BYU Says Video Games Are Very, Very, Very Bad For You
from the very,-very,-very dept
Just as some new research has come out suggesting that there's no causal link between video games and real world violence, wouldn't you know that some researchers at Brigham Young University would put out a report claiming that video games are bad for you in many, many different ways. Game Politics notes that it's no coincidence this report is coming out just as the state of Utah is looking to introduce new legislation regulating video games (just like regulations that have wasted tax payer money and been thrown out in state after state after state).This study didn't focus on violence, necessarily, but looked at a variety of different factors between gamers and non-gamers and found out that video gamers came out worse on every single factor. So, according to the study, gamers have worse relationships with friends and family, lower self-esteem, and... they're more likely to smoke pot. At least the study's author preached a bit of moderation in response:
Everything we found associated with video games came out negative... [But] I don't want parents to go out and yank all video games. It's like TV. We have to choose what's good and bad and practice moderation.Could have been worse... but the results still seem pretty questionable.
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Filed Under: research, video games
Companies: byu
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no causality
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Backwards
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And television.
And caffeine.
And boxers.
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Danger! Terror! Watch out! Eh, whatever...
They basically come out and say, "Yeah, video games will rot your brain, make your testicles shrink, get you hooked on 'the marijuana,' give you bad breath, make you kill your parents and your dog... But everything in moderation!"
This is like telling you that cyanide is bad, but then saying that a couple of drops will satisfy that almond craving that you're having.
Another case of academia with an agenda, trying to cater (or engineer) their results to appease the "but what about the children" set.
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Re: no causality
Another point of contention I have with these studies is how they define friend. I play games all the time with my friends...who may live in other states or countries. We IM and email outside of the game too, so what is to say that friendship is any less real then the people I go grab drink with after work?
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It also fails miserably at identifying causality. Are the video gamers more likely to smoke pot (and what's wrong with that in moderation anyway apart from that pesky legality thing?), or are pot smokers more likely to play video games than any other activity? Did that mean that TV made more people smoke pot 20 years ago, or were the smokers just stoned in from of the TV instead of games when games weren't so common?
The same with everything else... are people bad with relationships because they play games, or do they just play more games because they haven't got a girlfriend to spend the time with instead? Do people have low self esteem because of games, or do they play games more than they participate in outside activities because they've got low self-esteem to begin with?
As ever, an incomplete, biased and inconclusive "study" that will still no doubt attract a lot of thoughtless parroting by biased media parties and opportunistic politicians.
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Re:
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a boi yoi yoi
P.S.
Mormon fags
P.S.S.
1V1
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instead of blaming games for such "bad attributes", maybe those "bad attributes" are the reason why those ppl play games in the first place.
i know what i said above makes it sound like gaming is a plague or something but that is not what im trying to say.
what im trying to say is:
im willing to accept the data he is giving us (for the sake of argument), which leads me to question how he is interpreting them.
He compared gamers to non gamers, and he decided that is the only 2 differences between the two groups.
how about taking a group of non gamers doing the same study on them once that is done let them start gaming and monitor there progress. if what he states in his article is correct those "model citizen" will turn to very very bad ppl.
in fact I bet if a study like im talking about is ever done the subjects will either not enjoy gaming, or the post-gaming studies will give the same results as the pre-gaming studies.
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Well its Utah...
I imagine the same thing will happen to video games there. You'll have to mail order, or order online.
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damed if you do...
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games can increase your intelligence
Its just another excuse for these researchers to validate the next years grant
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Whom do I believe?!
I remember another University researching video games and found EVERYTHING to be positive. Being that *most* things in life aren't inherently bad for a person, I will side with the "it must be good" group.
In other news, people who breathe air are more likely to get lung cancer. On a related topic, people who are alive are more likely to have something bad happen to them than people who are not alive. We recommend not doing anything, especially breathing, and hopefully you will not live long enough to have something bad happen to you.
Seems not breathing can kill people, make sure you breathe a lot to compensate for use telling you not to breathe.
OMG! panic! breathing a lot can cause you to faint, stop breathing!
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ARE OUR POLITICIANS AT IT AGAIN?
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But you can have 5 wives!
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Re: Re:
Good job!
