Email Worse Than Marijuana For Intelligence? 700
wallykeyster writes "The Guardian is reporting that a recent study at King's College indicates that the average IQ loss of email users was 10 points (or six points more than cannabis users). Details on The Register as well. The Register has a related story about how computers make kids dumb and an apparent "problem-solving deficit disorder" observed in children who use computers. I thought it was television that rotted your brain?"
google (Score:4, Insightful)
I disagree (Score:3, Insightful)
Like the difference in examining crime in a low income area vs a high income area. [ / suspicion ]
Not likely (Score:2, Insightful)
I once read that using a computer is a test of one's ability to follow directions. Probably true, but I do also think that maintaining a computer in an environment of changing hardware and software is a test of one's ability to use deductive reasoning to solve problems, as well as maintain a jumble of info in your head and connect seemingly disparate pieces of info to solve a problem.
No: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:My email made me fat.. (Score:2, Insightful)
The Internet made me kill 27 people
The Internet made me go out and fuck the neighbor's cat
"Drop" in IQ?? (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't buy that at all.
Most likely, the added distractions in these people's lives just made the test more difficult for them. I highly doubt that these people actually became dumber. As someone mentioned earlier, this is most likely just some scientist making his data fit his hypothesis.
Re:google (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Only temporary (Score:3, Insightful)
This has got to be some study steered toward a desired result. Either the scientists or the funding organization wanted this result, so they made sure it came to this conclusion.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:5, Insightful)
MUDs
These old text games have probably been the cause of more skipped final exams and lost study time than any two modern games together.
the bias in the study... (Score:5, Insightful)
But if you're naturally smart or motivated, the opposite is true. I've known people that smoked pot all through college and graduated early with amazing grades. I'm sure amongst the people you know, you can think of the video game addict that gets all A's and the video game addict that flunked out years ago.
These things are just enablers. That's why, especially with pot, you should be of sound mind and body before you turn the machine on or pack the pipe. It makes the difference between expanding your mind and escaping from it.
Amplification vs Distortion (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not that the potential isn't there for any of the technologies, but humanity has a governor, just like the Briggs & Stratton on my old go kart. It's called the 'Lowest Common Denominator.' One individual can reason in a unique manner that can advance the frontiers of human understanding, while a mob is well known for its inability to reason except in the most primative manner. The more connected we become, the more LCD we are tied to. The technology is inevitably bent to the will of the masses, regardless of the vision of the few.
Properly used, a search engine has the potential to function as an intelligence amplifier, but that way requires hard work and a singular vision which reaches outside the common vision. It's so much easier to just kick back and go with the flow. But each of the things that really changed the world were brought about through the individual thoughts of one person, who eventually shared it with a small group. For lack of a better term, an outsider, separate from the common environment; but somehow capable of seeing something that no one else was able to see and to carry through and realize.
So, for the vast majority of those out there who unconsciously embrace mediocrity, being dumber is just another wave of the cool. While those of us who seek truth on a Friday night, discuss the realization of the possible. They're just a tool. They can help the smart get smarter, and the dumb to get dumber. Depending on what you were after in the first place. It is all a matter of choice.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sheesh. What in the hell happened to parents just saying "No" instead of treating kids like royalty? This Just In: you can love your offspring while still denying them things, despite what your idiot neighbor claims.
I am only a child of the 70s, but it's certainly a different, wussier, world out there than I remember.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:3, Insightful)
I hate, absolutely _hate_, laying blame on parents, but after working as long as I have in IT at a school district I can see that children are mirrors of their parents' behavior.
That said, I think what you need to do at this point is take your son, sit him down, and start involving him in reading. Either that or grt him out away from computers for a bit. Anything to keep him from becoming some kid who lets extraneous things come between him and his school work.
Better yet, uninstall the game and get him some educational software. Math Munchers, Zoombies, or Carmen Sandiego are all excellent choices to get him to think. After his allotted playtime, ask him what he's learned.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps what will help is insulting the intelligence of your "brilliant student" of a son, by refusing to be straightforward and upfront with him?
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Even games like Unreal Tournament or Grand Theft Auto require a lot of different brain processes and instincts to "survive." But these games may also draw upon our survival instincts, which tend to elevate hormone levels and whatnot. Those biochemical changes may have effects similar to a drug which last even for a few days after the game was played.
