Benefits and drawbacks of gaming. An episode parents and kids will enjoy together, Will and Max do the work on discussing pros and cons of video games. Programming Lions brings a fair debate to a popular activity many youth spend their free time.
Benefits and drawbacks of gaming. An episode parents and kids will enjoy together, Will and Max do the work on discussing pros and cons of video games. Programming Lions brings a fair debate to a popular activity many youth spend their free time.
Welcome to Programming Lions where we are on a mission to build strong, confident and a productive next generation. Today, our topic is gaming. Does it rot your brain or does it enhance your life? This is a topic fully start to finish ideated, And everything by the kids. So I'm just showing up as a devil's advocate. I'm as curious as the rest of you how this is gonna go. So let's get into it.
Yeah.
Ep34_Gaming-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_417ms-StreamYard:Today we are going to be talking about gaming. And if it's really bad for your brain, In your life, in your soul. Let's get into it. Let's get into it. Ooh Yeah So boys, I'm really interested to see how this goes because I know you love your gaming and if you're going to be unbiased in this analysis and use all those critical thinking skills that we've been building up over all these podcast episodes to take an issue, look at both sides, be able to argue, you. for both sides so you can understand it fully and then ultimately reside on a decision. Do you think you're going to be able to do that? Yeah we're gonna start off with the pros and cons about it and then we're gonna go into our own personal opinion it has become An incredible, huge, massive industry, right? Yeah. It started out as a Nintendo thing, where you just have fun playing on your old TV. Yeah. And now there's things called Xbox Series S. Yes. Xbox Series X. And virtual reality goggles and all these different options of immersive experiences and you are both too young but I lived through some of the onset of video games whether it was Atari or the first Nintendo and they've become incredibly realistic and now Ai developing these games so they can develop them faster and more immersive and combined with virtual reality and There's all kinds of crazy things that are happening in the gaming world to the point where it's like simulating the real world in some cases yeah, it started out as like blocks, right? Like in Mario. So I was like small blocks, right? Now there's like, 3D graphics that look almost better than real life. Which is crazy. Yeah, it's wild. Okay, let's get into the pros and cons. Guess I'll start off with the first con. My first con is addiction. Yes. Addiction is a big part because, addiction can mean that you Love a game so much you don't want to get off it. You're just addicted to it. You're thinking about it all the time. Max, you wouldn't know anything about that, right? Uh, not really. Um, I am not addicted to games. No? Yeah. Sure? Yeah, totally. Okay, so addiction, that's a huge one. Yeah, There's like there's like kind of two types of addiction. One of them is worse than the other The worst one is where you're just constantly thinking about it. You don't think about anything else, right? Yes And you love it so much that you keep doing it. The other one it's still where you really are just like involved in it like crazy. An example is Minecraft, right? I'm addicted because I just keep thinking about what can I build next. What else can you build? Right. Right, yeah, there's that. there's probably a bunch of other examples, but that's the one I have. Alright, so, one pro. Let's go. It improves problem solving. Just hear me out. There's actually, video games that involve puzzles. Yes. Right? So then, like, if there's a hard puzzle, you can get through it. And then, in real life, you can also use that information to maybe use it in real life and, like You know it can help you if you have a quiz about puzzles or something like that, okay, right? I buy that I think there is a great problem solving Possibilities with gaming because you are solving challenges puzzles problems and That creates wiring in the brain to solve problems, and that's an important thing for people in society, Yeah, that's a pretty good one. Good one, Max. Nice. Okay. I can do better than that. The next con that we have are vision problems. Now, I know Max searched up something and found that the vision's kinda good. but for me, what I think vision problems are, it's not looking at it like, radioactive waves or whatever coming from the screen. That is one part of it. But to me, the, vision problems are staring at it too long. So if you're on it for like, what, three or four hours and, then you look away, suddenly everything, like you literally see everything as like, lights, like there's like, pink and there's purple and there's green and there's yellow, right? There's like, weird lights everywhere, and eventually your eyes get back to normal. But sometimes it stays. It's something you don't want. Well, the thing is, most people actually have eye problems if they play every day for three hours. But if you only play for one hour in the morning, one hour in the afternoon.. So then, um, on the weekends. On the weekends, yeah. So then it's uh, two hours. So that means it's about six hours on the weekends, including Friday. So then, um, or no, wait four hours. No, five hours. Five hours on the weekend. Apparently it crushes your math skills too. Yes, yes. So it's five hours. And then, you have to get 21 hours to get like serious eye problems and damage, so. Okay, so Max, what you're saying is that eye problems only occur after prolonged exposure to gaming. Like you have to be on it for the whole three hours straight. I imagine that