I often pick up a copy of the Metro in the mornings these days and one jumped out at me this morning declaring \u201cGaming Children \u2018unfit for school\u2019\u201d.\u00a0 The article was a short piece about primary school children falling asleep in class, missing meals (although if they\u2019re missing meals in school I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s entirely their fault) and being unable to concentrate.<\/p>\n
The reason for this, as declared by one particular teacher, is that they are addicted to gaming.<\/p>\n
This may well be shooting fish in a barrel but let\u2019s dissect that a little.<\/p>\n
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First of all the term addicted is a dangerous one to throw around and is rather pleasingly often stuck in quote marks throughout the article, so well done Metro.\u00a0 Addiction is highly complex and to observe such high rates of addiction in such a small sample of children is possibly alarming but more likely just wrong.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve just hinted at the second problem.\u00a0 This is presented as \u201cnew research\u201d.\u00a0 This \u201cnew research\u201d has been performed in a single class of 26 children. \u00a0I know I\u2019m not a scientist, but I\u2019m fairly certain that questioning 26 children does not constitute as \u201cnew research\u201d that can suggest the number of \u201cgames-addicted\u201d children is increasing. \u00a0There’s just too much information missing and the sample is incredibly small.<\/p>\n
The teacher goes on to list the symptoms that \u201cgames-addicted\u201d children show such as missing meals, tiredness or falling asleep in class, poor concentration, poor reading and vocabulary, reluctance to take part in physical activity, talking about computer games during lesson times <\/strong>and play that includes reference to violent games. <\/strong>How dare they.<\/p>\n Now a lot of those symptoms listed are more likely as a result of if not poor parenting, then at least issues that exist within the remit of the home life. \u00a0Some of them are just things that children \/ people do and would be incredibly difficult to link specifically to playing games. \u00a0Those that aren\u2019t are rather worrying.\u00a0 Is it really a problem for children to be encouraged or enthusiastic about computer games? \u00a0It can inspire things and introduce new interests to an individual. \u00a0I know that I learnt the seven wonders of the world as a result of playing computer games.<\/p>\n Ok, there may be an argument against violent games, but I\u2019ve never played anything that was more violent than Tom and Jerry and my unabashed adoration of that particular cartoon has not lead to me being a violent or maladjusted individual (unless you want to make rude comments about journalists).<\/p>\n