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Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked

A large gap exists between the public's perception of video games and what the research actually shows. The following is an attempt to separate fact from fiction.
1. The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.
According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. Researchers find that people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population. It's true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in America have also been game players. But young people in general are more likely to be gamers - 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts. According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure. The moral panic over violent video games is doubly harmful. It has led adult authorities to be more suspicious and hostile to many kids who already feel cut off from the system. It also misdirects energy away from eliminating the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems to continue to fester.
2. Scientific evidence links violent game play with youth aggression.
Claims like this are based on the work of researchers who represent one relatively narrow school of research, "media effects." This research includes some 300 studies of media violence. But most of those studies are inconclusive and many have been criticized on methodological grounds. In these studies, media images are removed from any narrative context. Subjects are asked to engage with content that they would not normally consume and may not understand. Finally, the laboratory context is radically different from the environments where games would normally be played. Most studies found a correlation, not a causal relationship, which means the research could simply show that aggressive people like aggressive entertainment. That's why the vague term "links" is used here. If there is a consensus emerging around this research, it is that violent video games may be one risk factor - when coupled with other more immediate, real-world influences - which can contribute to anti-social behavior. But no research has found that video games are a primary factor or that violent video game play could turn an otherwise normal person into a killer.
3. Children are the primary market for video games.
While most American kids do play video games, the center of the video game market has shifted older as the first generation of gamers continues to play into adulthood. Already 62 percent of the console market and 66 percent of the PC market is age 18 or older. The game industry caters to adult tastes. Meanwhile, a sizable number of parents ignore game ratings because they assume that games are for kids. One quarter of children ages 11 to 16 identify an M-Rated (Mature Content) game as among their favorites. Clearly, more should be done to restrict advertising and marketing that targets young consumers with mature content, and to educate parents about the media choices they are facing. But parents need to share some of the responsibility for making decisions about what is appropriate for their children. The news on this front is not all bad. The Federal Trade Commission has found that 83 percent of game purchases for underage consumers are made by parents or by parents and children together.
4. Almost no girls play computer games.
Historically, the video game market has been predominantly male. However, the percentage of women playing games has steadily increased over the past decade. Women now slightly outnumber men playing Web-based games. Spurred by the belief that games were an important gateway into other kinds of digital literacy, efforts were made in the mid-90s to build games that appealed to girls. More recent games such as The Sims were huge crossover successes that attracted many women who had never played games before. Given the historic imbalance in the game market (and among people working inside the game industry), the presence of sexist stereotyping in games is hardly surprising. Yet it's also important to note that female game characters are often portrayed as powerful and independent. In his book Killing Monsters, Gerard Jones argues that young girls often build upon these representations of strong women warriors as a means of building up their self confidence in confronting challenges in their everyday lives.
5. Because games are used to train soldiers to kill, they have the same impact on the kids who play them.
Former military psychologist and moral reformer David Grossman argues that because the military uses games in training (including, he claims, training soldiers to shoot and kill), the generation of young people who play such games are similarly being brutalized and conditioned to be aggressive in their everyday social interactions.

Grossman's model only works if:

we remove training and education from a meaningful cultural context.

we assume learners have no conscious goals and that they show no resistance to what they are being taught.

we assume that they unwittingly apply what they learn in a fantasy environment to real world spaces.

