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Question for Obama: do video games harm kids?

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Oct 15th, 2008, 8:31 am
There's a really interesting blahblahtech posting that has popped up to address what it refers to as the "myth that video games harm children both socially and intellectually."

It approaches the debate from parental questioning perspective, which seems as good as any to be fair. Some of the research it picks up upon includes that which suggests gamers process information more quickly and multi-task better than non-gamers. I rather liked the research quote which was based upon surgeons playing Super Monkey Ball: "Surgeons who play video games three hours a week have 37 percent fewer errors and accomplish tasks 27 percent faster."

Obama has once again linked underachieving kids with video gaming. In a speech last week Obama promised to invest in education, but then added that "it won't make much of a difference if parents aren't turning off the television set and putting away the video games and making sure that our children are doing their homework."

Which is fair enough, but then at the same time it appears that Obama is moving his Presidential campaign in front of gamers by advertising inside Xbox 360 games such as Burnout Paradise and Madden 09. You can see his face on in-game posters asking for votes and promising change. Well, he is certainly delivering that - one minute video games bad, the next video games good!
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This blog entry was written by Bill Andad, staff writer aka newsguy. It has been filed under the Hardware and Software category. It has received 2,904 views, 6 comment(s), and 33 linkbacks. It was promoted to featured news status Oct 15th, 2008.


tiger86 | Posting Whiz | Oct 16th, 2008
Wow now that is one tactic I have never heard of before Thats a good strategy move for his campaign.
michinobu_zoned | Light Poster | Oct 15th, 2008
But, I'll add, that if gamers ARE spending too much of their time playing video games, for them to go out and vote, then Obama has no need for them anyways. Still, I don't think that he's trying to bash video games, just the practice of spoiling our children.
michinobu_zoned | Light Poster | Oct 15th, 2008
The author of this post is taking what Obama said way out of context. Obama isn't attacking video games, he's just saying that if parents don't discipline their children and force them to do their work instead of play, then they won't get their homework done and no government program can fix this (logical statement). It's not like he's "flip-flopping" on the issue of video games, to say he's saying "one minute video games bad, the next video games good!" is pretty retarded. It's like something a thoughtless Republican might blurt out, just because he's on the look-out for something negative to say about a Democratic candidate.
Aia | Posting Virtuoso | Oct 15th, 2008
Video games. What a great tool for parents. Make it an asset to your advantage.
happygeek | He's The Daddy | Oct 15th, 2008
I'm for anything that keeps the little darlings quiet. Mind you, I do have a cold and my kids are being a PITA right now, which might influence my judgment.
scru | Nearly a Posting Virtuoso | Oct 15th, 2008
It's easy to misinterpret a statement like that. The way I see it, he didn't mean that video games and television are all out bad. Just that there's a time for everything, so when it's time for them to do their homework and what not, their parents should put them up to it and not let them spend *all* their time playing games and watching tv.

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