sorts of studies as fearmongering and ignorant grandstanding, but I'll have to look up the full text of the study and do a bit more reading coming from someone who I know to be well respected in his field, and my field of study.
The kids who were playing videogames or watching TV on school nights were kids who would have done poorly in school anyway, and if they were not playing videogames or watching TV they would have filled that time with some other non-learning activity.
This study is such horse shit, according to TFA "Researchers asked the students to rate their own performance in school on a scale ranging from "below average" to "excellent," instead of looking directly at their grades or other metrics of academic performance"
It is likely that in the end they were comparing kids who spent 4 hours playing videogames vs kids who spent 4 hours studying. Gee, I wonder which one did better in school the next day. Judging by how in depth this study was, I wouldn't be suprised if they just mashed every single kid into the same catagory, without taking into account other activities or other factors that may effect school performance.
Child: "No TV and No Games make Billy go something something."
Parents: "Go... Crazy?"
Child: "Don't mind if I do!" (pulls out machete)
Don't ban, prioritise.
I'm 23. I still live at home. Mum and dad are usually working, so I'm often supervising my little brothers and sisters.
My rule is that they have to do their homework and a decent amount of extra study before they can do any other activity (including watching TV, chatting or playing games).
Why ban it the whole night? If they've done what they're obligated to do, then why stop them from having fun until bedtime?
This also teaches the kids a valuable lesson: in life, if you carry out your obligations, you're free to do what you want.
SHARIF DON'T LIKE IT.
Willy: It's impossible for me to fire a pistol. If you'll check me medical records, you'll see I have a cripplin' arthritis in me index fingerrrs. Look at 'em! (holds fingers up) I got it from "Space Invaders" in 1977.
Wiggum: Aw, yeah. That was a pretty addictive video game.
Willy: (surprised) Video game?
"the study is sure to get many parents thinking about how much time in front of the Xbox and idiot box is too much" I don't get it. Aren't those two the exact same thing?
My name would be Pi_r_[]ed, but this stupid thing wouldn't allow it. Well, at least now you know.
ya this really doesn't apply to everyone. I come home at 3:45, turn on the tv, and it's on until I go to sleep. I have straight A's in every class (including 3 AP classes and an extra Math Elective). it really just depends on the person. i know people that aren't allowed any TV and get D's. That said, I never do any work until past 10 at night and I'm in bed by 11. Homework and Essays and Projects have very little to do with school. Most teachers will give you the same grade on those every time you turn one in no matter how well you write it (so just do the first one well).
Sharif don't like it? I guess we better rock the casbah then.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/ 118/4/e1061
Read the thing before you dismiss it, the authors are very well known and respected researchers.
New studies show that going to a religious service cuts down on study time, and thus lowers grades. Parents advised to encourage atheism among their children. Another new study has come out to say pleasure reading is a deterrent to studying of assigned work at school, and thus should be prohibited for maximum GPA. ....
Ya know, I spend all sorts of time on the computer and playing videogames, and I've managed a 2200 SAT and a current 3.8 (94.3%) GPA. Speaking as a 17 year old male, this kinda junk is crock. There is way too much generalizing. Let parents do their own parenting.
I am a high school student who just so happens to enjoy a video game every now and then. I can understand that people may be concerned that their childrens' education may be in jeopardy if gaming gets in the way. Many of my classmates play what many would consider excessive amounts of game time. However, I can safely say that in most cases, it does not affect their education as long as they do it in moderation. If I were the parent (I know, I know, teenage kid who thinks they know everything, right?), I would only be worried if my child's grades were slipping as a result. If they can keep their marks up and do what I tell 'em (for the most part), they can play as long as they want. But as soon as the sub-par marks start appearing, then it's time to review the situation.
here's my story:
In school I did homework in the time between classes. Period. No exceptions. The rest of the learning I picked up by paying attention in class (wow, what a novel concept) and in study hall if necessary (though that time was usually was spent playing cards). What was my GPA? 4.2. In college it was a 3.2, where I gave myself the same rules, with less going to class. Video games couldn't have had a negative effect on me...
"You can use statistics to prove anything Kent, fourfteen percent of people know that."
-Homer Simpson
...such as soccer practice, playing in the front yard, or reading comic books.
Face it, we all have limited time, particularly on weekdays. After dinner, getting ready for bed, baths, etc., there's limited time for homework or study. If you waste it, children will do worse, no matter how you waste it.
My wife and I limit our first grader to 30 minutes on the PS2, assuming that there's time, he'e been good at school, and that he'll complete his homework (which isn't that much) before snack time before bed. Anybody with an ounce of common sense could tell you that his academic work would suffer if we reduced study time to allow more play time, regardless of whether or not it was on the PS2 or playing Mille Borne or Sorry! or any other game...or even just playing with Legos.
This is a time management issue, not a video game issue.
-- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
I have my kids playing the School House Rock and Jumpstart games, it combines the "academics" with the fun of video games. When they get home they have 1 hour where they are to either do homework or if they have none (and we check with teachers so they know not to lie about it) then after that they each get an hour of computer time redeemable before bed. Most of the time they are either playing an educational game or surfing their rather limited access of websites. They also rotate computer usage and console gaming getting to swap with their siblings to play mindless console games for an hour as well. Normally they choose to go outside rather than play the console games but during the winter they play them pretty regularly. So far the lowest grade any of them has brought home was a B, their reading lexiles have been in the top 10%, math skills are decent and one is actually skipping a grade this year.
Its all in moderation and monitoring, if you are involved in your kids lives and guide their activities while still giving them enough freedom to feel like they are able to make a choice for themselves they will generally be fine.
