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Brain research on boys’ preference for video games and girls’ for social media

wsj.com

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Re: Brain research on boys’ preference for video games and girls’ for social media

#51

Post by moate »

Vrondi wrote: post #5

The article claims that inside games "most communication is through text". This makes me think they haven't seen very many real gamers. There's no mention of voice chat's extensive use inside games for everything from gameplay to homework advice from buddies. Pretty clueless.

That's a pretty big omission. Part of why I stopped playing FPS games is specifically because voice chat is both A- Important to team coordination and B- Full of the worst examples of human speech you can encounter. Weird take on their part for sure.

Re: Brain research on boys’ preference for video games and girls’ for social media

#52

Post by whatshisface »

neo4sure wrote: post #36

The author should go to India and see the space program. Might offer a different perspective. I myself coming from an Asian country have seen many girl study engineering. It is considered a carier path and nothing more. There is no stigma attached.

In poorer countries there tend to be more female engineers because engineering is a good career for anyone (including women), and in poorer countries, having a good career is proportionally more important. The prevalence of female engineers in India is frequently used as support for the natural preference theory.

Re: Brain research on boys’ preference for video games and girls’ for social media

#53

Post by whatshisface »

All of the games I played as a kid were clearly designed for boys and young men (featuring all of the typical things like guns and heavy machinery that men are well known to like more than women). That's just how the market was. If it's like that today, then it is no wonder that boys exhibit signs of enjoying video games more.

Re: Brain research on boys’ preference for video games and girls’ for social media

#55

Post by charliesharding »

Vrondi wrote: post #5

The article claims that inside games "most communication is through text". This makes me think they haven't seen very many real gamers. There's no mention of voice chat's extensive use inside games for everything from gameplay to homework advice from buddies. Pretty clueless.

In higher level competitive scenarios, yeah voice is predominant. However, that is by no means the majority. They only seem like a bigger segment of gamers because they're loud and make themselves known. All they said was that most is done through text, which is true

Re: Brain research on boys’ preference for video games and girls’ for social media

#56

Post by derefr »

whatshisface wrote: post #53

All of the games I played as a kid were clearly designed for boys and young men (featuring all of the typical things like guns and heavy machinery that men are well known to like more than women). That's just how the market was. If it's like that today, then it is no wonder that boys exhibit signs of enjoying video games more.

There are plenty of games "for girls" (the hidden-object and life-simulation genres are almost exclusively consumed by women, regardless of theming) but they're not marketed with quite the high-budget superbowl ad-campaign effort that games "for boys" are.

I've encountered the situation many times where I'll find out one of my female friends doesn't play video games. I'll ask why, and—disregarding the people who just don't like to spend time cooped up indoors—it'll usually end out that she's just never been introduced to a game she's enjoyed. Upon introducing her to a game or two in the genres more traditionally targeted at women, she'll be just about as likely as any of my male friends to gradually evolve from there into an avid gamer: one for whom "gaming" is now counted among their serious hobbies; one who might be excited to dedicate a weekend to full "hardcore" engagement with a new game.

In other words, for these ladies, it was 100% a market education problem: the companies making these products weren't managing to make their target audience aware of them.

Re: Brain research on boys’ preference for video games and girls’ for social media

#57

Post by chrisco255 »

chrisrhoden wrote: post #31
RandomInteger4 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you think those differences in social status competitions originate from if not from brain differences?

Cultural acceptance / expectations account for a lot of behaviors. I played soccer & baseball as a boy because that was what was expected of me, not because I have some natural inclination to do so.

Did you? You telling me you got no innate enjoyment out of those activities? No rush or thrill when you scored a goal or caught a pop fly?

Re: Brain research on boys’ preference for video games and girls’ for social media

#58

Post by hackinthebochs »

whatshisface wrote: post #52
neo4sure wrote: post #36

The author should go to India and see the space program. Might offer a different perspective. I myself coming from an Asian country have seen many girl study engineering. It is considered a carier path and nothing more. There is no stigma attached.

In poorer countries there tend to be more female engineers because engineering is a good career for anyone (including women), and in poorer countries, having a good career is proportionally more important. The prevalence of female engineers in India is frequently used as support for the natural preference theory.

To add to this, in countries with low equality and weak social safety nets, having a lucrative career is far more important for survival. It's western countries where women are more free to choose a career based on interest.

Re: Brain research on boys’ preference for video games and girls’ for social media

#59

Post by throwawawathrow »

derefr wrote: post #56
whatshisface wrote: post #53

All of the games I played as a kid were clearly designed for boys and young men (featuring all of the typical things like guns and heavy machinery that men are well known to like more than women). That's just how the market was. If it's like that today, then it is no wonder that boys exhibit signs of enjoying video games more.

There are plenty of games "for girls" (the hidden-object and life-simulation genres are almost exclusively consumed by women, regardless of theming) but they're not marketed with quite the high-budget superbowl ad-campaign effort that games "for boys" are. I've encountered the situation many times where I'll find out one of my female friends doesn't play video games. I'll ask why, and—disregarding the people who just…

My experience as well. People on this site tend to think everything goes back to hunter gatherer societies and genes (a field they generally know little about) when the most plausible explanation (advertising) is something they know a lot more about. Kinda puzzling, or maybe a coping mechanism.

Re: Brain research on boys’ preference for video games and girls’ for social media

#60

Post by thrower123 »

Vrondi wrote: post #5

The article claims that inside games "most communication is through text". This makes me think they haven't seen very many real gamers. There's no mention of voice chat's extensive use inside games for everything from gameplay to homework advice from buddies. Pretty clueless.

This sounds to me like they haven't updated their sources in fifteen or twenty years. Text chat was huge back in the Starcraft/Age of Empires era.

I'm sure it exists in newer games, but I have no idea where I'd find it in most of the games I've played from the past decade.

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