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The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence

nature.com

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Re: The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence

#11

Post by christophilus »

SnowHill9902 wrote: post #10
christophilus wrote: post #5

I’ve tried to encourage my wife to choose video games over Disney+ when she needs to drop the kids in front of something, but she still has a strong resistance to the idea that games are better. To me, it’s pretty obvious. The kids problem solve when gaming, and are obviously engaged. When watching TV, they look like zombies. I think my wife’s biggest hang up with games is that she was always told that they rot your…

Why not neither?

I don't know about you, but sometimes it's really nice to distract the kids while you relax.

Re: The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence

#12

Post by christophilus »

trelane wrote: post #6
christophilus wrote: post #5

I’ve tried to encourage my wife to choose video games over Disney+ when she needs to drop the kids in front of something, but she still has a strong resistance to the idea that games are better. To me, it’s pretty obvious. The kids problem solve when gaming, and are obviously engaged. When watching TV, they look like zombies. I think my wife’s biggest hang up with games is that she was always told that they rot your…

Games are designed to be addictive, so restraint is a good option. So is television, though, so limiting both is a good policy. I would guess that games' interactivity and personalization lead to much more opportunities for deeper addiction, though (see e.g loot boxes.)

Yeah. We only let them play offline games that aren't gotcha. The current playlist is Journey, Zelda, Mario, Tunic, Death's Door.

Re: The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence

#13

Post by dash2 »

The fact that they "controlled" for genetics using polygenic scores already is a strong sign of low quality research. Polygenic scores are powerful, but they contain very large amounts of noise compared to the true genetic effects. Controlling for genetics using them is like controlling for income by asking whether the respondents own a Porsche.

Also, be aware that Scientific Reports is, if not quite a predatory journal, a very low bar. They publish tens of thousands of articles every year, while charging vast fees.

In general, these guys have correlations, not causation. Children's IQ - and gaming habits etc. - develop as they age, so controlling for baseline IQ is not enough to make a correlation with later IQ and gaming causal. It seems much more likely that smarter kids game more, e.g. because they live in richer households. (No, controlling for SES isn't enough to rule this out, for much the same reasons of measurement error as for the genetics.)

If you wanna believe that your hours on COD have made you a genius, go ahead, I won't stop you. Just don't imagine that this research proves it.

Re: The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence

#14

Post by erfgh »

christophilus wrote: post #5

I’ve tried to encourage my wife to choose video games over Disney+ when she needs to drop the kids in front of something, but she still has a strong resistance to the idea that games are better. To me, it’s pretty obvious. The kids problem solve when gaming, and are obviously engaged. When watching TV, they look like zombies. I think my wife’s biggest hang up with games is that she was always told that they rot your…

The problem is that games are very addictive so in extreme cases they can destroy much more thoroughly than TV can.

Re: The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence

#15

Post by thr0wawayf00 »

Mandelmus wrote: post #8
trelane wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Games are designed to be addictive, so restraint is a good option. So is television, though, so limiting both is a good policy. I would guess that games' interactivity and personalization lead to much more opportunities for deeper addiction, though (see e.g loot boxes.)

>Games are designed to be addictive It depends strongly on kind of game, and especially on the business model involved. Gacha games, free-to-play, and similar models are very much optimised around addictiveness. Personally I've found that story-based finite games, i.e. the ones you play through and then you've experienced it, are much better in those respects. Unfortunately those seem to become much more rare these d…

> i.e. the ones you play through and then you've experienced it, are much better in those respects.

This has not been my experience at all. It's very easy for me to play a few rounds of rocket league and keep my daily game time to under an hour. When I play stuff like Zelda BOTW though, I have to use the parental controls on myself or else I'll spend half of my day on it.

Re: The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence

#16

Post by zivkovicp »

mdrzn wrote: post #2

"At baseline, time watching and socializing were negatively correlated with intelligence, while gaming did not correlate. After two years, gaming positively impacted intelligence, but socializing had no effect. This is consistent with cognitive benefits documented in experimental studies on video gaming." So it's confirmed? Gaming > Socializing? /s

Technically correct is the best kind of correct ;)

Re: The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence

#17

Post by NateEag »

christophilus wrote: post #11
SnowHill9902 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not neither?

I don't know about you, but sometimes it's really nice to distract the kids while you relax.

Forget relaxing - sometimes it's nice to distract the kids so I can, say, cook dinner without them literally hanging off my legs.

Re: The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence

#18

Post by PKop »

Interesting points mentioned about genetic influence and heritability of intelligence..

"We believe that studies with genetic data could clarify causal claims and correct for the typically unaccounted role of genetic predispositions. Here, we estimated the impact of different types of screen time (watching, socializing, or gaming) on children’s intelligence while controlling for the confounding effects of genetic differences in cognition and socioeconomic status."

"The contradictions among studies on screen time and cognition are likely due to limitations of cross-sectional designs, relatively small sample sizes, and, most critically, failures to control for genetic predispositions and socio-economic context. Although studies account for some confounding effects, very few have accounted for socioeconomic status and none have accounted for genetic effects. This matters because intelligence, educational attainment, and other cognitive abilities are all highly heritable."

Re: The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence

#19

Post by erfgh »

christophilus wrote: post #11
SnowHill9902 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not neither?

I don't know about you, but sometimes it's really nice to distract the kids while you relax.

Why can't the kids play among themselves? I have two little daughters, ages 3 and 5 and I've never had to drop them in front of something. If I have time to play with them I do (which is most days) but when I don't have time or I'm very tired or I need to do something else I tell them to play among themselves.

Re: The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence

#20

Post by largbae »

erfgh wrote: post #14
christophilus wrote: post #5

I’ve tried to encourage my wife to choose video games over Disney+ when she needs to drop the kids in front of something, but she still has a strong resistance to the idea that games are better. To me, it’s pretty obvious. The kids problem solve when gaming, and are obviously engaged. When watching TV, they look like zombies. I think my wife’s biggest hang up with games is that she was always told that they rot your…

The problem is that games are very addictive so in extreme cases they can destroy much more thoroughly than TV can.

This article seems to be saying the opposite, can you share any references?
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