the human eye hasn't evolved in a way that is accustomed to looking at a screen all day. And the different frequency of lights that come off of it, and of course, there's certain frequencies of light that keep us more alert and awake, and a lot of that's in the games. And it can give us challenges in terms of going to sleep at night. It can also imprint things on your brain, so you guys ever play a video game and then when you go to sleep at night you have dreams about it? Yeah, that also happens, that also sometimes happens with TV shows, right? Like, or, uh, movies, horror movies, right? When I was about your age, I played Tetris. You know the game Tetris? Yeah. Yeah, I played Tetris so long one time. That I remember falling asleep and just putting shapes together all night long What yeah, oh man, that's scary. Yeah, it was weird You're going to be better at multitasking. Multitasking. And you're a self proclaimed multitasker. Yes, I'm a big multitasker. Of course. I drink water and play video games. Help me understand why gaming builds multitasking skills. You have to be building while like trying to shoot to just like save yourself. And then there's other multitasking parts in Florida. I'm not going to list them all, but there's a lot. Eating chips and steering the wheel. That was a really important life skill. Is multitasking related to being able to eat chips, play a game, itch your butt, and look at your iPad for Fortnite clues all at the same time. Is that the kind of multitasking that we're talking about here? Kind of, yes, yes, yeah, yeah, oh no. Max, Max, he's always a very good pro. Beautiful, yes, you're digging your own grave here, Max. Oh no, the next con are health problems. Why health? Health problems for many reasons. The first one is related to addiction. Right? You could be addiction, and your health problems would be where, you take some chips over. Mmm. And slowly those chip bags start stacking up. Mmm. One by one. Yeah. By one. And eventually you're eating hundreds of chip bags per month. And you get obese and fat, right? Another one is that eventually when you start playing video games, you'd start to think like, Why do I do swim practice? Why do I do football practice? I could just do video games. And then you'll start getting lazier and lazier and you're not gonna go and exercise and stuff. That makes sense. Your body is certainly meant to move. So I suspect prolonged exposure to gaming without physical activity and movement. Yeah. Causes a problem. But what about all the, the finger dexterity that you get? Yeah, that is You must have quick fingers, Max. It does increase hand and eye, coordination. Oh, is that on your list? Yeah. So then you have to move around. You have to look where everyone is and then you get better eye coordination with everything and all that. Okay. I buy that. That's actually, that's a good one. Another thing is that it releases anxiety. Yeah. It releases anxiety. Yeah, you just come home from a long day. You want to hop on. I don't know minecraft Okay, a peaceful you can just go Build a structure a piece and then all of that. It's kind of like watching a movie, but you, Get on and Minecraft, That's a very peaceful game. Yes. So then you just, Sit there, kill animals, make some food, kill more animals. Max, what if you're vegan? Well, you can make Like, carrots and do, uh, yeah, all of those. But still, it releases anxiety and does all that. Good to know for the vegans out there. You can still play Minecraft. What about other games that do the opposite? Is it safe to say that there are other games that do the opposite of relieving anxiety, meaning they make you more anxious? Like Fortnite. Will Slam's controller All the time. Once in a while. Once in a while. Oh, once in a while? We won't get into that topic. I don't want to see that. But he's like, sometimes he loses a game and he's like, no! And he goes like slams it down. So then, and then he gets mad and then he like shuts it off and just sort of like goes, and then you guys punish him. So sometimes it does give you more like, oh my god, I want to destroy everything in my path. But otherwise, it's, yeah. That is actually, segwaying dead from that,, into, back to cons, that is a con. I admit I have that con. Anger. Yeah. Anger. Um. There's a term I've heard you use that's called rage quitting. Yes. Yes. Rage quitting is where you're playing a game and then you lose and you're like, No! And then you just leave the game. Right? Yeah. Put that on the chart. Get out. But, And that's kind of also what this thing is, right? There is aggression slash anger. Yeah. This is the con I'm trying to talk about. It is When you're on, when you're off, and when you're playing, and just when your mom and dad tell you time to get off son all three of those can have bad things right like when you're off you're thinking. Oh, I want to play Let me on my screen And then there's also when you're on when you lose a match or when you die in something, right? You're like no And you slam a controller I notice you both get angry when we tell you your time's up. Let's get off. This is the last game. Yeah. You tend to have a very this SRL reaction no, one more, one more, one more. Yeah. And yeah. Everything that leads into addiction slightly. Depending on the situation, but most cases I would say you come out of your gaming experience a little bit angry. Why is that? If you play too much, you're gonna get more angry when you get off. Because you want to keep playing, and you want to keep unlocking things. What else we got? Max ran out of pros. Max, what did you have, three? No, I had one, two, three, four, five. I don't feel like we covered five. What did we miss? Improve problem solving and increase hand eye coordination. Multitasking, faster decision making, release