4 ms·

Couldn't the same be said of people who play sports or jazz or any other thing that involves making fast decisions? It's like there's this desperate need of ju

Couldn't the same be said of people who play sports or jazz or any other thing that involves making fast decisions? It's like there's this desperate need of justifying playing video games with every new study that says 'look! I am not actually wasting my time!' Personally I think no silly justification is needed as there's nothing wrong with enjoying entertainment.

Groxx 16y ago
Yes, but playing sports or jazz isn't as demonized as playing video games is.
- eru 16y ago
  Not any longer. Jazz was once evil, too.
noahth 16y ago
I think the fact that this is comparable to sports or jazz is exactly the point. While I imagine that you'd have to go back prettaayyyy far to find the time when sports were demonized as anything from an utter sin to a slightly pitiable time-waster, jazz certainly endured those characterizations when it was emerging into popular culture. The same is true of any number of other media that now enjoy nigh-immeasurable popular esteem: the novel, for example. If we'd had the same educational-industrial apparatus then as we do now, surely some enterprising PhD candidate would have staked his career on studies illuminating the benefits of reading novels. EDIT: I forgot to mention this - the real question that remains is just how valuable this effect of gaming is in the non-gaming world. And boy is that a doozy of a question!
- fgf 16y ago
  ability in sport = martial prowess / hunting skills / good health in general / good genes in general -- It has always been more or less universally respected. Jazz players always had subculture specific social status, same with hip-hop pioneers, early rock musicians etc.
  - yesbabyyes 16y ago
    Jazz players always had subculture specific social status, same with hip-hop pioneers, early rock musicians etc. As have gamers.
    - fgf 16y ago
      "social status" that doesn't get you laid =//= social status that does
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
derefr 16y ago
Yes—but saying that "games" improve your cognition speed cuts to the heart of the issue, because a game is, by definition, an artificially-constructed scenario involving time-limited decision-making. It's basically the lab-experiment equivalent to sports/jazz/etc., with all the irrelevant factors removed.

Groxx 16y ago

Yes, but playing sports or jazz isn't as demonized as playing video games is.

eru 16y ago
Not any longer. Jazz was once evil, too.

noahth 16y ago

I think the fact that this is comparable to sports or jazz is exactly the point. While I imagine that you'd have to go back prettaayyyy far to find the time when sports were demonized as anything from an utter sin to a slightly pitiable time-waster, jazz certainly endured those characterizations when it was emerging into popular culture. The same is true of any number of other media that now enjoy nigh-immeasurable popular esteem: the novel, for example. If we'd had the same educational-industrial apparatus then as we do now, surely some enterprising PhD candidate would have staked his career on studies illuminating the benefits of reading novels. EDIT: I forgot to mention this - the real question that remains is just how valuable this effect of gaming is in the non-gaming world. And boy is that a doozy of a question!

fgf 16y ago
ability in sport = martial prowess / hunting skills / good health in general / good genes in general -- It has always been more or less universally respected. Jazz players always had subculture specific social status, same with hip-hop pioneers, early rock musicians etc.
- yesbabyyes 16y ago
  Jazz players always had subculture specific social status, same with hip-hop pioneers, early rock musicians etc. As have gamers.
  - fgf 16y ago
    "social status" that doesn't get you laid =//= social status that does
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

derefr 16y ago

Yes—but saying that "games" improve your cognition speed cuts to the heart of the issue, because a game is, by definition, an artificially-constructed scenario involving time-limited decision-making. It's basically the lab-experiment equivalent to sports/jazz/etc., with all the irrelevant factors removed.