The military uses games as part of a specific curriculum, with clearly defined goals, in a context where students actively want to learn and have a need for the information being transmitted. There are consequences for not mastering those skills. That being said, a growing body of research does suggest that games can enhance learning. In his recent book, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, James Gee describes game players as active problem solvers who do not see mistakes as errors, but as opportunities for improvement. Players search for newer, better solutions to problems and challenges, he says. And they are encouraged to constantly form and test hypotheses. This research points to a fundamentally different model of how and what players learn from games. 6. Video games are not a meaningful form of expression.
On April 19, 2002, U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Sr. ruled that video games do not convey ideas and thus enjoy no constitutional protection. As evidence, Saint Louis County presented the judge with videotaped excerpts from four games, all within a narrow range of genres, and all the subject of previous controversy. Overturning a similar decision in Indianapolis, Federal Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner noted: "Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low. It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware." Posner adds, "To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it." Many early games were little more than shooting galleries where players were encouraged to blast everything that moved. Many current games are designed to be ethical testing grounds. They allow players to navigate an expansive and open-ended world, make their own choices and witness their consequences. The Sims designer Will Wright argues that games are perhaps the only medium that allows us to experience guilt over the actions of fictional characters. In a movie, one can always pull back and condemn the character or the artist when they cross certain social boundaries. But in playing a game, we choose what happens to the characters. In the right circumstances, we can be encouraged to examine our own values by seeing how we behave within virtual space.
7. Video game play is socially isolating.
Much video game play is social. Almost 60 percent of frequent gamers play with friends. Thirty-three percent play with siblings and 25 percent play with spouses or parents. Even games designed for single players are often played socially, with one person giving advice to another holding a joystick. A growing number of games are designed for multiple players - for either cooperative play in the same space or online play with distributed players. Sociologist Talmadge Wright has logged many hours observing online communities interact with and react to violent video games, concluding that meta-gaming (conversation about game content) provides a context for thinking about rules and rule-breaking. In this way there are really two games taking place simultaneously: one, the explicit conflict and combat on the screen; the other, the implicit cooperation and comradeship between the players. Two players may be fighting to death on screen and growing closer as friends off screen. Social expectations are reaffirmed through the social contract governing play, even as they are symbolically cast aside within the transgressive fantasies represented onscreen.
8. Video game play is desensitizing.
Classic studies of play behavior among primates suggest that apes make basic distinctions between play fighting and actual combat. In some circumstances, they seem to take pleasure wrestling and tousling with each other. In others, they might rip each other apart in mortal combat. Game designer and play theorist Eric Zimmerman describes the ways we understand play as distinctive from reality as entering the "magic circle." The same action - say, sweeping a floor - may take on different meanings in play (as in playing house) than in reality (housework). Play allows kids to express feelings and impulses that have to be carefully held in check in their real-world interactions. Media reformers argue that playing violent video games can cause a lack of empathy for real-world victims. Yet, a child who responds to a video game the same way he or she responds to a real-world tragedy could be showing symptoms of being severely emotionally disturbed. Here's where the media effects research, which often uses punching rubber dolls as a marker of real-world aggression, becomes problematic. The kid who is punching a toy designed for this purpose is still within the "magic circle" of play and understands her actions on those terms. Such research shows us only that violent play leads to more violent play.

Sources Henry Jenkins is the director of comparative studies at MIT.
Entertainment Software Association. "Top Ten Industry Facts." 2003. http://www.theesa.com/pressroom.html

Gee, James. What Video Games Have to Tell Us About Learning and Literacy. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

Grossman, David. "Teaching Kids to Kill." Phi Kappa Phi National Forum 2000. http://www.killology.org/article_teachkid.htm

Heins, Marjorie. Brief Amica Curiae of Thirty Media Scholars, submitted to the United States Court of Appeals, Eight Circuit, Interactive Digital Software Association et al vs. St. Louis County et al. 2002. http://www.fepproject.org/courtbriefs/stlouissummary.html

Jenkins, Henry. "Coming Up Next: Ambushed on 'Donahue'." Salon 2002. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/20/jenkins_on_donahue/

Jenkins, Henry. "Lessons From Littleton: What Congress Doesn't Want to Hear About Youth and Media." Independent Schools 2002. http://www.nais.org/pubs/ismag.cfm?file_id=537&ismag_id=14

Jones, Gerard. Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-believe Violence. New York: Basic, 2002.

Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003.

Sternheimer, Karen. It's Not the Media: The Truth About Popular Culture's Influence on Children. New York: Westview, 2003.

