BBC asks: Are games making kids smarter? [Update]

by Chris Greenhough { May 24th 2008 at 7:30PM }

After its laughable coverage of Brain Training's "discriminatory" stance on accents earlier this year, the BBC had some work to do to get back in our favor. The feature above, part of a recent edition of flagship news program Newsnight, does just that.

Rather than automatically accusing videogames of having a negative effect on children (a default position for countless media outlets), the piece suggests that games have helped to produce brighter kids now than at any stage in history. Leading the charge for this side of the debate is Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good for You. Johnson contends that because so much modern media (the internet, interactive television, games) is no longer consumed passively, many children grow up to be "more creative, more dynamic." Later in the piece, he also suggests that games help us to believe that "complex problem-solving is fun."

There's some solid evidence to support Johnson's claims, most notably in the IQ scores of children, which have climbed considerably over the last century. Could computer games truly be assisting in making today's kids the smartest yet? We're not certain there's a conclusive answer to that, but it delights us to see the BBC covering the debate in such a measured fashion.

[Update: Not actually shown in the UK on Friday, as original post stated.]

Tags: bbc, children, iq, kids, media, newsnight

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Spekkio @ May 24th 2008 7:52PM

Steven Johnson's book is good. You should read it.
I don't know that I would say that kids are smarter - maybe "less dumb."

gorecki @ May 24th 2008 8:21PM

Sorry to piss on your chips, bu this report wasn't on Newsnight on Friday (in the UK at least). In fact the logo in that report looks different to the current Newsnight branding. And the reporter, Stphanie Flanders, has moved on from Newsnight and is now the BBC's economics editor. I think this report is ollllllllllllddddd. Move on.

Chris Greenhough @ May 24th 2008 8:30PM

No, you're right -- I just checked the iPlayer and it wasn't shown on Friday. Thanks for the heads-up!

paulmacl @ May 25th 2008 12:50AM

The idea that children are smarter isn't surprising. They are exposed to so much more every day, they need to learn to cope with multiple streams of information much earlier than we did. This early development of their reticular activation systems (the bit in our subconcious that filters all the junk for our concious mind) is being reflected in their IQ scores.

Accepting that "complex problem solving is fun" can only be good news for modern society. The constant dumbing-down we are subjected to by the media is insulting to thinking people and cannot end soon enough for my taste!

--
.../Paul

guttertalk @ May 24th 2008 8:38PM

I have two kids, ages 6 and 8, and they play a bit of games, although I put restrictions on their time and the content. Yet, I'm amazed at what they learn from games, aside from the value of solving problems and developing game strategies. They pick up vocabulary and cultural references beyond their years. Academically, I'm not sure if games makes my kids smarter, but I think they're bright and play games smartly. And they're doing very well in school, with my oldest in a special class that includes the top 17 kids in the district for his grade. So all his gaming hardly hurts him.

But there's something else: our kids play together, whether it's in the computer room, helping each other, or playing in the living room with the family on the Wii, PS2, or 360. So, I think they actdually have developed a kind of collaborative maturity that they might not develop normally until much later.

phenylketonurics @ May 24th 2008 8:59PM

You've got an awesome set of boys, man. That's really awesome to hear. I have 3 little brothers (13, 9, and 6) and while they live on PC and Nintendo games, they are the most argumentative children I have ever exprerienced, hah! I believe a lot of the cooperational skills a child developes lays in observation of their parents--you're probably terrific role models for your children. Because my parents cave-in easily to fussy kids who don't want to share, we have 3 Wiis, 5 DSs, laptops for EACH of them, and ... I couldn't count the other consoles.

Not to mention the fact that they all have wireless interent access virtually 24/7. They still argue over video games and other very trivial things but I do agree with you on the benefits they show from vg time in school. All of my little brothers are in honours classes.

Joshua @ May 24th 2008 10:13PM

Games definitely increased my vocabulary and understanding of word roots, mythologies, and the like back in the day. In fact, my friend and I often noticed and mentioned that fact, back in elementary and high school.

Anticrawl @ May 24th 2008 11:12PM

Everytime I watch the BBC I die a little on the inside.

velocitySTRIKE @ May 25th 2008 4:00AM

I guess you've not watched BBC Three.

Anticrawl @ May 25th 2008 4:32AM

I get BBC One - Four and the BBC News Channel. *gags*

JayFight @ May 25th 2008 12:43AM

i grew up playing games things like rpg's and adventure games where i had to solve lots of problems and i am a gifted problem solver now i can look at most anything and figure out how to fix it or how it works (sometimes i have to take it apart) but my brothers they grew up playing almost nothing but sports games and their kinda thick they need me just to figure out some of the easiest things like why the internet doesn't work (umm gee maybe this wire here needs to be plugged in) but anyways i think games help with learning to problem solve but not all games

Timmeh @ May 25th 2008 7:54AM

Can anyone say 'anachronism'? It is a reasonable assumption that people from the early-mid nineteenth century would not score as well on IQ tests as today but as Channel 4 has shown (shoot me for referencing a reality programme), kids that do GCSEs now are terrible at old fashioned O-levels. Comparing a society like this without any account of change is teleological and while it may show that people have higher IQs, it does not mean that they are smarter, like the video above stated. Places, people and societies change over time, this should be reflected instead of just comparing then and now as the same entity.

Interesting though.