I solved it by buying my son Playstation 2 with all the major games available at the time and also big plasma screen, then I allowed him to play all those games for all the time he wanted, after two month or so he got bored. He saw everything, he played everything so there was nothing new or unexplored there, unsuprisingly after that treatment he is not so interested anymore.
"In the latest round of the ongoing debate on the effect of video games and TV on academics, a new study in Pediatrics says that any amount of gaming is too much if if happens on a school night." Ur Mom.
I must be a rare subject...I'm pulling a 3.7 in my junior year (and that D in 9th grade was because I had a bitch teacher,) I'm in severals honors classes, an AP class, in marching band, jazz band, full orchestra, A+, and I still manage several hours on the computer. I have several friends like myself. I hate when studies like this "proove" to people that kids should have no free time ever, or they'll become idiots. The trick is parents knowing what's good for their children. Though some parents need to have their TV time limited, as well...
So how much TV and video games can I do for a maximum without failing school?
Of course we all know that correlation does not equal causation,
But it sure is a good starting point to finding causation!
I really can't believe they needed a *study* for this. What ever happened to common sense?
Have you read my journal today?
I disagree, to some extent. Often parents don't know what their children are doing on a computer, this is what matters. All through Jr High and High School I spent at a minimum of 2 hours using a computer (not including homework time) This is when I taught myself Pascal and HTML! If it were not for my parents lack of controls about what they largely regarded as an "entertainment device" I never would have gained interest in computers and taken the successful career path as a user interface designer! So suppress children's curiosity about electronics is a crime! The emphasis should not be put on using or not using a device, but HOW it is being used.
...and spent too much time in front of the PC and NES. Yet, im healthy, graduating college, have a full time job, social skills and a life. I always had all thoes things (replace college with decent grades and scratch job when i was young...but you get the idea). Sure my parents complained about it. But they lef me alone because i was just fine. Now, if they saw me getting dumb or fat, I'm sure they would of taken charge.
You can't possibly mean they should actually parent??!!
I'll be enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it
I couldn't agree more. When someone plays video games, or any other activity to an obsessive level, certain corners will be cut. For me those corners are: cleaning my room, showering, shaving. For someone still attending school, the thing cut out is probably study time.
-=Zeus=And=Hades=-
I can understand the point being raised but as someone already pointed out, they really messed up a potential good point by generalizing too much and by putting watching tv and playing video games in the same category. I have always been a grade A student and also heavily involved in sports activities AND a video games lover (yeah go figure!). I remember the days when me and my brother used to save all the money we could just so that we can play mario, contra and all the rest of the gang at a local game parlor - school day or not. Now the only effect that has on my studies was that I spent some time imagining mario jumping over the teachers head from over the tube-light in the corrner while I pressed the imaginary 'B' button. But it was fun and gave me respite from a long successsion of boring lectures sometimes. Now I was aware of the fact that homework has to be done and had a genuine interest in things being taught so totally losing interest in studies was out of question. My brother actually did better than back when he was not into video games! He knew finishing the work made him free to do the things he really wanted to do.
So yeah, I can understand the point if someone lets his child play video games from the time he/she comes back from the school to 2 a.m. everyday but saying that playing video games on school days is by default wrong and definitely affects the performance is a horrible generalization. Oh and IMHO watching tv excessively has more potential of making you dumb (a dangerous generalization..I know!) no matter what your age because its totally a passive medium. Putting it in the same category as video games is just biasing the whole study as a lot of people have negetive feelings towards the idiot box.
If the student is not doing well in the school then just blaming his playing video games is turning a blind eye to a lot of other stuff which may be affecting his performance. I am sure they never studied the effect a gang of bullies has on the performance of a meek but intelligent kid when he is harassed everyday because it will put the school authorities in the box for not paying enough attention to their own students. They never considered the possiblity that there may be something wrong or the student may be unconfortable with something in the home and that is why he is turning to this virtual escape excessively because it will point a fingure towards the parents. I am not blaming the school or the parents of being the cause of decline in the performance of the student in every case but just trying to say that try not to blame the most obvious and easiest thing whenever a student starts screwing up in studies. Most of the times its more than video games and watching tv which is making him lose interest in the school.
Politicians and Pedophiles: Two groups of exploitive bastards who are most dangerous when they're thinking of children.
I'm a hardcore gamer. I'm also a game programmer. I've been a hardcore gamer since about age 12, playing around 15-25 hours of games a week. My GPA in high school was a 2.2. My GPA in college is a 3.4ish. Why the difference? Because I didn't care about high school, as it was boring, slow-paced, and had no interesting material with lots of rules in place for the sake of saying "we have rules." My college is much different, as I'm actually developing games. So, my question is, why care about grades? Is the child learning? If not, figure out why and fix the problem. For a vast majority of gifted children out there (I was one of them), as you get older, public schooling becomes more of an impediment to learning, rather than teaching you more.
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'.
When I was a kid I played video games at least .. Oh wait, there were no video games when I was a kid.
If your snotty brats won't behave and do their homework, just rig their console so all it'll play is superman 64. Of course, then you may find a genuine correlation between video games and violence.
My son only plays in the morning, be it weekday or weekend. Evenings are for serious stuff only. I am not seeing any negative effect on studies.
If he plays 4h on a weekend morning, he's a little too grumpy during the afternoon. But other than that, I see no reason to limit him more.