Wright, Talmadge."Creative Player Actions in FPS Online Video Games: Playing Counter-Strike." Game Studies Dec. 2002. http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/wright/

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The Video Game Revolution: "Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked" by Henry Jenkins | PBS

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Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked A large gap exists between the public's perception of video games and what the research actually shows. The following is an attempt to separate fact from fiction. 1. The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.

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What drives elephant poaching-it's not just greed

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What drives elephant poaching-it's not just greed

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Elephant poaching is likely driven by need, not greed, according to findings published this month in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Fewer elephants were poached where humans were healthier and wealthier, according to researchers from Oxford University, the UN, the University of Cape Town, and other institutions who analyzed data from more than 10,000 killings over nearly two decades and across 30 African countries. They based their study on mortality rates of children under five and surveys assessing, for example, the number of rooms in houses, the availability of clean water and toilets, and ownership of assets such as a refrigerator and television.

Poaching is a major cause of decline for both endangered savanna elephants and critically endangered forest elephants, whose combined numbers have fallen to about 415,000, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Previously, evidence of what spurred killings of elephants and other animals was anecdotal and from particular case studies. But now, nonprofits and governments "can use the study as justification" for conservation approaches, says Timothy Kuiper, a co-author of the study, commissioned by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the international agreement that manages the wildlife trade. Other motivators of poaching include corruption and global ivory prices.

"When we are looking to protect wildlife, we can't do that without thinking about the well-being of people," he says. To better combat poaching, conservationists have to think creatively, implementing strategies such as anti-corruption government reforms, demand-reduction in ivory-consuming countries, improved education, health, and economic programs, and increased support for wildlife rangers.

While law enforcement remains important, "the health and welfare of local communities are essential factors in realizing wildlife conservation objectives," say Thea Henriette Carroll and Tanya McGregor, who work with the CITES elephant poaching monitoring program. "This provides further justification for affected communities to be engaged in conservation planning and protected areas management."

The research team found that poaching occurred more frequently in Central Africa and near the Mozambique-Tanzania border and affected forest elephants more severely than their savanna cousins. From 2002 to 2020, Garamba National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, saw more than 860 elephants die at the hands of poachers, and Selous Game Reserve, in Tanzania, more than 750. Surrounding areas had among the lowest household wealth scores and mid-level health scores.

Measured on a scale of 0 to 100, wealthier regions typically have scores of 60 and above. All the areas in the study scored below 45, and those with the lowest scores had higher levels of poaching. By 2020 in the DRC and Tanzania, wealth scores had risen only to about 25 and 26 respectively. The DRC had about 79 child deaths per thousand live births, and Tanzania had 47, according to the most recent data.

Meanwhile, elephants have fared much better in Namibia's Etosha National Park. The wealth score of neighboring communities rose steadily from 2002 through 2020, to about 43, and Etosha recorded just two illegal killings during those years. (Namibia's rhino poaching numbers nearly doubled in 2022 to 87 rhinos, but this appears to be the work of international syndicates rather than local poachers.)

Today, Namibia's more than 80 communal conservancies give some 200,000 local people a stake in managing about 20 percent of the nation's land. This community-based natural resource management system is credited with creating more than 6,000 jobs since the 1990s and increasing both elephant and lion populations.

When local communities enjoy the benefits of conservation, it reduces incentives to poach, Carroll and McGregor say. "It will be important for governments to ensure that local communities are not subject to carrying the burden of the costs associated with this wildlife, but instead have access to income-generating opportunities that can help to lift communities out of poverty."

Illegal killings are driven by criminal networks who recruit poachers rather than by opportunistic hunters, Kuiper says. "When a lot of [Africa's] national parks were established, people were often forcibly evicted from the land that was now designated a protected area," he says. "Local people who had been subsistence hunting suddenly became labeled as poachers."

The colonial origins of wildlife hunting laws explain in part why some Africans "continue to resist legislation to protect wildlife" and require strategies "that address social inequalities," UK- and Netherlands-based researchers concluded in a 2015 review of the connections between poaching and poverty, part of a growing body of research about what motivates illegal killings of wildlife.

