Br. Solomon Morris
“No brother, most of the boys are not reading or doing their assignments. They are not even looking at the videos and the links to study sites that are being sent by their teachers. They are busy with COD and other online games.”
I received this message from one of our students. Talk about an eye-opener! But I am not really shocked by this statement. Even before the lockdown, during our normal times, when we had regular classes I was aware of the number of children who were addicted to these online games.
Through this article, I would like to share with you, two major concerns that I have. The first concernhas to do with the effects these online games are having on those who play. I am particularly concerned about our young students.
The second concern that I have is regarding our “Call of Duty”. How are we as Parents, Teachers, Principals and Counsellors responding to our Call of Duty?
Effects of Video Games on Health
I read a number of articles on the effects of online video games. Not all games are detrimental to one’s health according to researchers. But most researchers agree on some basic findings. I am sharing with you some of these findings. Dear readers, if you wish to get more information, all you got to do is to do a Google search. There are hundreds of credible articles available on the net.
Playing “shooter” video games like COD (Call of Duty) and PubG, weakens the brains of young people and puts them at greater risk of dementia in later life, new research suggests as posted in the U.K. Daily, The Telegraph (8th August 2017).
A trial in Canada found that those who spent a lot of time playing games such as Call of Duty had less grey matter in a crucial part of the brain. Previous research has shown that people with depleted amounts of white matter in their hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for orientation and for recalling past experience, face a higher risk of neurological illnesses including Alzheimer’s, depression and schizophrenia.
Video games have been shown to benefit certain cognitive systems related to visual attention and short-term memory, but were suspected to damage the hippocampus.
Researchers at the University of Montreal scanned the brains of habitual players of action video games and compared them to non-players, finding the gamers had less grey matter.
“If action video games lead to decreases in grey matter in the hippocampus, caution should be exerted when encouraging their use by children, young adults and older adults to promote cognitive skills such as visual short-term memory and visual attention,” the scientists wrote.
Another U.K. based newspaper Mail Online, in an article published on 4 January 2018, wrote that violent video games like Call of Duty change young people’s brains to make them less empathetic. Are our children able to empathize? Are we witnessing our children moved to action when they see others suffering?
In a study, published in Social Affective and Cognitive Neuroscience, researchers also found out that:
- Games such as Call of Duty affect our brain’s ability to process emotions
- Chronic violent gameplay could make people ‘cool, callous and in control’
- The study found gaming was linked to lower empathy and emotional callousness. This is because it inhibits people’s ability to process emotional facial expression and control their responses as a result, according to an article by the British Psychological Society.
- Gaming inhibits people’s ability to process emotional facial expression and control their responses
- By the end of the study, they found that people who habitually played action games had fewer neurons in their hippocampus, a key memory centre in the brain.
What is our Call of Duty?
A lot of our children are playing these games well into the night. Some of the boys have shared that they sleep at 2 AM! And they surface only at 10 AM. Is this a good practice? Are we not encouraging children to form habits which may be difficult to break, if we decide to open schools? Who is monitoring to see if these children playing games or doing their assignments? Why do they need to have their own private mobile phones? If they are given the mobiles, how are we checking on the abuse? Are we checking with our teachers if they are really sending assignments which require lots of time on the internet? Have we put enough systems in place to prevent our children from getting addicted to these games which can seriously inflict long term harm?
It is our Call of Duty, dear parents, teachers, counsellors and administrators. If we don’t do anything about this ‘epidemic’ that is raging among our children, we will soon have population of dysfunctional youngsters who would have lost the humane qualities of empathy and kindness.
God bless all, especially our vulnerable children!
(The writer is Principal, St. Edmund’s School, Shillong)