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Fail
Sadly, this study is done with obvious political and potentially religious agenda. The number of fallacies in the methods used is unbelievable. First of all, they never defined the parameters. One persons definition of "worse" or "better" is different than anothers. Loose terms without definition only help to sway a study towards the hypothesis of the giver. The little disclaimer at the end was priceless. If video games were truly harmful, like smoking for example, and this study was so foolproof that it showed that, then why not get the government regulations on the way! Unless of course your study isn't entirely conclusive and you did it to further your academic career on a media hot-button as well as pursue a religious and political agenda with an oddly convenient upcoming court trial. This degree of academic mediocrity and so called "study" is ridiculous and any judge or jury that would use this study as evidence is being brainwashed. Any person who would believe is pre-biased, and any lawyer who would use this study is normal. (Little law joke there, kidding, sort of.)
To make this study even MORE sad, THEY ONLY INTERVIEWED COLLEGE STUDENTS. 100% of which were unmarried and living outside their parents home with an average age of 20!! Well now, I wonder if thats a point in normal human behavior at which family relationships, pot smoking, and lowered grades are at peaks ANYWAY! What has been done is essentially taking the most wayward part of most humans lives and assigned a video game moto on top of it as the blame. College kids have free time, they are going to do irresponsible stuff with it. Its the first time alone where they are responsible, they are going to abuse it. It's part of the process. No way should this hotbed of experimentation be used for a rational study, especially on human behavior in regards to a stimulus, in this case, video games.
FAIL.
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Stupid linkage
Bad relationship with family --> could be a result of drug use, could be a result of low self-esteem, etc.
As said before, video games seem to be a choice of people with low-self confidence and who are socially withdrawn because they can interact with people without having that face-to-face interaction that gets their heart racing and throat closing up. I've always been taught to look at how they did the study, and ask questions, and there are a ton of big questions that come from this. Show me 10 kids who play video games that are pot smokers, and I'll show you 50 who play video games and are not smokers. Bad study trying to prove a preconceived idea from the get-go
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Re: a boi yoi yoi
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Unbiased study?
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video games are the devil
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video games are the devil
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Re:
I'm a Mormon, and I agree with science. I also play a lot of videogames. So there. :P
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Crazy....
I guess I need to smoke pot to understand why he thinks it is so bad for you.
Idiot.............
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Re: a boi yoi yoi
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Re: Re:
With regard to the study, all they have achieved is to prove the point they set out to prove in the first place. Anyone who has ever done any kind of research into human behaviour knows that you must select a test group that comprises elements from as wide and varied a cross-section of society as possible. Only that way can you get anything like a true "result". Selecting these college kids "may" support their claims, however, only so far as they can be applied to this element of society. Ergo - college kids are more likely to play video games and smoke pot - d'uh
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Honestly, stupidity causes more problems than anything else for humans, but it's perfectly legal. Go figure.
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Re: Re: Re:
Please let me know your office address so I may send you a bill for a new keyboard and monitor. I just snarfed coffee out of my nose all over everything after reading your post!
Good job!
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Mormon Bashing
Some of you act like BYU is the first and only place where a study on the bad effects of video games has been published...
I have to echo the response here on the forum...I think these sorts of studies are stupid and legislation limiting the use or sale of video games would be counter productive. It is the same sort of logic that is applied to all sorts of other legislation. Basically, these laws say, "People are stupid and have no control over there own actions, so we should force them to live the way we deem 'best'." Examples of such legislation: If you eat a lot of fast food, you get fat and suffer ill effects of being overweight = we should outlaw fast food (or tax the crap out of it), some murderous jerks kill people = lets take guns, knives, and all 'dangerous' objects away from EVERYBODY, then you got the people who want to limit internet use and video games based on similar 'logic'.
This crap is nothing new. Its been around forever. Usually its done by vindictive people who want popularity or power. Hitler blamed Germany's problems on Jews. Today's politicians blame -fill in the blank here- (big business, video games, internet, global warming) for all our current problems.
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When are people going to learn? ANYTHING in excess is bad. I am a video game expert. In fact, I am studying to one day have a job in game development. Meanwhile, I have been married for more than two years, and I now have a baby girl. Yup, I'm really screwed up.
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Re: Re: Re:
However, your point is taken. ;)
My opinion on the study has already been adequately expressed by others' comments all over this, though; I think they went into this study with a whole lot of bias, and their sample set was selected to confirm that bias.