ID: the nose did not occur naturally, how would we wear glasses otherwise? (apologies to Voltaire)
These kind of philosophies bother me. Why don't we just lock kids in cells on school nights? They'd preform great academically! I for one was not allowed to own video games for many years. When I got my first N64 (which was an out of date system by then) I played it non-stop. Granted I was homeschooled, so I don't know how it would've affected my grades, but I certainly would argue that abstinence is not the answer. This is one of many parenting ideas which creates mindless zombies out of kids who can't make rational decisions on their own. Give them no freedom, and they'll go to college and party. Teach them moderation, and consequence especially, and they won't flunk out when you send them to community college. =P I would even go so far as to say it would be better to let them drop their grades once and ground them to teach a lesson, rather than hold their hand all the way through grade school and high school, then let them flunk out of college on their own.
When I was at school, I spent a ton of time on the computer. I wasn't just gaming, I was programming too, but I still spent an awful lot of time playing games. But I'm fairly sure that my constant use of a computer is what got me interested in programming, and ultimately determined my career. My grades were good enough to get me in to do what I wanted to do (which is the only point of grades anyway). If my parents had forbidden me from using the computer 5 days a week, I doubt I would be as competant in my field, or even in my field at all.
As in all these studies, they present a general view only. Trying to apply them blindly to a particular individual is utter stupidity. If your kid is damaging themselves or their prospects by an unhealthy focus on a particular aspect of life (be that entertainment, sport, fashion, their weight, hobbies, popularity, whatever), then you need to take corrective action. You don't just ban them from every single thing that they might possibly become over-interested in. That's futile, and in the end, self-defeating.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
The last report like this was the AMA's 1990s report that no TV under 2 years old, and then a lean formula for hours watched always with parents, in a fairly-parity ration to hours with the TV off discussing with parents, gradually weaning kids from direct parental supervision/intervention to independent watching. Somewhere around their 44th birthday.
I joke, but the AMA's longterm longitudinal (comprehensive across demographics) study determined that more TV than that (above Amish levels) contributed directly to aggression disorders.
--
make install -not war
My parents did the same thing.
Except i told them to fark themselves, built my own computer, and paid for my own internet.
that'll show em.
Did this study operationalize "students with controlling parents" vs. "students without controlling parents", or what this a study of "controlling parents deny gaming on weekdays" vs. "controlling parents who do not deny gaming on weekdays"? This is the question here. GIVE KIDS LIBERTY AND THEY WILL MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE!
When I was younger my parents had a rule about tv and video games during the week, they were not allowed except on fridays. As you can guess our weekends were filled with watching tv and playing video games. However as we got older my parents no longer enforced this rule. It was just natural for us to make sure we finished all of our school work. Really it just came down to time management. I guess that those weekends that were full of television and games showed us just how too much of a good thing can stop providing entertainment. Now in my life i still watch tv and play video games but i am able to find differnt ways to entertain myself, and i am very thankful to my parents for this. I am not sure how being able to watch tv during the week would have affected my grades but i am sure that if they ever started to slip my parents would have made sure that i brought them right back up.
it was found that rich people are regularly driven around in limousines
therefore it is concluded that should you hire a limousine to drive you around everywhere, you will quickly become rich and famous
Books are "interactive" by my standards in that for the jumble of characters on the pages to become meaningful, you have to actively give them meaning. Besides simply reading the sentences, which is mostly passive, you also have to analyze what's happening in the plot, what might happen next, and what particular themes and points the author is trying to explore. Reading a "good" book is very interactive.
Same could be said for music, but to a lesser extent - I can listen to music while I drive, but I can't read a book while I drive ^.^
TV and movies are as passive as you get, even with the really "deep" stuff. And lumping the other three in with TV is just bad. And I'm pretty sure the "burning hatred of humanity" was a joke on the parent poster's on introvertedness.
DATABASE WOW WOW
What you've just done is the single most common error in any correlational study. Let's go through some remedial Statistics here.
Correlation coefficient {r} = [1/(n-1)][summation of((x-(mean of x))/(st.dev.x))((y-(mean of y))/(st.dev.y))]
Do you see "cause" or "effect" or "connect the dots" in that equation? No? Well, there's a good reason. The sole function of a correlation study is to find a relationship. Not a causal relationship. A relationship. When X goes up, Y goes up too, on average. When Z decreases, H increases, on average. X does not cause Y to increase. Z does not cause H to increase.
A few years back there was a study on cavities and reading level. Huge headlines! Kids with higher reading levels have more cavities! Connect the dots, right? Higher reading levels means more time spent reading, which means they're sitting around, eating candy, getting cavities, right? Or maybe the brain releases a chemical when you read better that breaks down your teeth, right? There's no question that having a higher reading level CAUSES the cavities, right?
Turns out that kids with higher reading levels are older than the other kids. Turns out that as you get older, you have more cavities, on average, than you did when you were younger. Turns out that the study forgot to take age into account.
There is absolutely no way to prove that more time spent on video games causes lower grades. Correlation != causation.
The heavens do not fall for such a trifle.
To start:
" Researchers asked the students to rate their own performance in school on a scale ranging from "below average" to "excellent," instead of looking directly at their grades or other metrics of academic performance"
It has nothing to do with grades as everyone keeps bringing up, it was how kids thought they did in schools. Kind of rating them selves. This might not even include grades at all.
Also they are not saying NO TV or games, but limited to 2 HOURS of quality broadcasting per day.
And what exactly are kids supposed to be doing? No kid would (or should) study 8+ hours a day, so what should the kids do for entertainment? And are things like after school sports, hanging out with friends, biking or what ever any better on a learning/educational level as video games?
TruePunk | Games
Ahem.
That would be me.
Well it would be me if I could remember what WoW was.