Cumpooter dumz peepl doun? (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously though, when I graduated from high school, just a mere 18 years ago, we had no such things as cellphones, and gadgets and doohickies and whatnot to distract us from the all important task of learning.
As for computers, too much emphasis is placed nowadays on being able to 'use it' and not enough on why one needs to use it in the first place. Until probably as recently as 10 years ago, there were still books and libraries to go to, but now everything is geared toward breeding a generation that can't be bothered with actually working for the answer, and education in 2005 requires internet access in the home. You need to do a book report on subject whatever, google-search, read up on it, keep doing a search until you find someone who has already solved the problem for you, then do the report. That to some is learning. There is a distinctive difference between a 'college' and a 'university' and one teaches you 'things', the other teaches you how to 'think'. When it comes to learning, it's essential to reinvent the wheel, again and again, and again until reinventing the wheel is as natural as breathing. The only way to make smarter people is to make them think for themselves. By getting someone to crack open a book and do some reading on the facts and only the facts, it gives the reader a chance to think out the problem in their mind rather than accept whatever opinion on the subject they happen to come across.
I look at the university entrance exam my dad wrote when he applied and in all honesty it's so far over my head, I have no idea what the question is asking. There seems to have been a pretty serious slip in mental discipline over the decades, computers and TV are only adding to the problem.
Also, I challenge anyone to find a child (under 18) who will primarily use the computer for actual work (study) as opposed to playing games, instant messaging and other such activities. The life of today's teen hardly requires a storm of neural activity anymore, so it's no big surprise to me that there's an apparent "problem-solving deficit disorder" observed in children who use computers.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:5, Insightful)
But it won't end there, let me assure you. Even though my brother keeps his grades up, he spends *all* his free time playing games, reading about games, and pretty much nothing but games. He doesn't go outside. He doesn't socialize with others. He just wants to get online and "pwn pplz with hiz 1337 skillz". (-_-) In the past my parents had been pretty damn lax about this, even though they knew it was a problem, and I insistently pressured them to make him do something else, anything else but play games! I'm afraid that this problem is only going to grow exponentially for each generation as kids start to grow up on games and let them control their lives. As parents, guardians, or whatever you are, I urge you all to remind your younger family members that games are great, but they should try doing other things with their lives. Otherwise, they will never know how many great things they are capable of doing in this world.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Where's my Island of Dr. Brain?
High IQ == High Intelligence? (Score:3, Insightful)
I think a more important question is whether IQ and academic grades are a true measure of intelligence in general.
Moreover just because the people in the study used email, it does not mean that email is the cause for their drop in IQ score.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do you hate blaming parents so much? It's their job to raise their kids, and nearly every problem a child has can be directly related to his parents' (lack of) parenting. The original poster is a perfect example. Rather than addressing the problem, he's scheming with his wife to "accidentally" remove the game. What's his son going to learn from this? That it's okay to neglect his responsibilities (even at 5 years old, you have them -- education, playing, being a kid)? That mommy and daddy are real klutzes with the computer, so he should start learning how to hide what he's doing? In this case, it may or may not be the parents' fault that the kid got so wrapped up in the game (it probably is -- they didn't limit his play time, or set down ground rules), but if they go through with the planned course of action they are absolutely responsible for what that teaches the child.
It's not my job to parent your kids, nor is it the government's job, nor teachers, school administrators, day care employees, etc. It's your kid, you teach him how to be responsible. If you can't handle that, perhaps you should reconsider being a parent. Harsh? Sure. But throwing more tax dollars at poorly parented children isn't going to solve the problem, either. You have to fix the problem, and the problem is usually the parents (or parent, in more and more cases).
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course all I call that is a lack of discipline. Like this "brilliant" kid. Tell him _NO_ once in a while so he can get used to it when he grows up... and maybe he won't be Everquest (or MUD) fodder.
Spoiled little brats... getting all that they can possibly want, and appreciating none of it.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Sex Lowers IQs (Score:5, Insightful)
>why the fuck didn't you just say acceptable?
"not full" != empty
the world isn't binary.
that's why.
