[LINK] Scientists link computer games to brain damage

[Robin Whittle]

> Scientists link computer games to brain damage
> A new study finds evidence that children who play computer
> games might not develop the ability to control their behaviour.
>
> http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?130417

The story continues:

   Professor Ryuta Kawashima, who led the team who carried out the 
   research, told The Observer that the discovery was highly
important.     "There is a problem we will have with a new generation of 
   children -- who play computer games -- that we have never seen 
   before," he said. "The implications are very serious for an 
   increasingly violent society and these students will be doing more 
   and more  bad things if they are playing games and not doing other 
   things like reading aloud or learning arithmetic." 

Its pretty obvious - but finally someone has measured that the low level
of mental functioning involved in many video games. (Sim City and the
like should be considered differently from shootem-up games.)

Children need to be climbing trees, exploring the forest, building cubby
houses, making mud-pies, having dress-ups, making paintings and
sculptures, building things and destroying them.  They need to be
interacting with each other and with physical reality - including
reality with dangers.    Reading and arithmetic are very cerebral indeed
- and Sim City is no substitute for building dams in the gutter and
demolishing them with penny bungers!

Because the urban environment and the mass-media-induced over-estimate
of safety concerns has cocooned children indoors so much - even to the
point of not walking or riding to school - children's immense energy is
directed to video games and the like.

I agree with the stated problem, but I think that trying to turn
children into professors with reading and arithmetic is not the best
alternative.

 - Robin