This is most definitely tagged as FUD. I'm 17 and going through high school. I usually spend the lion's share of my school nights playing video games, and I'm able to keep up with grades and AP classes quite easily, as do most of my friends.
The data extracted from this survey most likely showed that watching TV or playing games in excess affected academics. Like a binge I had during middle school with FFXI (2-3 hours of sleep doesn't cut it), my grades dropped. I learned my lesson, I still play games, I get better grades. The results of the test were most likely exponential, as when you reach a certain amount of time that is devoted to pleasure instead of homework, you start getting the kids who simply do not care, and without videogames or TV, would most likely be doing something else other than homework.
Take groups of kids equally motivated to do their schoolwork, and see what the results are then. As long as the homework is done, academics won't fall. Videogames and TV simply aren't braindrains.Slashdot, the only place where intellectuals can act like idiots... and still sound intellectual.
Do educational video games count?
As far as the contention that any television/computer time on school nights, I'm a little skeptical of that claim--especially because they didn't seem to use any common metric for measuring the student's performance (you know, like grades?...) and instead asked the kids. I "kid" you not:
Huh?
I don't know about you, but I did the same thing and almost failed out of many of my classes. Sure, I learned a lot from hacking, tinkering, and reading my way through High School and Middle School; but curiously enough, none of it counted as completed homework assignments. It certainly didn't earn me any sympathy from the teachers who's classes I was falling asleep in during the day. Pre-college education is about conformity more than about learning. (Take the top 10 graduates from any high-school class, and there is a good chance that as many as five of them are completely unqualified to do anything but earn the high-score in the trivia game at their local bar.) Any independant activity that distracts you from the pre-canned assignments is going to have a negative effect on your grades regardless of whether it is productive or not.
You say it "certainly would have" improved your grades. Well, did it?
Why not E.T. for the Atari 2600 running on a console emulator? After falling in a pit for the 1000th time, they'll swear they thought video games were a lot cooler and give them up for good ;)
i never did any homework and slept through every english class and i had a 98% at the end of the semesester
just goes to show you how retardedly easy regular classes are
The kids (like me) who go to college BECAUSE of computer and video games?
I was given hardly any homework, so I learned computers! if they had limmited my computer time, I would have simply not learned anything at school AND not learned computers.
The term "rule of thumb" means, if your thumb doesn't fit it, don't use it.
"Infecting minds with my own memetic virus, one post at a time." Ultimape
I don't know. I played video games, computer games, and AD&D almost every free minute I had, weekdays and weekends. We averaged at least one new game each month, since we got a new Nintendo game each month and we were also playing computer games and Nintendo games at friends houses at the same time. I was a top student throughout.
Of course, I also finished all my homework (doing it during school left more time after school for games) and didn't try to do a sloppy job. I also played a wide variety of games, from Wolfenstein 3D to Civilization to Betrayal at Krondor and the Castle of Dr. Brain. I don't think there are many good brain-exercising games these days. Nothing like the old Sierra classics. So I've saved all of those for my kids to play.
I suspect the lack of good thinking games, even for parents and kids who try to buy thinking games, is a real problem. Pretty much all educational games are crap. Modern and old. The only ones I've seen that really incorporated straight learning without being boring or repetitive or simple or annoying are the Castle and Island of Dr. Brain. The third Dr. Brain was also crap.
> Xbox and idiot box
There's a difference?
Of course my comment was not to offend anyone thats just how the other members describe that player when they're not around ;). Anywho, I remember the real WoW (Week of War) for X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, then that damn World of Warcraft stole it :(.
What do you think adults are going to just suddenly wake up, have self control, and make good decisions. What an excellent opportunity to teach kids the consequences of their actions. By all means don't let them run wild, but silly rules like this make for one hell of a rebellious teenager when they realise the rules you've made up are arbitrary and pointless. Try getting them interested in other things instead of just the computer game so that even if they do have a bit of a run with a game, they are aware there's other fun things to do with your spare time that also happen to be excellent learning experiences. Spend some time with the kid too if you want to be able to shape anything they do.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
and I definitely spent time playing video games during the week, some times more than their 4 hours/day they recommended for the weekend. Many of my good friends play more than me and still do great in school. This is either total bunk or all my friends are exceptions to the rule. At least the submitter said, "correlation does not equal causation".
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
Another thing that would increase kids grades is never allowing them to do anything but go to school and study. Kids shouldn't be given summer breaks either. That will cut into their learning time. For heaven's sake, there are other things besides getting good grades that contribute to a happy life. I'm sure I would be more successful in my life if I never played video games, but I enjoy playing video games. They make me happy. That, of course, does not mean that we should be over-doing it; there needs to be moderation. But I say let the kids play some video games. If it drops their GPA .3 (unlikely), big deal; they'll be happier (especially if the parents are playing the video games with the kids).
Instead of playing video games, let them play online gambling for a while. Then they'll see the real value of money (which they will loose of course, but for a good cause!), and as a result will WANT to study harder and better so they can earn more money when they grow up... ... and then spend MORE money on online gambling.
Oh, forgot - online gambling is now illegal... nm then.
-- You must be yay-high to rule the world.
Even ones not designed to be. Ok shooters not so much, they train reflexes and such but that's about it. However strategy games ARE educational. They teach a skill that I think is useful:
Analyzing a system. If you want to get good at a strategy game vs a computer, you do so by really understanding the system. You learn the rules, you figure out ways the can be manipulated to your favour, you figure out how to win by being superior at the system. It's something that I'm fairly good at and serves me well on tests. They too are a game with rules and if you can figure them out, you can do much better. I am (or perhaps I should say was since I'm not in school any more) rather good at that. I take a test and figure out plenty about it, I do better on that one, and much better on subsequent ones. I'm not just taking it, I'm analyzing the system. I figure out what kinds of questions are likely to be asked, if there are any tells in the answers (in the case of multiple choice tests), if questions interrelate and information from one can give you the answer to another.