Re:500 books in the household? (Score:3, Insightful)
Go to flea markets, yard sales, and library sales (where they get rid of old books that are worn or no longer popular).
Our older two share a bedroom, and they have over 500 books just on their own shelves. I think the oldest has probably read 90% of them. My wife and I have at least 2000 on shelves around the house.
And yes, we let them play computer games. The oldest will play Zoombinis for a while, but then get tired of it and dig out a book. Good fiction includes complex characters and plots which just don't exist in the games I've seen, and satisfies a desire for interesting material in a way that gaming doesn't.
But we do avoid TV. I think TV is worse than computer games because they stop every 2 minutes for a bunch of 15-second commercials in which a dozen dancing bunnies sing about toilet paper. It's the constant shifting that wrecks your attention span -- playing a single game at your own pace for a while doesn't have the same effect.
It would be hard to convince me that playing chess against the computer for two hours is as bad for your brain as watching two hours of commercial TV.
sounds like my MA thesis (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:500 books in the household? (Score:3, Insightful)
I also grew up with the habit of visiting the local public library for most of my book needs; I just can't justify paying money for something my tax dollars are already supporting free access to.
Re:google (Score:4, Insightful)
Riiight
Those who are "lazy and smart" have no excuses.
Re:High IQ == High Intelligence? (Score:5, Insightful)
IQ measures a very narrow set of skills which aren't massively useful in real life. You'll get much further in life by being influential in social situations, or by being able to make good decisions for example.
It seems that the temporary loss of IQ test skill was purely due to the questions being popped up at random intervals.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:3, Insightful)
The parents who lie to their own children in order to avoid any emotional interaction with their child are the parents who need to learn. There simply is no way around it.
I've seen families with stronger parents and familes with weaker parents, and it is blatently obvious what the impact on the children is. The weaker parents have children who don't share well, who are difficult to be around, who are difficult to trust, and are generally just little shits all around. The children who have a more balanced home life are a pleasure to be around. It doesn't take a Ph.D. in psychology to see this.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:1, Insightful)
The only other thing I have to say is that I have great respect for parents. It is a huge amount of responsibility to bring a new human being into this world. All that I ask is that you try to raise them to know right from wrong even if you can't make that differentiation yourself.
Is it too late to consider giving up your kid(s) for adoption?
depends on how kids are directed to use computers (Score:1, Insightful)
A self-discipline problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Games addictive? I don't buy it. It sounds to me like your friends don't have an addiction problem, they have a self-discipline problem. They want to forego stuff that is important but hard in favor of stuff that is entertaining and easy. It's a simple matter of short-term gratification (another level) versus long-term satisfaction (a degree). That paper can always be written tomorrow, one can always cram for the next exam, but my guildmates need me NOW!
If I were a betting man, I would wager that if they weren't invovled in Everquest, they would have found some other diversion to consume their time and cause them to drop out of college.
Re:i let my kid play games (Score:4, Insightful)
I think this kind of misses the point. Your son has acquired functional skills for manipulating the computer. This does not correspond to a gain in IQ points. In fact, TFA suggests that children who spend time (and by extension brainpower) on gaining these skills tend to lose IQ points as measured by our standard methods.
Now, there's a major argument to be made that these skills in current society may actually be much more valuable than the lost IQ points (which, in my opinion, have dubious value anyway), but it's really a different issue. Point is, you can't say your son is gaining IQ points faster than other children because he knows how to minimize windows.
And certainly not because he knows you run Linux.
MOD parent up! (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no need to remove the game.
Limit his time on the game, use it as reward and punishment. If he won't respond to you when he is playing pull the plug out of the wall, it will get his immediate attention. Learn to say NO, don't appoligise for saying NO, and follow through. Your kid will have alot more respect for you in the long run.
I'm a child of the fifties, it may be wussier today but I'm glad bashing your kids has become an unacceptable practice.
Re:Me fail English? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not suprised... (Score:5, Insightful)
I often times would have to work around some equation I couldn't remember and basically derive the equation from smaller building blocks. This gave me a much greater understanding of the actual processes going on. This kind of problem solving/understanding completely disappears when children can use calculators to simply "get the right answer", but the important thing in the maths and sciences is not necessarily the answer, but the process of getting there, and the ability to problem solve, which has completely disappeared in US middle and high schools.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:5, Insightful)
I am currently a high-achieving high school junior. I have liked to play games since I started playing MUDs at age 12. However, my parents never felt bad telling me "no". Because my parents were frank in what activities should be my priorities, I learned both to moderate my gaming and to put school work first.