A 2019 study concluded that poverty, measured by infant mortality rate and income data, was among the strongest predictors of illegal hunting. In a 2017 survey of 173 Tanzanians living on the border of Ruaha National Park who had admitted to illegally killing wildlife, 164 respondents said they would stop poaching if they had the income to support themselves and their families.

People living within about five miles of wildlife refuges in Tanzania also reported losing up to half their income in the year leading up to the survey to destruction of their crops by elephants and killings of their livestock by lions, says Eli Knapp, a co-author of the 2017 survey and professor of ecology at Houghton University, in New York State. "If you're closest to the park, you really do suffer more cost than benefit of the protected area," he says.

That most poachers interviewed were poor raised an important question, Knapp says: "What is the level of income or livelihood that you have to bring a household up to to get them to voluntarily refrain from poaching?" Maybe it's a dollar amount, or maybe it's about allowing them to participate in protecting the park's wildlife.

But the situation isn't hopeless, he adds-in the survey, he asked everyone a hypothetical question: What would it take for you to stop poaching? "Nobody said nothing."

The National Geographic Society supports Wildlife Watch, our investigative reporting project focused on wildlife crime and exploitation. Read more Wildlife Watch stories here, and send tips, feedback, and story ideas to NGP.WildlifeWatch@natgeo.com. Learn about the National Geographic Society's nonprofit mission at natgeo.com/impact.

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What drives elephant poaching? It's not greed

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Fewer elephants were poached in areas where communities were healthier and wealthier, a study on thousands of killings in 30 African countries found.

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Why elephants may go extinct in your lifetime

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Why elephants may go extinct in your lifetime

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Why Elephants May Go Extinct in Your Lifetime | National Geographic

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The Horrible History of the Death Penalty

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The Horrible History of the Death Penalty

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The Horrible History of The Death Penalty

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Saving baby elephants from poaching - BBC What's New?

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Red Pandas are unique, endangered and endangered

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Red Pandas are unique, endangered and endangered

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They are the only species of their kind and are ambassadors for a landscape that supports over 500 million people: nearly 10% of the global human population.

Unfortunately, there may be as few as 2,500 red pandas remaining in the wild.

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Discover the uniqueness and importance of red panda, charismatic ambassadors for conservation. Unfortunately, as few as 2,500 remain in the wild.

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Saving a species: Caring for seven endangered red panda cubs

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Saving a species: Caring for seven endangered red panda cubs

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Saving a species: Caring for seven endangered red panda cubs

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I love the Internet but damn has it made things harder for us. Outside of social media ruining our mental health and the bajillion relationship trends erupting on TikTok ( burnt toast theory, delulu thinking, orange peel theory test, the list goes on), we now have brainrot.

Just what is brain rot, you might ask? It's the "He gives golden retriever boyfriend energy" or "I'm doing a hot girl walk this afternoon and then a girl dinner." AKA when being chronically online bleeds into real life.

Some things used to be for the Internet's eyes and ears only. Not now, though. Nope, our brains are rotting for all that screen time and of course, our mental health is suffering for it. Let me explain.

What Is 'Brainrot'?

Wait, what is brainrot again? Basically, it's a new popular culture that describes the effects of being chronically online on our mental health. Funny and self-deprecating, but also truthful. We are so glued to screens, passively feeding our minds with random, useless junk that our brains are rotting.

Brainrot Behaviors

Doomscrooling and consuming negative news from social media are a few brainrot behaviors. So is talking about memes and excessively using Internet slang.

The main sign, however, is when your online time starts to interfere with activities of daily living, says Dr. Julia Kogan, PsyD, a health psychologist with a background in neuropsychology. For example, if you can't sleep because your eyes are glued to your phone or you're forgoing IRL relationships for Twitter and TikTok, you might be brainrotting.

"Other signs may be the difficulty separating from your phone and the need to constantly check for notifications," she says. "Eye strain, headaches, or poor posture from phone use can be another sign that too much time is being spent online without a break."

Who's Most Likely Affected by Brainrot?