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BYU not really academia
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"People in university are more likely to smoke pot! Burn the universities"
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GAMES ARE BAD
A little Family Guy humor to take the edge off another ridiculous study that wastes time and money and causes us to slip ever closer to total socialism and government control in this country. WHOOPEE!
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Mormons don't agree with science... no surprises here.
What? I happen to be Mormon and a PhD in EEE with background in Physics. I spent part of my education at BYU. Are you truly serious? Or is that just the bigot speaking inside you?
by jonnyq - Jan 26th, 2009 @ 6:49am
"Brigham Young University would put out a report claiming that video games are bad for you"...
And television.
A Mormon invented TV...
And caffeine. I'll admit some zealots might say caffeine is prohibited by our doctrine, but it's not.
And boxers. I don't know what this means so I will cover my bases: #1 Go Miguel Cotto!! #2 Those(when well trained) are nice dogs. #3 Comfortable undergarment. What about any of these am I not suppose to like?
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Re: a boi yoi yoi
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Re: Backwards
http://freakonomicsbook.com/
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Some people take it "too far," and turn it into a lifestyle. Others are well-adjusted because they choose to have better things to do.
So uh, freedom of choice?
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Reefer Madness....reefer madness...
When danger's near, exploit their fear! The end will justify the means!
Reefer madness....reefer madness...Creeping like a communist, it's knocking at our doors, turning all our children into hooligans and whores!
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This study is full of failure. "lets make a study and ignore all the exceptions"
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Re: Danger! Terror! Watch out! Eh, whatever...
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Arrrr!
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The study didn't not seek to establish causality.
It sought only to explore correlations, and pretends no causality at this point. If I still had access to journal databases, I'd like to take a closer look. But I suspect that the only bias I'd find is that of the tech press (and many commenters here) against any and all things which might possibly disagree with what they hold precious.
That and the rabid anti-Mormon bias, of course. But it's okay to hate Mormons nowadays, right? Did we already change from hating black people, Jews, and gays to hating Mormons, Latinos, and Muslims?
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edited to add:
Ok, it looks like the researcher was explicit in saying that this is correlation NOT causation and that more research would be needed to dig into that issue. I quote:
The study didn't allow Jensen and Walker to determine whether video games are drawing college-age adults away from social settings or if they are a way for those already struggling with relationships to spend their time. Walker guesses both are at play.
Looking over it, this really is not a bad study and I think people are overreacting to it. This is a pure gathering data piece and does not claim to show causation, prove anything, or even claim which dirrection the connections go in.
I think many of the reactions in this thread make gamers look pretty bad actually. Someone finds some negative connections and people immediatly jump to the conclusion that it is BS. This is no better then when JT picks which ones to believe and which ones to dismiss as not fitting with his world view.
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Re: Re: a boi yoi yoi
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*goes back to playing Call of Duty 5*
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Researchers,..
Put that in your researche papers.
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WTF says that,,,
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Re: BYU not really academia
Pot - Meet Kettle
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Re: Danger! Terror! Watch out! Eh, whatever...
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Re: Well its Utah...
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Re: a boi yoi yoi
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Re:
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Re: Arrrr!
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Re: Re:
The quality of a given activity is purely subjective. Just because you feel that spending a few hours on video games isn't a good use of time doesn't mean that others don't find them relaxing, exciting, or engaging.
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BYU
Going there causes your mind to rot, encourages anti-social behavior, and in general results in the brain-washing of anyone unfortunate enough to go there, until they are nothing more than mindless religious zealot zombies with no comprehension of life in the real world.
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Re: video games are the devil
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Re: BYU
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Correlation != causation
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Defensive Gamers
I'm really undecided about this topic and kinda believe that gaming in moderation is fine. On the other hand moderation has a different definition for everyone. I get annoyed with my husband when he is playing video games instead of hanging out with his family.
I'd like to know how many gamers have families? and do your significant others ever get annoyed with your habit of video gaming? If not, how do you balance out your time?
Also, my husband definitely isn't violent and doesn't smoke pot. However, I think the self-esteem point is dead on and the habit has obviously strained his relationship with others.
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in moderation
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As a parent...
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Re: a boi yoi yoi
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Re:
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Re:
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