Now, while I can't present any evidence of how I gained this skill, I can say that the same methods I apply to tests I apply to games like Civ 4. It's the same deal, I am analyzing the game mechanics, and how the computers react to what I do. I am not trying to come up with a list of "they do this so I do that" limited strategies, I am trying to gain a good understanding of the whole system so I can deal with anything. Maybe video games didn't give me that skill, but they probably helped hone it.
What you have to accept is that not everything in a child's life can or should be education focused. Especially since another valuable skill is learning how to learn from life. Everything in life can be a learning experience and it's valuable to take something you learned for no reason at all, and find an application to another part of life. Learning could and should be fun and a continuous experience, not something you have to go and so something special for.
Also kids need time to be kids. There's plenty of time to be grown up and responsible later and part of becoming a happy functioning human being is learning how to have fun, and to do so in moderation with work. I know far too many people who live for nothing but their jobs and it leads to things like depression, excessive drinking, and so on because they never learned how to fill the hours when they aren't being forced to do something. Really, it's ok for kids to just plain goof off at times, it will not cripple them for life.
Finally I think there's waaaay too much focus on grades. While it's important for a kid to do well in school, there seems to be too many parents worried that they need to get A's in all their classes. Fuck that, often grades and learning do not go hand in hand. Filling your head full of facts so you can get 100% on a test, only to then forget them is useless. However actually learning and understanding as many of the concepts and applications as you can, even if that only translates to an 85% on the test, is much better. That's something you might use in life.
You should be active in your kid's education and help them to learn things that will last a lifetime. So long as they are learning, trying, and are getting grades good enough to succeed don't sweat it. If they wind up with a B, or even C instead of an A, oh well. The important thing is they learned what they could that will last. Those are the kind of people I hire. I'm not interested in someone with a 4.0 that only knows how to cram themselves full of facts and formulas to pass a test. Ok, you are full of facts. Wonderful, so is my computer and it's much better at it. What I need is someone who can learn concepts and apply them to real problems.
I use to play my xbox hours on end. Some times I would go from 3 in the afternoon till about 4 in the morning, then go to school at 7. My grades never slipped once, I've always mantained a 3.5 GPA. I stopped playing and joined the soccer team, still no change. I find actually playing video games with intelligent people actually can raise your intelligence and not lower it. Example one, playing a tactical shooter. You must stratagies with your team-mates and come up with a way to defeat the other team. Very hard if you actually play it and wanna win and not just mess around. Now playing the normal everyday Madden or NBA games yeah that takes strategy but mostly you play for fun.. Once you get online its a whole different story. Say 'YES' to online game play.
More important than moderation is understanding your capabilities and goals. Too much emphasis is placed on grades; they do not reflect learning, they are a means to an end.
In high school I took the college level classes, but I spent most of my waking hours playing computer games, and checking out BBS instead of doing homework. I ended up being a B- student, but I was planning to go to a local public university so grades weren't too important.
My first 2.5 years of college were a breeze, since I had seen most of the material before in highschool. Junior year in college was the only time I studied, and had a nice 3.5GPA (4.0 major GPA) to put on my resume. Senior year I didn't go to class for a few months (playing EQ), and had a solid C average, but it didn't matter because I had already had a nice job lined up once I graduated.
Now that I've been working 5+ years as an engineer, grades don't even matter anymore. In fact, the time I spent on the computer has more application in the real world than most of my classes.
Ask yourself; Why should actions that the student takes in their private out of school time have such a great effect on their performance in the school? What exactly is going on here that so affects their ability to learn?
The answer of course, is homework. Playing video games, or indeed, doing anything entertaining in your private time, takes away precious hours that could be "better" spent doing work that by all rights and reason, should only be done in the school, during school hours. Some people seem to think that learning the disipline of taking your work home to finish it off in your own free time, make you a "better" person. In my book it make you a dumbass at best, and an employer's shill at worst.
If schools actually did their jobs they were assigned, in the hours they are paid for, instead of getting your children to finish them during your family time, it wouldn't matter what your kids did in the evenings as long as they; a) spent quality time with you away from their peers and b) got a good nights sleep.
So the next time you find that the only appreciable time you spent with your child that day was when you were helping them with their homework, ask yourself this. Why am I; unqualified, unpaid and unsolicited, doing the work that someone else is already being paid to do, when I'd rather do something else with my child? If the answer is; "Because they have to get their homework done!", then you are a fool unfit to raise your child.
May the Maths Be with you!
and i did just fine, but we WERE allowed to use the ole' Atari ST and Amiga 500 for non-game-playing, hence i spent a lot of time learning to code ... and now I'm grown up I do that for a living. Thanks, Dad!
If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
the Xbox and idiot box
I thought the Xbox _was_ the idiot box.
