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Anyone else read this?  It's a non-fiction science book by Steven Johnson.  In it, he argues that today's popular culture, instead of being a degenerate cesspool,  is actually making people smarter.  He uses a lot of neuroscience to discuss the effects of video games and TV shows on the brain.

I couldn't help thinking about the site while I was reading.  There's a part where he discusses how video games improve cognitive skills in a way that books, movies, and music can't.  They force you to analyze information and make choices.  Games are the only form of entertainment that exercises the portion of the brain involves in decision-making.

Anyway, there's scientific proof that CYOAs are good for you.

thats pretty good! I have also heard that first person shooters are great for your eyes because it makes you focus better. a group of scientists did these eye focusing tests, and the group of people that played fps video games focused better than the group of people who did not play video games...

Another study:  People ages 25-40 were classified into three groups- frequent gamer, moderate gamer, and non-gamer.  The gamers were more confident and had better social skills than non-gamers, with frequent gamers having the best scores overall.

The thing is, in today's society, we no longer live in a wilderness--we don't need buff, strong, muscular guys who work the fields 20/7 (4 hours of sleep lol). We are developing technology to do chores like that. No, it's not AI robots that are mass-produced as maids, it's things like making your own energy, tools, and now scientists can MAKE WATER.
(They take some of the atmosph33r and break up the Oxygen from everything else, then they take electricity which has Hydrogen, break those molcules up, and then put the oxygen and hydrogen together to make water!)
Therefore, people can focus on getting better, more intellectual jobs and help society grow exponentially.

Anyway, as an avid gamer since the age of about 4 or 5, (I was playing Pokemon at that age and I was doing well; it was quite advanced for its time) I've experienced firsthand the effects of games on me. Games and TV are completely unalike. Games make you choose how to attack and react quickly (if you play an Action game), or how to make decisions that can affect a city or an empire (RTS and maybe god games, though god games are Sandboxes where you have fun), or customize characters and use their abilities to their fullest potential (RPG's and the like). Games make your brain produce Alpha rays, so your brain is thinking!
I still watch TV, but not a lot. Only Heroes, 24, Lost, Numb3rs, and Traveler. But each show occupies a different day of the week, so it's like an hour every day. But I also watch Jeopardy everyday, but that's just 30 minutes. So I do play video games and do more intellectual stuff than just sit and watch TV.

I never read it.

I'd like citations on these studies please.

Sethaniel's post:

Another study:  People ages 25-40 were classified into three groups- frequent gamer, moderate gamer, and non-gamer.  The gamers were more confident and had better social skills than non-gamers, with frequent gamers having the best scores overall.

 

I'm in the 30's age group, with terrible social skills. I spend most of my time each day, for years, in front of a computer, both gaming and working. I'm an ultra-frequent gamer. I should be confident with good social skills according to that study. In fact, none of the people I know who spend a lot of time computering and gaming have good social skills. I know teachers, and they say kids' social and language skills are plummeting with each year. On written tests, youth are doing things like writing in mobile phone text-speak, ie, How R U, instead of real English. And as for social skills, if you spend your time looking at a screen and not at real people, there's absolutely no way you can learn to read body language, and the older you get, the harder it will become. I think they must have been using chat room and forum 'social' skills, and not real world social skills, because the two forms of communication are completely different and removed from each other.

I understand Paul. Everyone's different. It's just nowadays there are much more gamers, so there's just more people to relate to. No offense, but there's no one in your age group -- sorry, not as many; I know a lot of 30-year-old gamers, my Tech teacher! -- who game, so...
I mean, I suppose you can say I have good social skills, but it's not the case when I'm face-to-face with someone I don't know. I just...don't know what to do and it's supa awkward. But when I'm with friends and family, I'll whip out my comedy and crap skilz!!!11 Plus, I'm just too busy pwnign the internet.

Here's info from a recent survey by the Consumer Electronics Association:

Of two thousand people taking part in the survey, of both teenagers and adults:

The survey concludes about one-third of adult gamers (33%) spend 10 hours or more every week playing games, either on console or computer. Only 11% of teenage gamers played that same amount of time per week.

In other words, adults spend time playing games three times more than teenagers do.

Hm, didn't know that. There are tons of these surveys. Maybe they picked non-gamers mostly.