"Screen life has no memory: it is reaction-action-reaction-action-reaction. If you live in that cacophonic environment for six hours or more a day and at a time when the prefrontal cortex is forming, becoming developed and active, what is going to be the effect?"


If you allow your children to play video games for six hours a day, you shouldn't be surprised if they have issues.

/If you allow your children to play video games for six hours a day, you likely have issues.

I'm just trying to figure out just what kind of scientist thinks that the order is "reaction-action-reaction-action-reaction". That phrase itself casts doubts on her abilities as a scientist, or even any kind of intellectual, to me.

/Can't have a reaction without a preceding action

Rolander: Maybe with today's computers, being more accessible and less "complicated". But back when, floppies and cassets and figuring out how the hell to start a program on a commodore, and then there was the advanced days where you had to get access to the HMA to play any games.

I think you're right. I've been using computers since I was a kid in the early 80's and a lot of games were primarily text. I wrote little games in Basic for fun. It's all rather dumbed down and user friendly these days. You don't need to know any code to make a website and you don't need to know how to spell. And once they can make computers that are purely voice input, no need to type.

There is a chance that a certain percentage of people have a tendency towards attention problems when exposed to certain stimuli. Then there's other people who don't have that tendency who can be exposed to that stimuli and it won't have any effect on their attention span, memory, or cognitive function. Some kids stare at the tv like zombies, not even responding when you yell their name repeatedly. Other kids can watch tv and hold a conversation at the same time.

chizzle: I hypothesize that reading fark for extended periods of time may lead to decreased prefrontal cortex activity. This may lead to decisions being made without realizing the consequences of said decisions.

My proposed solution: Nuke everything from orbit.

I lol'd.

Studies show the using Windows will quickly speed up the brain damage of using Computers.

Cathedralmaster: RemyDuron: I speculate the next time you urinate the world will explode. Sure, it's only speculation, but the gravity of the consequences should I be correct. . .

A better analogy is: if there was a chance your balls could explode the next time you had to take a leak, wouldn't you be holding it in as long as possible?

No, not really. You're gonna have to go eventually, why hold it and make it uncomfortable?

But, really, the question is "How big a chance?" And if the answer is 1 in 10 I'd be worried. If the chance was the chance to win the lottery, I'd piss freely and without a worry.

The problem is humans can't deal with really, really rare events. If there is a chance, we tend to think it's relatively likely. There seems to be a minimum possibility that we can conceive of, and things less likely than that get rounded up. We figure that, if there is a chance, it must happen sometime, so the right thing to do is to assume it will happen, just at an unknown time. Which would be fine if we were immortal, but we are not. For very rare events, the better approximation would be that they never occur (within our probably lifetimes).

Like the lottery. Sure, there is a chance you could win. But if you played it for your entire life from birth to death I doubt you'd raise the probability of winning to something humans can properly conceive of. We're evolved to deal with odds about crossing that river without drowning, or getting up that tree before the wild boar gores you.

This is why people play the lottery, this is why people can't understand evolution (along with the idea that, if you can't see it happening over a 100 year timespan, it isn't happening).

So, I don't think we should give consideration to this article. It's a hypothesis. If she comes back with actual evidence, then pay attention. But until then. . .

/I hypothesize carrots cause cancer, worse than cigarettes
//Gonna throw out all those delicious orange crispy things in your fridge now?

Massa Damnata: "Screen life has no memory: it is reaction-action-reaction-action-reaction. If you live in that cacophonic environment for six hours or more a day and at a time when the prefrontal cortex is forming, becoming developed and active, what is going to be the effect?"


If you allow your children to play video games for six hours a day, you shouldn't be surprised if they have issues.

/If you allow your children to play video games for six hours a day, you likely have issues.

But she's also just wrong. Video games are not entirely in the present activities. What has gone on in the game before the present moment must be, usually, kept in mind in order to win. It is not a disconnected narrative, but a narrative which can be reset if you make a mistake.

Now, the question of what instant access to information does to the brain could be an interesting study, but I fail to see how video games are more rewarding or immediate than actual, real life games. Unless they are those crappy little casual games.

/If I have kids, they will start with DOS games like XCom, Master of Magic, and Scorched Earth. If they can figure those out, they will get whatever they want.

RemyDuron: Massa Damnata: "Screen life has no memory: it is reaction-action-reaction-action-reaction. If you live in that cacophonic environment for six hours or more a day and at a time when the prefrontal cortex is forming, becoming developed and active, what is going to be the effect?"


If you allow your children to play video games for six hours a day, you shouldn't be surprised if they have issues.

/If you allow your children to play video games for six hours a day, you likely have issues.

But she's also just wrong. Video games are not entirely in the present activities. What has gone on in the game before the present moment must be, usually, kept in mind in order to win. It is not a disconnected narrative, but a narrative which can be reset if you make a mistake.

Now, the question of what instant access to information does to the brain could be an interesting study, but I fail to see how video games are more rewarding or immediate than actual, real life games. Unless they are those crappy little casual games.

/If I have kids, they will start with DOS games like XCom, Master of Magic, and Scorched Earth. If they can figure those out, they will get whatever they want.

This. My kids start with an atari and a nes.

please can I go and remove these stupid reporters from my country??

Really, they make us look bad.

My 18 month old daughter loves the online site Starfall, and begs me saying 'E O?' and pointing at the screen to go look at the letters and get to press the keys to make the letters make sounds. On the other hand, she probably does 4 or 5 letters before one or both of us want to do something else. Now when we are not on the computer she is sounding out letters (correctly, usually) and 2-3 letter words on everything else that has writing. I see this as a major help for her brain development, not damaging it.

This author wants us all to retreat from technology back to 'campfire stories' where everyone was happy and thrilled to hear a long story told by someone else. It's true few kids would sit and listen to that now. They want to see flashing lights and hear music etc etc... I'd say that was the case even in my generation but we were actually allowed to play outside and with other children, make up pretend games to keep from being bored etc... Too many kids are kept locked up in their houses now or being ushered from one event to another. It is a major difference in society that is yielding some of these effects the author pretends is solely caused by computer games and chatrooms.

FTA:

One can look at the world through experience or poetry, or one can view it in terms of science. Science does not invalidate other ways of perceiving things, but it can help explain what we see. And it can do so with regard to young people who spend several hours of the day playing computer games, or in online chatrooms.

The human brain is exquisitely sensitive to every event. We cannot complacently take it that our ways of learning and thinking will remain constant. Humans are highly responsive to change and so quick to adapt - in part because of the prefrontal cortex.

You ever just look at your hand, man. I mean, REALLY look at it . . . .

bionic implants

Who is this crazy bint?

That's strange.. I've learned more from reading digitized books on the intartubes than by listening to some poorly educated adults spewing off about their antiquated sense of "knowledge." I can sure as hell process real-world work functions a lot faster than this baroness.

What a dirty british aristocratic biatch. 5,000 years of human civilization and we still publish her mindless drivel? Good lord, you would think we could have evolved by now.