anxiety. I though have one more, and that one is Lack of Motivation. Woah. This one ties into the thing I was talking about with health problems. Yeah. Where, you're just like, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do that, I don't, right, you're just arguing because you think you can just play video games for the rest of your life. Mhm. While, you should, like, Going out running, playing baseball, doing swim, football, right? Stuff like that. Doing a sport, or just being active in general. Right. So, lack of motivation means that then, like, when you're doing something, you're just like, I don't wanna do this, right? Wow lack of motivation that doesn't align With our GSD principles, does it? Complete opposite. So we've heard both sides of the Debate now. Gaming. Pros. Cons. What are your thoughts what do you think we should do in terms of adjusting, perhaps, how we think about gaming in our house? Uh, make us do more. Make you do more. Great solution, Max. Alright, goodbye. Thank you for watching. I think that, judging by this, this has shooken me, right? About, um, how video games actually are not the best for you. I knew they were bad, I just thought it was like health problems, right? Most of these things that, don't apply to us, cause you guys are good with keeping us off of them or taking us off when we need to. But for other people it could probably be worrying, like I've seen people at restaurants who literally bring their kids with iPads. Yeah, just to prevent, prevent they don't like socialize or stuff like that. Yeah, we see that a lot. We see that a lot at restaurants, in cars. We don't do that. Yeah. Uh, a lot of parents do. I do just think that. A solution, which is easy to do, is just not to go crazy and on video games. Not to do them too much. A lot. Too much. Right, just don't do them too much. Maybe an hour or so a day is good. Yeah. But going too far, that starts getting crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And also, there's one thing. Let kids socialize if you go out to dinner. Let kids socialize. Don't let them just bring an iPad and just watch a movie or play a video game. Wow. Let them socialize. Really? Max, that's a mature thing coming from a ten year old. You think when we go out to dinner you should be socializing with the adults at the table? Yeah. Okay. I do. I think it's embarrassing to let your kid, Just be on a video game for like an hour, while you guys eat. Like imagine if like you're having dinner with your grandparents, right, and you let your kid come with an iPad. That's depressing. Yeah, they have to socialize with each other. Right. They have to see what's going on, how's their life been, and all that. I love that, guys. Grandparents love talking to their kids. And you're right, grandparents love talking to their grandkids. And so if you're buried in an iPad, then you're not engaging with them. and learning more about them, and having them learn more about you, and create memories and relationships and More productive habits. I'm shocked right now. I appreciate you guys bringing up the topic. Doing the research, bringing both sides of the story, and then having a, moderate solution. You get to, have some fun with your games, but then there's also expectations that you're in physical activities, and that you are in sports, and that you're eating healthy and not chips and scratching yourself on the couch while you're playing games all day. And you're self aware about how much you're doing, because when you don't have parents around to control it, if you're on your own. You could see how it might take over your life, and I think that does happen to some people it's sad Because then it becomes an addiction, like Will pointed out, and it's hard to get out of addiction. There's all kinds of different addictions, and gaming is one of those. I think we came to the right place and the right conclusion, It's important that we have good physical, mental health. But we have some fun along the way too, right? Yep. Yep. And I don't know what I'd do without Fortnite. It's such a fun game. Yeah. And for us, it's probably also noteworthy to tell the audience that We play Fortnite together, right? We do trios and we'll play some matches. I also look at gaming as an experience that we can do together as dad and sons. Mom, not so much into gaming. But the three of us will play, and that's pretty fun. I get to die, you guys get to revive me, and then we get to go do it over and over again, right? One final question, we have to solve one of life's great mysteries, which is, Does gaming actually rot and liquefy your brain? Well, we have a quote here for you, Dad. Really? This is a quote from Google. You looked this up? Yes. Okay, there's science here, this is science. Well, there are some ways a brain can let you rot or turn to slime. Watching video games or television isn't one of them. Quote from Google. Another one of life's great mysteries solved right here on this podcast. In terms of gamers out there, because you follow a few on YouTube. Yeah. Which gamers do you think have a good balance? Meaning they have a healthy lifestyle, and they are professional gamers. Nicky30, he's strong, he's pretty conservative. CyberPK has a wife, he's strong, He's fit. He went through a change, remember this was maybe a couple years ago, but he noticed himself lacking, getting lazy and getting a little soft and then he went on a regiment of working out and eating and got back into playing more basketball and whatever he's a tall guy I guess yeah and now he flexes his muscles on camera yeah he's pretty ripped so that's really cool to see that people are able to strike that balance. Look with that, let's call it a wrap. That was an interesting session, boys. Until next time. Like and subscribe and comment.