We all have brainrotted. It's hard not to when so much of our daily lives revolve around our phones. But some of us are suffering from it more than others, and unfortunately, kids seem to be the biggest demographic since the pandemic.

A 2023 systemic review found that the average screen time (measuring from two hours and more) for children six to 14 has increased significantly from 41.3% to 59.4% before and after January 2020, respectively.

Furthermore, additional research reported that, in the United States, children between the ages of eight and 12 spend an estimated four to six hours a day online whereas teens spend up to nine hours.

Mental Health Impact of Being Chronically Online

While brainrot is a joke, it does highlight a serious problem with cognitive consequences, particularly for kids and teens. Licensed therapist Eli Harwood explains that when adolescents are chronically online, their primary areas of growth for that stage of life also go offline.

Prevents Social Learning and Increases Loneliness

Harwood says that the entire goal of adolescence is to learn social and emotional competence within peer relationships. Experiences like your first crush or making friends at school. Part of this developmental process should be filled with heaps of awkwardness and vulnerability, which requires in-person interactions.

She adds that when tweens and teens spend these years behind screens, they miss out on these necessary childhood experiences. Things like making friends, navigating conflict, maintaining relationships, and developing an authentic and confident sense of self.

The replacement of in-person interactions for social media has increased rates of loneliness due to isolation, says Dr. Kogan. Excessive social media use can give a false sense of connection without actual benefits. All of which can make people feel lonelier and more isolated, putting them at greater risk of depression.

Negative Impact on Self-Esteem and Body Image

Social media not only mimics genuine connections but also presents an idealized portrayal of life. Too much media consumption can cause feelings of inadequacy or beliefs that you're not good enough, which may lead to self-esteem issues, says Dr. Joel "Gator" Warsh, a board-certified pediatrician.

Dr. Kogan adds that filters and the focus on physical appearances and unrealistic beauty standards on social media can make people feel self-conscious and dislike their bodies. All of which can increase the risk of disordered eating, poor body image, and negative self-evaluation.

Furthermore, Harwood says that when adolescents are chronically online, they can be exposed to information they are not yet ready to process.

"Getting inundated with airbrushed images of models, pornography, bullying, and floods of dopamine from gaming and social media feedback loops does a real number on a young brain," she says. "Heck, most of the adults I know struggle to stay mentally afloat with these online realities."

Ain't that the truth?

Increases Risk of Anxiety and Depression

Dr. Kogan explains that overexposure to news on social media or other platforms can also increase the risks of anxiety and depression. This constant exposure can create a perception that the world is dangerous, bad, and harmful, which can further increase anxiety and depression.

Potentially Lead to Addiction

You might not think social media is addicting but it sort of is. Social media is designed to trigger the brain's reward center. When your brain is constantly or excessively stimulated, your brain develops pathways that look similar to an addiction to drugs or other substances.

Tips To Minimize Brainrot

Brainrot is not a permanent diagnosis (it's not a diagnosis at all actually, lol). But there are ways to minimize it for you or your kids.

Delay Smartphone Use For Children

Harwood recommends parents delay smartphone use for their children. Parents should only give teens aged 16 and older a smartphone. The less access and exposure a teen has, the less likely they are to be chronically online, says Dr. Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and expert on the effects of social media use on adolescents.

Set Screen Time Boundaries and Limits

Dr. Warsh suggests parents create clearly stated timeframes for screen use that do not interfere with areas such as school and homework, family meals, or sleep. Designate device-free zones and times like dinner time or family movie night.

Harwood also recommends using parental controls and turning off the Internet an hour before bedtime to ensure everyone is sleeping enough and getting time off tech.

Model Good Behavior

It's not only children who struggle to stay offline-we all do. Warsh adds that children tend to follow what their parents or adults do. Model a balanced screen time in your own routine and younger ones will notice and mimick your behavior.

Replace Online Time With Screenfree Activities

Swap your phone for physical activity, friend hangouts, or other hobbies. The more joy and fulfillment we receive elsewhere, the less likely we'll spend excessive time on social media.