I am now 20 and in my first proper job. My parents had a system that worked for me, and I liked, they left me the fuck alone. Sure they cared and worried, they wernt crap parents, but left me to my own devices as such. I've had my computer since about 13 and a PC at home since about 10. I often spent hours on it after school and at the weekend, playing games, programming, learning things, web stuff, genral crap you do on PC as a geek. I loved gaming, especially Online FPS's. Now, I did well on my GCSE's (im from england) I got 3 a-levels and now I work at 'TheGuardian' Newspaper (national english newspaper) in IT. I would say im doing pretty damn good. I also did a CCNA and MCSA from finishing my a-levels and getting this job (took about a yearish). My parents never took my PC away, never told me to turn off TV, I usually did my HW, I got BBC in my 3 a-levels, good GCSE's....you tell me im doing bad because I spent uber long hours on my computer. Basically, I had common sense to do my HW most of the time, goto school, but I learnt a shit loads on computers for obvious reasons. I guess some kids do need moderation, its down to the individual, but aswell as the parents aswell. My parents never threteened to take anything away, I think its BS personall, and thankfully my parents arnt like that. I got no moderation, PC in my room with broadband, and im doing well. So its not clear cut
Visit My Blog at http://spaces.msn.com/members/chrisharries
Is it really the video games that's the problem, or just the lack of studies?
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Childfree. No kidding. Yes, I'm really sure it isn't going to happen.
Bah ! In my youth I slept four hours per night and never once fell asleep during class ! Recesses are for taking naps. And it helps to wear a lot of black so you have somewhere to rest your eyes when all the bright colors make your head hurt :).
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
OMG. What about http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5398230.stm Bunch of killjoys.
"Xbox and idiot box is too much."
Gee, no obvious bias in this study at all, wouldn't you say?
Eat dinner at home together as a family, inquire about how your kids spend their day, talk to them about their friends, their passions, their fears, spend time playing with your kids, hug them and tell them you love them, be kind and loving to your spouse, especially when they're watching or listening, limit your own mind-numbing attraction to TV and video games, and when you do watch or play, set the right example by having the dishes or yardwork or whatever done first. Do this, and your kids will probably be fine. Of course, that whole Christianity thing doesn't hurt, either, but I don't expect many /.'ers to bite on that.
Nah, it's just easier to watch them rot and blame it on video games. Then you can find out 20 years later on CNN that they were molested by the neighbor kid.
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. - John 14:6 NLT
Sure, every hour you spend watching TV or playing video games is an hour you're not spending trying improving your academics. Watching TV and playing games "probably" leads to lower academic scores, because you're not specifically improving them. Well no shit, Sherlock. Sure, we could spend every minute of our free time studying, but then what are the effects of that? No social life? Check. Degrading mental health? Check. Lack of culture? Check, check and double check.
That last one is a biggie - generally, we're more tolerant and understanding of other cultures over these days. Without any relevant research to back this up, I'd be willing to say TV and gaming (well, mostly TV, unless you're particularly chatty in your online gaming adventures) are major factors in decreasing the cultural gap over the last couple generations. Experiencing other cultures is something that only TV/online gaming can do so effectively. Sure, you could submerse yourself in culture by actually visiting others, but a few hours of TV a day is certainly more feasible than taking a 2-day overseas trip every other week.
On an almost completely off-topic ramble (because I've not seen an opportunity to post it elsewhere), I wonder where Jack Thompson got to after that Amish school attack this week? Surely Rockstar's Bully is to blame for a school shooting by a devout Christian in a remote farming community who's probably never even played Pong.
The problem with moderation is PARENTS don't know how to say stop. As long as their kid is in front of the TV and not bothering them, they just let them play. Out of sight, out of mind.
I use games as a motivation for my son. The general rule is no games during the weekday, but if he does really well, or I get him to do all his homework plus some extra studying, he gets 30min of play(notice I did not say 1hr). I also use this tactic on weekends. Study 30min = 1hr game play with me.
He gets excited about doing homework so he can play multi-player games with Dad.
Problem is, most parents don't know how to handle this, and they don't know what buttons to push to motivate their kids.
It isn't just the amount of TV your kids watch that affect them, it's that the TV is dictating when time will be spent watching it. Get a TiVo (or some other DVR solution) and you determine when and what is watched.
Doctors, sociologists and the media treat this as a soundbitable, black and white issue. It's not. The other factor that these studies dont take into account is what is watched. I'd argue that 2 hours of quality TV is less harmful and an hour of crap. These studies seem to assume that TV is a babysitter. If you watch with your kids and discuss it afterwards, that can help build reading skills. Getting kids thinking about the story telling process early and often.
Let us raise a generation of all academically successful business drones that will be "beneficial" to society.
After all, what is important is the perfect running of the machine, right ? People dont live for anything else than being a successful part of machine.
Also theres the high possibility that they will start on prozac around mid 30s, but eh, a good price to pay, since they will be academically successful and indispensable parts of the machine.
Read radical news here
A few years back there was a study on cavities and reading level. Huge headlines! Kids with higher reading levels have more cavities!
There was never any such real study. It's a hypothetical example used in statistics courses to illustrate a point.
Incidentally, for arguments concerning when one can infer causation from correlation, see Judea Pearl's work.
I bet that studies would find that children who playbasketball for 5 hours on school nights also perform worse than those who don't. Or kids that do puzzles. Or kids who practice music. This is a very unfair correlation, and any idiot with half a brain can see that. Seriously, why call out video games? Any activity that gets in the way of a child doing his homework and studying is going to negatively impact his grades. That's a no brainer. For some reason, though, video games are the culprit. It's retarded. I played video games for easily 3-4 hours a day in high school and college, and also lost about 10 hours a week in high school and at LEAST (depending on the location of the football game that weekend) 20 a week in college due to marching band, and can say I finished with pretty good marks. Could they have been higher? Sure, slightly. Why weren't they? That's easy. Because the increase in workload to gain an incrimental increase in grades was more than I could justify. I studied as much as I felt I should, walked away with nearly a 3.4, and know that it wouldn't be any higher if it weren't for video games. Don't ban your kid from games during the week. They're good for relieving stress. Just make sure he does his homework and finishes his studying first. That's all it takes.
