Study: Video games do not make you fat, just dumb and depressed
- — 21 January, 2011 03:50
Sick of stories about video games making you fatter, slower, dumber, and angrier? Here's one that leans in the other direction, suggesting video games are in fact not driving up childhood obesity rates.
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The folks behind the study that prompted the story, Michigan State University in East Lansing, are just up the way from me (I'm in Ann Arbor). They took a group of 482 12-year-olds and kept tabs on them for three years. During that time, children as well as their parents answered questions about video game playtime as well as cell phone use. The researchers took into account exam scores, physical characteristics like height and weight, social and economic factors, and actually tested the children's social, mathematical, visual, and reading comprehension skills.
The results? Video games were no more a factor in determining weight or body-mass-index (BMI) than Internet or mobile phone use. In fact the study found the strongest predictors were race, age, and socioeconomic status.
How about an upside, too: Kids who used the Internet more tested higher on standardized reading exams (possibly contradicting contrary research noted in Nicholas Carr's controversial cautionary tale, The Shallows). And kids who played video games more manifested improved visual-spatial skills.
Okay, two downsides: Those who played games more in the study also scored lower in school, and had lower self-esteem.
In the discussion section of the study, the researchers state the social and grade-related negatives suggest that "videogame playing is best construed as a 'solitary' activity...rather tha[n] a social one," and that "[i]t not only undermines academic performance but also the development of social skills needed to achieve a positive social self-concept."
They ultimately conclude -- I think wisely -- that "the potential for the Internet and other information technologies to produce positive or negative outcomes for children and adults encourages more research on if, when and how it results in significant effects."
Comments
Shiffy
1
I don't think it's fair to claim that video games do anything to the children who play them based off the design of this study. At best this is a correlation, as the children were not randomly organized into game playing and game abstaining groups. With simply observing and no randomization, it could simply be children who tended more towards the solitary type or were of baser intelligence and/or less motivation played games more than children of the other type.
Anton
2
I play computer games a lot and i'm 15 years old very very happy, got lots of friends, and im social, and i'm smart and get good grades in school. Computer is just but another "distraction" in the world which could change grades for example, i alo have a good self esteem, in fact sure it's a distraction but it is how you use it and how you self decide. With a computer you're using your brain. With the computer comes a lot of knowledge too. It depends which game you're playing and how affected you are. I play often and i'm fine!
Meh
3
There are other factors that need/ should be taken into account before assuming that video games make children depressed/ dumb. Such as the fact that the children may be using the video games as a form of escapism form their already socially lacking lives. As for grades, there are plenty of children who don't play them that also have issues. admittedly game play can be distracting and seen as more important than school work. That does not mean they lower IQ. I play video games myself. however my grades have gotten better over the years. I do not think this fact is related to gaming though, so i am not saying it has a positive effect, it just simply isn't as negative as this article is making it out to be.
Matt Beale
4
I agree i have been playing games since i was 11 its been 11 years now and i love it it takes me away from this world and makes me feel alive :)