NewScientist.com, "The World's No. 1 Science
& Technology News Service" (with somewhat of a predilection to articles on obesity),
have reported on a new study purporting that television and video game exposure "should be viewed as a major
public health issue and, like cigarettes, these
media should come with a health warning"). In fact, such excess childhood exposure can "increase obesity,
tobacco and alcohol use, risky sexual behaviours, violence and social isolation." Let us analyze all of the
article's assertions and findings:- These media should come with a health warning. We could have sworn television, film, and video games have done this before.
- The data linking violent media to aggression are "just as strong" as
those linking smoking and lung cancer. In my experience I have seen just as many studies refuting the claim as supporting it (and some of those
studies supporting the link are a tad questionable) ... so
maybe what the article is actually saying is that there is only a 50% chance cigarettes could kill you. Besides,
wouldn't the tobacco industry want its customers to stay alive and smoking?
- Toddlers who watch more than two hours of television a day are more likely to be overweight at ages 3 and 4-and-a-half. Translation: the characters you watch on TV are coming out of the screen and shoving delicious, sugary treats down your throat -- pay no mind that Mom has stocked the pantry with Pop Tarts and eschewed buying carrots and celery ... could the real link be the amount of time said fat kid is not outside playing sports or running around?
Playing a violent rather than a benign video game
makes children more accepting of using drugs or alcohol, and having sex without a condom, because, the researchers
suggest, it increases general disregard for the safety of yourself and others. There seems to be a logical fallacy
in that statement -- as if they are jumping to conclusions. Video games are being accused of increasing "disregard
for the safety of yourself and others." Those who use drugs and have unprotected sex also show a general disregard
for personal safety; however, note the diagram to the right -- although drugs and violent video games may be both found
to cause the same disposition, they do not imply that one is a causation of another.
See Also:
Country music causes suicide
Less Pirates = Global Warming
[Thanks, Ryan]
_thumbnail.jpg "i am 8-bit: 2008")
(Page 1) Reader Comments
I remember back in school, just after columbine. I was listening to the radio, and they said that in a survey of 1,000 students, about X% of them felt safe in school. I heard that, and I looked over at my dad and said "Wow, that survey wouldn't have even covered my school."
I mean really... it's great that they managed to survey 1,000 students, but it just doesn't mean squat when that number doesn't even fill the roster of a single school. What about the tens-of-thousands of other schools out there?
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The fact of the matter is tv viewing or video game playing is correlated to obesity. Correlation is not causation, as everybody should know. Trying to prove otherwise is futile.
Now, on the matter of safety concerns, it all boils down to the parents. If a parent plops his kid down in front of the tv instead of attempting to be a parent, sure the media has a measurable effect. But with parental involvement, nobody will "train" on video games and tv to be a cold blooded killer. Ever. I've grown up with video games all my life and I'm actually studying to put those people in jail, not to be one.
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The likeliness of the results on this "studies" are unlikely to be much different if they asked a million people to answer that (although it's possible).
Nonetheless, what's questionable is not the amount of people in the survey, but rather, the "logic" in this one. It's like saying: "Global warming has been steadily climbing since the number of pirates started steadily declining! These events *must* be related somehow!".
They are trying to make videogames seem as the "cause", rather than the consequence. I'm not saying it's false, I'm saying it's probably wrong, and that it is not a rigorous analysis. So much that there are studies that prove that games make you *less* violent, and me and some of my friends are examples of that.
Videogames are some of the best things to ever happen to my life, and I'm sure that's the same to many other gamers.
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Seriously. Are you telling me that every kid who plays video games will react the same way? How do videogames influence unprotected sex? I am not an animal; I make my own decisions. I'm sick of hearing about how videogames are the root of every bad decision some kid makes. They do nothing to you, there is no health risk. If a child is not mature enough to play a certain game, read a certain book, watch a certain movie then the parents should regulate that. We already have the systems in place.
These studies may as well be some guy's opinion. They prove nothing and they treat people as though they can't avoid running into a wall. Quit living under that rock and join us in the 21st century.
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(F'ing ridiculous)
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I get to be utterly repugnant and get laid? This is fabulous! No singles bar on the planet can compare to this. More video games for me, please!
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You have to love taking that jetpack south off of that one island and hanging out with the babes in the hot tub.
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That's brilliant! "Warning: Beating the crap out of a hooker, stealing her pimp's car and running him over with it will get you arrested and is down right detestable, do not try this at hom... anywhere."
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People who wear clothes are more proned to "increase obesity, tobacco and alcohol use, risky sexual behaviours, violence and social isolation!
Please alert your neighbor as this is becoming an epic as menacing as the babonic plague.
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I'm underweight.
I laugh at them.
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