Annyong!
Works for me - Mom and I will just retire to the bedroom and bump uglies instead. Now turn off that TV and get to work.
we see things not as as they are, but as we are.
-- anais nin
I play video games alot, and i mean alot, till usualy midnight or just past, and i get up every morning at 6 for work and perform just well at work. THen get home, have a beer and smoke a joint and repeat the process again. So i can safely say video games on weeknight has no effect on my ability to go to work.
So that leaves us with four choices for their school nights. We can drug them into a stupor. We can have them sit quietly in a corner for the entire night. We can nuke them from orbit. Or we can STOP IT WITH THIS OVERPROTECTIVE BULLSHIT AND LET THEM BE KIDS, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Has this Sharif character ever heard of Dr. Fredric Wertham? Y'know, the guy who helped convince a nation back in the 1950s that comic books were a primary cause of juvenile delinquency?
That's right society, fear both your children and FOR your children! Never been down this road before...
If thousands of parents suddenly read this article and decide to limit their child's video game time, I'm sure it will result in better grades and more, well-rounded children. The world will be a better place and those kids will have brighter futures. Later in life, when they're grown and raising children of their own, they will appreciate what their parents did for them and they will understand the value of moderation.
But, it better not screw up my raids. Someone will pay.
It doesnt matter whether its games or TV, it doesnt take a brain surgeon to tell you that there are better things for school age kids to be doing. Reading, creative play, studying, physical play outside. All of these things are just flat out better for kids. Dont even try to argue otherwise. You will only prove that you are a school age boy.
I am a TV/video game junkie. But now that we have a girl in kindergarten the TV stays off during the week while she is awake. Period. It is much harder on me than on her, but its going to stay that way until both girls are out of school.
Thank God for Tivo.
I guess my son should stop playing World of Warcraft for 3 hours a night. He's only got A's in all of his classes except the one where he has a B+. Ironically, the B+ is his first class after lunch. Hmm. I wonder if he's sleepy after eating lunch or if it's playing WoW that's preventing him from reaching scholastic excellence. Spend more time researching the impact of removing scholastic programs like Physical Education, Band, Orchestra, and expansion of Athletic Programs to include more sports alternatives. Or better yet, just give the money wasted on such studies to a well deserving school so they can buy books, computers, and maybe add a wood shop or machine shop.
To avoid corruption, one must remain dishonest.
As Mark Twain said "Figures don't lie, but liars figure." Statistics are easily pressganged. The real question here is causation: Why believe that vidgames cause low marks when low marks might just as easily cause [frustration] vid.games? Most likely, a third cause [independance] affects both to a very limited extent.
I could equally explain away these results by saying maybe that those children who play games on school nights are not being challenged enough by their schoolwork, and are thus disinterested and seeking other means of entertainment.
The 'motivated' self-reporting high performing students are enthralled with the meaningless busywork that is being forced upon them, and aren't smart enough to be bored with it.
I'm not going to read the paper because I've got games to play, but I'm betting that they didn't break down the kinds of games that the kids were playing. Previous studies, from what I recall, have found that playing certain kinds of games can improve academic performance (let's say something with logic puzzles) --- here, I found an URL for you: http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2827/in formation_show.htm?doc_id=69830. What if the game playing was chess? What would we be saying?
Remember, social sciences solely rely on statistical magic. Depending on your data model, you can prove anything. This isn't hard science --- hell, it isn't science at all --- and I wouldn't put too much stock in it because a contradictory study using the same data was probably published yesterday.
As a hardcore gamer I had a GPA to be proud of. Once I decided to step out of my shell and interact with the other human gender that hole drama/dating/emotion thing is what hurt the grades. It wasn't the gaming. I remember gaming until 4am in the morning, only to stop for 2 hours to finish a report and drop it off at the professors office only to go back home to finish my game. Ok, so Zelda can be demanding.
If you use gaming as an excuse to procrastinate and if procastinating leads to incomplete work, that's one thing. But I've been able to game hardcore and still get all my stuff done with good results.
~CYD
//Nothing to see here, please move along.
Imagine it. The kid who goes through this will never be able to socialize because they didn't see last night's episode of what ever show everyone watches. Or talk about the new game.
But you say it "that's impossible", let me tell you no it's not. Take everything you hate about office politics and then multiply it, that's the way it is for High school. There's a lot of crap like this still in high school and if anything it's gotten worse.
But assume it works and your kid doesn't watch tv, instead he goes and hangs out with his friends for the weekdays? Assume he doesn't go to their house to watch tv, (which he could) but instead just hangs out. Then someone offers him drugs and he ends up doing it because they are his friends, because he has nothing else to do, because for what ever reason he wants to have fun.
Ok so let's assume you don't allow your kid to watch tv, nor do you let him hang out on school nights. What the fuck is a kid going to do for those hours when he's not in school but not out of the house? Stare at the wall? Study? The simple fact is maybe our students will become smarter for it, but there's a LOT more to childhood then good grades. Children need time to learn how to interact with people, to relax, to have fun. Not to be forced into a situation where everything is work work work. They have the rest of their lives for that.
Studies like this might show us how to find a smarter student, but grades don't matter in the long run. I'd much rather have a son who actually has a fun childhood then a brainiac who can cure cancer but can't even have a normal conversation.
There's an excellent commentary on www.ornry.com about the use of homework and how it's really no use to most people, this is the same way.
I found the only major adjustment I had to make in my lifestyle in college was changing my major to Business. Once I did that I could behave as badly as I did in high school. (worse in my case, as the lack of parental supervision allowed me to do horrible things)
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
Please don't take that approach.