I am now getting the chance to watch my parents do the same to my brother. He followed my lead and started gaming in the last year. My parents are still making it clear that school work must come first. He hasn't yet gotten it, but he will.
Meanwhile, I have friends who were also straight-A, honors students in 9th grade, but who are now B students in regents classes (the lowest level in my school) for six hours of the day, and are Everquest and World of Warcraft grinders for the other sixteen.
I bet their parents would be happier if they had just said "no".
Fitzghon
My $0.02 (Score:5, Insightful)
There are two things about watching people parent that never cease to amaze me.
The first is how many people can rise to the occasion and do a good job when it is not what one would expect of them.
The second is how otherwise intelligent and responsible people can completely fail to take responsibility for how their actions affect their children.
So I say that parenting is never something that people are ready for. It is something that people can rise up to do. But before you have a child of oyur own, you are simply unprepaired.
Now on to the rest of the discussion. The metaphore I use in looking at this is that of social laws and rules. If the government were to "accidently" confiscated our cars or our houses, we would have a fit and rightly so. If, however, this was based upon a conviction in a court of law, it would be different. One of the most difficult aspects of family building is focusing on how to create a system of rules which helps foster growth. These rules need to be in the open, and easily understood.
If your child is playing too many computer games, first talk to your child about it. Set rules regarding when your child is allowed to play the game and under what circumstances. If this fails, let the child know that the game will be uninstalled. Give, say, three opportunities for failure. If the game is abused such that the conversation must repeat three times, the game gets uninstalled. Make sure that this is all done in the open and that the system is transparent.
One of the most difficult things to do sometimes is to have enough respect for your kids to think that maybe they actually need to know why you are doing something.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:3, Insightful)
People are raised to be perpetual children, and infantilized throughtout their life. Then they knock up their SO, and think that to be an adult, they have to posess a thing called a kid. Rather than realizing its how they raise their kid that determines whether they are adults.
Being a parent is not about gratification from the love of a child. If you need that, get a dog. Being a parent is not about being the child's pal. You are not their pal, you are their parent. Its your job to provide for them, to protect them, and to teach them everything a school cannot, which includes morality & discipline. Finally, comes the bull crap that you shouldn't smack them one when they're out of line, and all this touchy feely studies that claim corporal punishment is unnecessary. They're the same assholes that 40 years ago said homosexuality was a mental illness, that margarine was better for you than butter, and that ulcers were caused by lifestyle stress.
This society is screwed up. Some odd reason they think its more important to keep kids infantilized. What they really should do is reduce the age of adulthood to 16. And then push parents to raise their kids to be more responsible so they can act like adults at 16. Much like they do in Europe and the rest of the world.
Kids, in a non-screwed up family situation, spent their waking hours learning how to be like their providers. Its how they are programmed. They stop doing this once they become teenagers because their GENES tell them to get the hell out of the house, procreate, and make a living for themselves. They stop being cute so that parent get the clue to kick them out the house; you don't need to breast feed them anymore.
That is, when the TV isn't telling kids that being an adult is being a sexual being who buys lots of products and reality is that being goodlooking and conforming is the secret to success in life which always ends up with the happy ending.
Do I have a kid? Hell no, I realize what's involved. Why the heck would I want to inflict that kind of misery on myself? But sure as hell if I had a kid, I wouldn't be trying to be his favorite pal. Let him love mommy more; its not a competition, its about raising the optimal kid.
Re:A self-discipline problem (Score:5, Insightful)
There is not much difference between snorting cocaine and shooting heroin to feel good, than watching TV or playing video games to get those same endorphins. (Or heavy physical activity, for that matter, but I never believed in runner's high.) The only difference with self-medication is that your brain is causing those drug effects to occur, and the body is self-regulating enough not to inflict permanent physical damage or cause severe physical withdrawal.