And less social media is really what we need right now. As the kids say, we *all* should go touch some grass.

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Is TikTok Cooking Your Brain Too? Welcome to Being a Brainrotter

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There's a new term in town and it's called brainrot. Also, when social media begins bleeding into your daily life. Brainrot is seemingly harmless but can have negative effects on interpersonal development. We break it down.

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What happens to your brain when you mindlessly scroll?

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What happens to your brain when you mindlessly scroll?

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What Happens To Your Brain When You Mindlessly Scroll?

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Playing videogames is a popular activity, with 70 percent of youth under the age of 18 playing videogames. Some games are solitary or single-player games; others are multi-player. Multi-player games - whether they are played on a computer, game console, handheld system, smartphone, or tablet - allow users to play with people they know in person and others they meet online. In fact, 65% of video game players of all ages say they play with others. There are many types of videogames: role-playing games, action games, shooter games, sport games, fighting games. There are also educational games like sandbox/build/construct games, puzzle games, and others.

Benefits of Online Gaming

Playing videogames can positively impact a players' cognitive, emotional, and social skills. It can also help children and teens enhance their problem-solving and strategizing skills. Multi-player team games may help youth learn how to cooperate with others. Youth who play videogames may also improve their motor skills and creativity. Videogames also offer players a space to work out their emotions, and can boost a player's mood and ease anxiety. Gaming can also be a place to make new friends and socialize.

Risks of Online Gaming

While gaming has the potential for positive benefits, it is also a place where cyberbullying can happen. If someone is not performing well in a game, other players may curse or make negative remarks that can turn into bullying, or even exclude the person from playing together.

Anonymity of players and the use of avatars allow users to create alter-egos or fictional versions of themselves, which is part of the fun of gaming. But it also allows users to harass, bully, and sometimes gang up on other players. When players are anonymous, it can be difficult to hold them accountable when they bully others and use the game as a tool of harassment. Some players may use the game as a means to harass others or to get their personal information, like usernames and passwords. They can even make others' personal information available online through a tactic called " doxing." Doxing can compromise not just a child's information, but their parent's information as well, and can make them targets of bullying and harassment.

Gamers often use online gaming communities and social media to connect with other players, learn tips and tricks, share strategies, create teams/guilds, and connect while they play or watch others play. These types of online communities are also a place where cybercriminals may seek to cause harm - for instance, by posting links that appear to be game-related but are truly computer viruses or malware (software designed to disrupt, damage or gain access to a computer) or where predators may seek access to children.

Prevent Cyberbullying for Gamers

Gaming can be a fun, safe and positive environment for all. Parents can help prevent cyberbullying of their children who play video games by:

Playing the game with your child or observing the game to understand how it works and what a child is exposed to in the game.

Checking in periodically with your child about who is online, playing the game with them.

Knowing which gaming communities, and social media, and apps your child uses while gaming and their security risks which you can research online.

Helping your child set the privacy and security settings for their games and apps.

Teaching children about safe digital behavior, including not clicking on links from strangers; not downloading bots (software for automated tasks) or clicking on links in gaming forums; not sharing personal information like emails, phone numbers, addresses, and passwords; not participating in bullying behavior of other players; and what to do if they observe or experience cyberbullying.

Establishing rules about how much time a child can spend playing video games.

Keeping an open line of communication about your child's digital life.

There are things that gamers can do if they are experiencing cyberbullying or see it happen to others while gaming:

Tell the player who is bullying to stop.

Block the player who is bullying from the game and de-friend them on social media and in gaming communities.

Report the player who is bullying to the game group, team, platform, community, or developers.

Take a break from playing the game.

Tell a parent or trusted adult and get some support.

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Playing videogames is a popular activity, with 70 percent of youth under the age of 18 playing videogames. Some games are solitary or single-player games; others are multi-player. Multi-player games - whether they are played on a computer, game console, handheld system, smartphone, or tablet - allow users to play with people they know in person and others they meet online.