Children Get Smarter with Video Games

My thirty-something son Orion has played video games for many years, perhaps as many as 25; and he loves them. He’s often gravitated toward the violent ones, in which he competes against other players to see who goes down first or who makes it to the end first.

I’ve never worried about him becoming violent or aggressive in day-to-day living because that is not who he is. Children who are happy and mostly enjoying their life are not aggressive toward others. Perhaps he uses it to work out some of his frustration, which I believe is totally acceptable. It’s certainly an opportunity for him to have fun with his guy friends.

Beyond these reasons, I’ve always believed Orion was getting something more from video games that went beyond the ‘violence’ and social interaction, something that was not obvious to me as an outsider.

In fact, I believed an entire generation was gaining something valuable and developing unseen skills from these interactive games. Otherwise, why would so many young people and adults be drawn to them? There had to be something positive, not just the dumbing down of our society.

Fortunately, I have found an answer, one that makes sense to me and to Orion. My answer came from a book I just read Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter by Steven Johnson.

Since childhood, Johnson has been a strategic game player even before the advent of video games so he gets his unique perspective from his own experience as well as from his in-depth research and his willingness to think out-of-the-box.

The startling discovery he found is people are actually getting smarter since the introduction of technology, which includes video games, reality TV, the internet, and popular TV series, such as 24 and Lost. IQ test scores have not reflected this increase in IQ because they’ve been adjusted upward to account for the increased intelligence and companies are making the tests harder.

The one thing all of these media activities have in common is complexity, both intellectual and social, which demands increased brain functioning. Johnson makes a strong case there is nothing else to which we can attribute this dramatic increase in generation-wide intelligence.

One study he cites I found provocatively compelling, validating and soothing all at the same time. The study looked at three groups of white-collar professionals: hard-core gamers, occasional games, and non-gamers. The surprising results were that gamers were consistently more social, more confident, and more comfortable solving problems creatively. In addition, they showed no evidence of reduced attention span when compared with non-gamers.

Obviously, one study does not indicate total proof, and yet it raises interesting questions for us to consider.

Neither Johnson nor I believe that a life of gaming to the exclusion of live, interpersonal interaction or reading a good fiction or non-fiction book is a good idea. For all of us, finding balance between all the parts of our lives is essential.

Perhaps, though, we can worry a little less and be less negative about our child’s love of video games and TV. We can look for the positive in the choices he makes and seek to understand what he is gaining from all of his activities.

We can reach out to our children in more loving, positive ways so they want to talk with us and do things with us rather than blaming video games and texting for our lack of a close relationship with our child. We need to be accepting role models and allies whom our children turn to for companionship and wisdom.

By expanding our ability to trust our children’s natural desire to succeed and to enjoy her life fully, you will be one giant step closer to being the parent your child needs you to be.