A new study has demonstrated that those who experience a terrible event can prevent the onset of post traumatic stress disorder by simply playing video games within six hours of the event.Researchers found that 62 percent of 71 UK car accident victims who played the games after being treated in an emergency room suffered fewer bad memories than those who did not.
Distracting the brain with puzzles or games requiring concentration seems to deter the creation of long-term memories.
The news is exciting for those who have endured difficult events but it also has less positive implications.
Are you killing your future memories by over-stressing your mind with puzzles and games?
Memories of specific events are not only entertaining later in life but they also allow us to look back and learn from our experiences.
So while you might still have a fuzzy, fond memory of strolling down Main Street with your mom to pop into a bakery at the age of 4, those growing up now might not have the same joy of being able to look back at such special moments, as their long-term memories are being unknowingly wiped clean by technology.
So is the silly meaningless game you're playing actually destroying memories like the machine Arnold Schwarzenegger entered in Total Recall?
A glorious summer shall soon be upon us with great moments in store.
Those who choose to thumb away at their telephone games or play online risk possibly never having those great moments to look back on.
I remember when I got my first computer. It was April of 1979. And I remember every computer since.
ReplyDeleteBut ten, I don't really play computer games.
Michael
Funny thing, but as a kid I quickly became bored with pinball and other arcade-type games. Maybe my tight-fisted nature discouraged me from feeding dimes and quarters into blinking, buzzing machines when I preferred to buy a sugar-cone ice cream or comic book instead. Not that there were many arcades around back in the 50s and 60s, anyway (other than at Belmont Park and later La Ronde), as such venues became more prevalent in the 70s and 80s.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend who in the 1980s used to hang out in one very busy arcade on Ste. Catherine Street where one afternoon he beckoned me over to his favourite pinball machine--the name of which I do not remember. This machine enabled him to run up an unusually high number of free games due to the way in which the flippers were arranged along with strategically-placed bumpers that allowed a more relaxed reaction time in order to keep the ball in play before it dropped into the hole. Ding-ding! Next free game!
My friend told me that on rainy days he could drop in one single quarter and spend hours at that pinball machine until when he'd had enough and let his younger brother take over his place or otherwise shout out to anyone listening if they wanted to finish off what remained of the free games. He'd get a lot of takers! Not sure if the arcade owner eventually got wise and replaced that overly-generous machine but I suspect that it was deliberately kept in operation to draw in more customers.
When Pac Man was all the rage, I happened to stumble across a neat little book which, among other things, revealed the secret to keeping Pac Man in perpetual play by maneuvering him to a particular "sanctuary" location on the screen to prevent him from ever being gobbled up. Knowing that secret allowed Pac Man to survive alive forever. Of course, since Pac Man subsequently appeared in many different versions, that sanctuary may have changed location, thus requiring more quarters to feed them. Today, no doubt there are other such video games with a similar "secret factory setting" which can similarly be exploited to extend play time.
To digress, beginning in the 1950s and increasingly in the 60s, the talk in the media would increasingly turn to the notion and fear that computers would eventually take over the world--which is essentially exactly what HAS happened: witness our zombie generation transfixed with their smartphones. There were even early movies dealing with this topic such as "Colossus: The Forbin Project" (1970) and "Paper Man" (1971).
It is frightening, indeed unacceptable, to realize that some computer somewhere can decide your future. How I despise those "job-shop"-type radio ads with their smug announcers telling everyone how easy it is that their database will quickly screen out all except "the perfect candidate"--who, if hired, might not even remain in the job for very long once another computer elsewhere can "head hunt" him or her over to another employer.
World Champion "Pinball Wizard":
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40004224
Videogaming is a health hazard--particularly to children. See:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-40477951