I spent a lot of time playing games. I spent a lot of time digging around my computer. Then I spent a lot of time programming and just playing around with my system. Sure, I loved to read and spent loads of time doing that as well; often on my computer. The computer was in my room.
And *gasp* I watched porn! Yes, at the young age of about 11-12 I looked and saw a porn movie. I'm not a depraved maniac. I don't go around sleeping with people randomly (though I'm in no way condemning that, people should enjoy whatever they want to do). What all of this lead to is me reading a lot about sex online. When it came to having sex for the first time I knew what to do, and it wasn't a horrible or an awkward affair; it was great fun.
I didn't do my homework all the time. I felt bad when I didn't do it though, because I was always told that it's important and that one should work hard. I did it not because I was forced to, but because my parents were intelligent enough not to force me, but to explain how and why. My grades were not great, they were well above average (around 80-90). If I had put in effort studying I would have gotten much higher grades. But what I gained from this not studying for school is independence and the ability to do things on my own.
The important part is not forcing your child to be in the open, to not have any privacy and to have you sitting over him/her with a timer.
That is a horrible life lesson, and as soon as you give your child and freedom they're likely to just do idiotic things because now they're free to.
The important bit is to explain why one should do things. To foster a feeling of resposability.
Your method is horrible, and I'm sorry for your child because he'll become just like all the other people I've seen in university. Somewhat smart because parents pushed him, but never amounting to anything because the child never learned to push on his own.
I'm very thankful to my parents for letting me be so free from having seen how some people raise their children. I learned that one should work hard and today I spend most of my time reading research papers and books.
I'm not saying don't supervise, I'm saying explain don't sit with a watch.
I am reminded of my own childhood, and how people used to say that video games will rot your brain faster than the TV. (Atari 2600 era) and sitting too close to the TV will ruin your eyes, oh and don't forget, Dungeons and Dragons players worship the devil. I lived in a very restrictive household, where televison wasn't allowed during the week, let alone the Atari 2600. I remember rebelling aganst those rules, and it ended badly.
That being said, these studies are subjective at best. I would be more interested in knowing who was signing the checks for these researchers. To be sure, it isn't Atari or Ubisoft.
It isn't these people's responsibility, duty, or right to tell people how to raise their kids. When children do poorly in school, the average parent will blame TV, video games, their child's friends, etc., but the blame lies squarely on the shouders of the parents.
I am a parent of 2, and my eldest loves to game with his old man, more than he likes to game on his own. His mother and I instituted a no video games until homework is done, and yes, I do take the time to check it over, (mostly to ensure completion.) These same rules will be implemented with our other child as well.
I think it's about time for this society to stand up and take responsibility, rather than cast blame. Take care of your kids, and they will succeed. Ignore them and they will fail everytime.
Every since my children started school (the oldest is now 13 and in the 8th grade), games, either computer or console, or even hand-held, are strictly off-limits on school nights. Only board games are allowed, and then only after homework and chores. Also, each child is allowed to choose 2 half-hour TV programs to watch, for a total of two TV hours, or else a movie. Some nights they don't choose any TV, and they either want me to read aloud to them, or listen to music. Friday nights, Saturdays, and Sundays games are allowed anywhere from 1 to 4 hours, depending on weekly behavior. This has worked very nicely in our household, with no whining, crying, or rebellion, homework and other chores are done since there isn't anything for their eyes to glaze over for, and lots of talking occurs at the dinner table with the television off. So many families have little or no communication or expectations nowadays, it kind of saddens me. I am not the strictest of parents by ANY means, in fact, I have very few rules, but those rules I feel are important, I make sure to STICK WITH. Consistency and clear expectations, once again, trump being "friends" with your own child, or letting electronics do your parenting for you.
"I am treated as evil by those who feel persecuted because they are not allowed to force me to believe as they do."
The correlation between people who do well in school and people who do well in life is not strong enough to convince me that I should care at all about the conclusion the researchers in this article came to.
They should do a study on reflexes and physical ability. They should do a study measuring the correlation between how much time someone spends playing video games and how often they cause automobile accidents. Or how often in their daily life that they roll their ankle or trip and faceplant.
I caught the Mountain Wumpus! He gave me his treasure chest ($100) to let him go free again.
Uh, how do you go from my comment about giving my child 30 minutes on the PS2 to a rant about porn, privacy, and sitting over him with a timer? What does porn have to do with this? Did I say that I stand over my child with a timer? Did I say I make him do all of this in "public"? What does this have to do with anything?
If you're so interested, I'll have you know that we do use a timer. But he sets it and starts it. When its up, it's his responsibility to finish the level, save the game, and turn the PS2 off. If he's good and has done his work, he gets the 30 minutes pretty much whenever he wants it. He can play it in the morning or save it for later. When he plays it early and complains about not being able to play it later, he's learning (whether he likes it or not) about delaying gratification and time management.
I'm also teaching him about not jumping to conclusions or judging a book by its cover. Perhaps you'd like to join him.
-- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
im a 14 year old, i spend 5+ hours every day watching tv, playing video games, or doing stuff on the computer and i get mostly A's and B's in school. in my oppinion its it doesnt matter if u spend 30 minutes or 6 hours in fromt of a tv or computer as long as you finish all of your homework.
Who are these people that let their kids (average) four hours per night? I've gone on 10 hour gaming benders, it happens, but my god averaging four hours a day is a LOT of gaming.
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
In truth I have no way of knowing, of course, as I can't go through school again and see what my grades would have been like without the computering. But I'm pretty sure that I was at an advantage in mathematics and computer studies classes.