The problem is not merely "self-discipline". Its deeper. There is no reward for denying gratification if the long term goal doesn't provide satisfaction. I feel sorry for people that busted their ass to get an engineering degree in the '80's, only to find out afterwords society lied to them about job availability. I feel similarly about pre-meds back in the '80s. (I don't feel sorry for them now, because the writing is on the wall about how relatively crappy the medical profession has become.) The key thing is that society has been feeding everyone a line a bullsh*t about hard work and responsibility will allow you to achieve your happiness (see Fight Club). Don't get me wrong, those traits are required, you'll be better off financially, and you still may end up happy. But its been mythologized, and soon American society will be crashing into reality.
Midlife crisis occurs when people have plugged themselves into this life pattern because people told them they should live this way, only to realize at that point, it doesn't make them happy or feel fulfilled.
The problem is a crisis of faith, or purpose. You can't really beat that into people. Most people are pushed into adult behaviors by the desire to conform, or get ego gratification. Once those stop being motivators, there's not really any rationale to get a job better than station attendant if playing video games makes you adequately happy.
Re:Sex Lowers IQs (Score:1, Insightful)
>>why the fuck didn't you just say acceptable?
>"not full" != empty
>the world isn't binary.
Acceptable is a binary in this context.
"not unacceptable" == "not not acceptable"
Double negatives cancel, so acceptable.
Re:Sex Lowers IQs (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:google (Score:2, Insightful)
I envy the "stupid" because nobody ever expects or demands anything out of them. They're never berated about how they're not meeting their potential or have responsibilities hoisted upon them that they just don't want. They don't have to water down their resume to ensure they don't get stuck with some high-pressure, supervisory position they don't want. They don't have to put up with the incessant feelings of failure for not meeting what is expected of them (though, of course, if those feelings were true, they'd have an incentive stop being so lazy, right?).
Thanks to the fact that I'm not afforded an excuse, I'm stuck with a family I feel I must distance myself from in order to avoid both their and my feelings of shame for not ammounting to anything, I have old friends I don't talk to any more because of the difficulty in trying to find common ground when you're the only one without a college degree and a "real job," and workmates I hold at arms length, lest they learn more about me and try to promote me.
Golly gee, it's so easy to be smart and lazy. God damn it, I'd fucking trade a limb to be "stupid!"
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, we covered it in my INtro to Psych class this semester.
Permissive parenting - bad, kids are underachievers, have low self-esteems, antisocial, drug users, etc.
AUthoritarian parenting (like the 50s) - still bad. Kids grow up with serious problems with authority. Kids split off, one group becomes criminals, the other group will conform for awhile and then during their midlife crisis completely uproot themselves and start fresh. All will have low self-worth and so forth.
So how do you win?
Um, read Oliver's post? ;)
Personally, I think my wife and I are on the riht track. My daughter spent 4 hours rebelling aainst cleaning her room tonight, a typical 20-minute cleaning job. In the process she missed a movie and storytime. She was pretty upset about it and whined a bit about "I can't sleep because I didn't read a story", but it didn't take her long to figure it out. She's starting to come around. :)
Her brother, in contrast, cleaned his room immediately and was done in 10 minutes. He got to watch the movie and had storytime before bed. He also got to play with both his parents a little bit along the way. He's 1 1/2 years younger than his sister. The 1-year old (almost 2) helped pick up a bit too. :)
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:1, Insightful)
Nobody likes to be judged. Nobody thinks that outsiders can understand their situation. I understand that and your frustration. It however does not change right or wrong.
But now that you bring up Santa... I think you're right... I had NO IDEA that the parent post was talking about Santa Claus. Yes, I did believe in Santa Claus. I thank God that I was able to experience Santa Claus, can you imagine how I would have turned out without him?
If you are trying to say that parents must make wrong choices to ease their child's socialization, I also disagree. Isn't it obvious to anyone who has every had the responsibility for another whether as a parent, or manager that very often you must insulate someone from the truth? There's a difference between insulating from the truth and lying.
Look at the context of the original post. You're saying that it is wrong to be straight forward with a child in teaching them the value of moderation? Even if they do not understand it, you must enforce it. Is it wrong to stop them from eating all their Halloween candy in one night? Is it wrong to protect them something from something that will hurt them in the long run? Is it right to allow them to do something that will hurt them in the long run?
