I’ve been theory crafting around video games for children on the opposing premise. I think fundamentally the divide is on the quality of content — most games have some value to extract, but many are designed to be played inefficiently, and require far more time investment than value extracted.
Eg Minecraft, Roblox, CoD, Fortnite, Dota/LoL, the various mobile games clearly have some kind of value (mechanical skill, hand-eye coordination, creative modes, 3D space navigation / translation / rotation, numeric optimization, social interaction, etc), but they’re also designed as massive timesinks mostly through creative mode or multiplayer.
Games like paper Mario, pikmin, star control 2, katamari damacy, lego titles, however are all children-playable but far more time efficient and importantly time-bounded for play. Even within timesink games there are higher quality options — you definitely get more, and faster, out of satisfactory / factorio than modded Minecraft. If you can push kids towards the higher quality, lower timesink games, I think it’s worth. Fail to do so and it’s definitely not.
The same applies to TV, movies, books, etc. Any medium of entertainment have horrendous timesinks to avoid, and if you can do so, avoiding the medium altogether is definitely a missed opportunity. Screens are only notable in that the degenerate cases are far more degenerate than anything that came before it
Oh, his theory wasn't about video games though, they didn't exist in 1910, it was about the full breadth of human sensorial systems being used in the context of our neurology for a prolonged period of time during high neuroplasticity (0 to 6 was his theory). I haven't really played video games, so I don't know much about them personally.
No I get that; video games are just my medium of choice. The problem I was trying to get at is these arguments and perceptions usually stem from the degenerate cases, which only get worse the further in time you go, but I don’t think it’s really due to the technology itself. You have the same braindead systems appear in any medium of entertainment — there are definitely systems of total waste in sports, physical play (I’ve yet to encounter anything so degenerate as balltapping — and that shit spreads rapidly once it starts), literature, etc.
It can hardly be said that a studio ghibli flick stunted the imagination of children worldwide but I would definitely believe it if you suggested cocomelon rotted the brains directly out of their skulls
I think it’s also worth noting that kids have a shitload of time. They can engage in both technologies and physical play and other activities simultaneously; the problem occurs when singular or few activities overwhelmingly consume that time — which is why I claim the unbounded timesinks can be catastrophic — and what I think most people are worried about when they blanket-ban whole systems/mediums
I owe my entire career and livelihood to a childhood spent with the unbounded timesinks that were the games available to me on Amiga and my PC.
I might be a touch different in that it was obvious where I was going, and the correct decision was made to embrace my interest in the glowing screen and yes, the video games. It was video games more than anything else from which all other interests spawned.
More often than not it probably ends badly though I suppose. Despite a lifetime spent in front of screens all my social abilities work, I have a wide friends circle, a partner, my job requires me to work well with a wide variety of individuals and demographics etc which I couldn’t do otherwise. I have noticed this is not the case with all who shared a similar background.
I don't see a contradiction. Watching passively in an expectation of a dopamine hit = bad. Playing actively with things that respond in various interesting ways = good, no matter if the things are material or virtual.
Eg Minecraft, Roblox, CoD, Fortnite, Dota/LoL, the various mobile games clearly have some kind of value (mechanical skill, hand-eye coordination, creative modes, 3D space navigation / translation / rotation, numeric optimization, social interaction, etc), but they’re also designed as massive timesinks mostly through creative mode or multiplayer.
Games like paper Mario, pikmin, star control 2, katamari damacy, lego titles, however are all children-playable but far more time efficient and importantly time-bounded for play. Even within timesink games there are higher quality options — you definitely get more, and faster, out of satisfactory / factorio than modded Minecraft. If you can push kids towards the higher quality, lower timesink games, I think it’s worth. Fail to do so and it’s definitely not.
The same applies to TV, movies, books, etc. Any medium of entertainment have horrendous timesinks to avoid, and if you can do so, avoiding the medium altogether is definitely a missed opportunity. Screens are only notable in that the degenerate cases are far more degenerate than anything that came before it