Comment by mrtksn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mrtksn | Hacker News Reader

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I recall, when I was a kid the games were extremely addictive for me and I couldn't just quit playing unless I absolutely have to. I had emotionally very similar experience when quitting smoking, the feeling that if I just can have this one more smoke I will be satisfied and live happily thereafter is very similar to the desire to have one more round.

So I wouldn't call games "not addictive". If anything, watching something on TV is often less adictive because you are told a story with its introduction, climax and ending(up until the Netflix ruined everything with it's endless shovelware).

IMHO, the key is moderation. A day with diverse activities is a day well spent, kid or adult.

Today, if I play Sid Meier's Civilization, a day or two would be completely gone and I will be disconnected from the reality and I will need to re-adapt to the real world. I suspect, excessive gamings primary risk is developing unhealthy understanding of the world in the area where the game simulates the real thing.

What about neither TV or computer games and doing things outside like fishing, hiking, scouts, riding bikes etc ?

Way too dangerous! Injury, skin cancer, pedophiles, drugs, terrorists, need I go on?

It's sad I can't tell if this is sarcasm

What about coyotes running around drawing tunnels! Take caution!

Sure but not everyone has access to these all the time. When I was a kid, I used to live in a smaller town on the river Danube and I did my fair share of biking and fishing. Those are definitely great activities that everyone who can should do but watching TV and playing video games is also nice. The more options you have the luckier you are.

Disagree with this categorization, unless one lives in Chernobyl there is always something to do outdoors solo or with a party. Using your body as it was designed to be physically active is naturally good for the body and the mind

Come to Istanbul or any 5M-10M+ city. Anything outdoors is hours away for the most, so it's a special occasion and cannot be a daily activity. Those who have access, they use it. Most don't have access.

Europe tends to be on the better side of the things because the cities are not gargantuous. Amerikan suburbs thanks to the early driving age probably situated fine too but I hear that helicopter parenting is widespread in the USA, so maybe they have the opportunity but don't use it?

Are you asking seriously? How about bad weather, or that part of the day when you've already done those things?

I remember riding my bike through the rain and hitting puddles full speed and doing skids on wet grass and absolutely loving it. I also remember we used to go catch and observe certain insects and frogs that would only be seen in the rain.

I’m not saying you’re wrong. Just bad weather can be an opportunity for children too. What about doing art? Lego ? Even cooking something fun?

Recently my friends kids were going mad because they wanted to jump on the trampoline but she wouldn’t let them because it was raining. I really couldn’t see the logic behind it. I’d just let them go for it.

If they’ve been outside doing stuff all day I can’t see how they’d need more stimulus, maybe a bit of TV / relaxation is good for them ?

The comments seemed framed as if it was TV or games, that’s all.

Trampoline in the rain is a lot of fun, We could say trampoline in the rain is dangerous but they pretty dangerous any weather conditions.

Agree with you in general, but trampolines are pretty dangerous regardless of the weather and maybe not a great unsupervised activity.

For some of us 'bad weather' is good weather, and vice versa. Especially so for children- who doesn't like the uplifting feeling brought by rain?

Freezing rain isn't uplifting.

This always gets discussed whenever gaming or screen time comes up.

Kids below a certain age can't do this stuff on their own anymore in a lot of places. Your neighbors will call child protective services on you.

This leads to kids being raised indoors, or only in enrolled events, because parents can't spend all of their time outdoors with the kid.

Then when the kid is old enough to be outdoors on their own without supervision they don't want to be because they have been raised indoors.

So let them call? Letting your children roam unattended is not child abuse, especially if the child is old enough to reasonably keep themselves safe.

Explain that to the cops and Child Protective Services.

I absolutely would. It sickens me how our society seems hellbent on making sure everyone is anxious and fearful of everything, all of the time. If people do not stand up and push back, this sort of government paternalism just keeps intruding. I'd fight any charges against me to the supreme court if necessary, and I'd hope they'd set a precedent.

If you feel so much passion, whats stopping you now? You dont need kids to fight injustice. Stand up! Push back!

> Letting your children roam unattended is not child abuse

I'd check your local laws around this. I know people in my city have been investigated for Child Neglect for letting their 7 year old walk to the mailbox alone.

Yes, that's how insane we've become about kids.

I lived in a state that actually does consider it neglect, legally, if you let your <10 year old child roam alone.

Check your local laws, because having child protective services called on you is not a good time.

I think there is something to do with agency. Look at the video games kids are playing, like minecraft. They are building homes, changing the environment to suit their needs, stockpiling resources, linearly levelling up, etc. It's a lot more enticing than being told what to do every day in scouts or marching up that same tired old trail you are already bored to death of, or seeing your skills plateau in sports. Plus there aren't even many adults doing these things anymore to pass on to their kids. Hard to become a teenage fisherman when you don't have a family member to teach you to tie a lure or what bait is good for where, or have a spare rod you can use, and have no money to buy a rod since you aren't working yet, and have no way to even get to somewhere to get a rod or even get to a fishing hole without your parents making time to shuttle you about. Hard to play catch when your dad doesn't own a glove to toss with you.

Borrowing shovelware. This is gold Jerry!

That's a somewhat popular term already. It was especially useful in the days of shareware/careware and close-source freeware distributed largely on CD or dial-up BBSes. You'd buy a CD with 650 MB of content, and depending on the publisher it might be 1/4 or 9/10 just crap.

Today they're built to be even more addictive to push for monetization by ads / in app purchases

I.e. the problem isn't video games, it's ads, greed, and lazy parenting.

It's not that hard to find good games. Even our moms managed to know Nintendo. We were annoyed that every video game was a "Nintendo" to our moms, but thinking back on it, that meant mom walks into game store and asks for Nintendo, can't go wrong there.

that just sounds like ADHD. the ADHD brain craves stimulation and games are a pretty easy place to find it. Modern life is kinda boring, especially if you grow up in a US suburb.

My addiction to video games led me to software development.

Addiction is a peculiar thing. Anything that makes you feel good is inherently addictive. People get addicted to biting their fingernails.

Is it bad to be addicted to reading? Or working out? If gaming is making your synapses fire faster, if for nothing more than to increase your IQ score (which is based on speed), is it a bad addiction?

Addiction is a compulsion to do something you would not chose to do. It really depends on that something whether it's good or bad for you. Addiction is something everyone will have to deal with at some point in life. Learning it from gaming is probably not a bad thing.

Not every addict makes something out of their addiction but every addict gives a lot of their potential away, often their health too.

A lot of people become software developers without being addicted to games. Great software developers bring things on the table that they learned doing stuff that is not software development, gaming is one of those but people are capable to do so many great things.

Nerding over something is cool but when it becomes an addiction, it's dangerous.

Right. I would begin to see addiction to gaming as a potential problem at the threshold where it interferes with other aspects of one's life. For as much as I loved gaming as a kid, it never posed a problem. I still played sports and finished schoolwork. Probably it overtook some potential social time, but I also lived in a pretty isolated area, so w/e.

It's funny, because people put a premium on creativity and inspiration for their children, but that level of engagement is indistinguishable from that of addiction to gaming. Even without gaming in the picture, it's not uncommon for parents to get leery at the prospect of their kids spending all their time on books or a musical instrument.

They want to see a balance according to their preferred level of allocation to every activity, but still see savant-like engagement. It's absurd. Geniuses are geniuses because they go into the deep end. You can make the case that it might be possible to manipulate the environment to the extent that obsessive engagement will likely follow one path over another, but ultimately it's not up to you, and I don't see one as objectively more important than another.

> IQ score (which is based on speed)

IQ tests are not based on speed?

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