If or when I reproduce, I shall pray that I am able to implement my beliefs. I will reproduce not to show the world how damn smart I am but rather to make my best attempt at bringing out the good in humanity. To emulate as much as I can what my parents attempted to do for me. If I am unable to, maybe then I can at least articulate what EXACTLY it is that causes reason to escape the thought process instead of talking about cheerios and juicy-juice and Santa. To articulate that which causes some parents to hold their reproduction as their greatest achievement instead of their greatest gift.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Permissive parenting - bad
Children learn from their parents in many ways the parent doesn't expect. The problem with "permissive" parenting - if the parent has broad values then not necessarily any problem, but in this sense I think the meaning is submissive parenting - avoid confrontation even when you think the child is wrong. In this case, the child will learn the same pattern of behaviour, and will grow to not argue his case as a teenager. This leads to the low self-esteem etc, that you're talking about.
The authoritarian approach? Your child will learn that power equates to right, that the ability to punish replaces the need to justify.
The middle approach? Always speak up, never act without explanation. Listen to child so that child learns to use reason to get her way. Above all, avoid yelling and other resorts of force / power. 'Cause very soon, your child will be using the same techniques on you.
Re:google (Score:2, Insightful)
Was the washing machine invented by a woman? No, it was invented by a man who was looking for an excuse to not do the washing. The car was invented by someone who was too lazy to climb up on a horse, the computer by someone who was too lazy to use a pencil. Newton would never have formulated his theory of gravity if he hadn't sloped off for a crafty kip under a convenient apple tree, and if Einstein had been a dilligent patent clerk we might not have the theory of relativity.
The history of science and engineering is the history of applied laziness, and the world is the better for it. Thus I believe it is everyone's duty to be as lazy as possible, not for their own sake, but as a service to humanity.
Re:MOD parent up! (Score:4, Insightful)
Although I tend to agree with the GP posts, I won't attack you for doing what you considered best. In fact, you have the right idea in your stance that kids do not equal small adults... Despite a century of enormous progress in developmental and behavioral psychology, it shocks me how many people still hold that archaic belief.
I have to ask, though... When you say that limiting his playtime didn't work, do you mean that he ignored you and played anyway, or that reduced playtime didn't bring his academic performance back up?
If the former, one suggestion - Use a password, and require it for the screensaver as well, and don't let the kid know the password. Problem solved.
It the latter, that should make you suspect that something has changed other than a mere game.... You pointed out his age, only 5... At 5, he doesn't really have a long history of academic performance to compare against... Two years, at the most, and two years of "fluff" at that, not "real" education. Boys in particular (even very bright ones) often have a hell of a time coping when the focus of "that place they send me away to every day" changes from directed-play to sit-in-a-chair-and-pay-attention-for-six-hours.
So, since the "small adults" theory has no basis in reality, what does work?
The plain and simple carrot-and-stick. Let him run around in circles outside for a few hours after school to get rid of the pent up frustration of sitting still for six hours, then after supper, do his homework. When he finishes, dangle the carrot to make it clear that he can play a game instead of watching TV (an equally useless passtime, yet most parents seem to have no problem with letting their kids veg for four (or far more) hours every night). If he throws a fit that you won't let him play before finishing homework, use the stick and punish him in the manner you see fit (I'd say "spank the little bastard", but then I'd have the PC-police after me).
Also, keep in mind the meaninglessness of grades. If he clearly knows the material but the teachers still complain based on his general behavior, it doesn't mean some game has magically ruined his concentration (in fact, research shows that gaming has the exact opposite effect, vastly extending attention span in young children)... It means he has no intention of going along quietly with 13 years of socialized babysitting, and you will never convince him to do otherwise.
What? I think you've got it backwards. (Score:3, Insightful)
People with low self-esteem aren't a threat or a problem to anyone but themselves. It's people with inflated self-esteem [psychologytoday.com] that are the problem.
--grendel drago
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course, he might be able to maintain good grades and still play games all day...but I say, let someone get addicted. If he's human, he'll get bored eventually. It's sort of like letting a child touch a hot stove. Whenever you can, allow a kid to learn a lesson on his own.
Re:Well, funny and all but..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Obviously overuse or inconsistent use of physical punishment will be adverse, just as with any other.