Video Games

Video games and their use are controversial in many different homes. They’re most commonly used for exercise, education and entertainment. The idea of using video game as exercise caught my attention while reading Time Magazine this past week. This article title caught my eye “Video games help keep kids in shape.” According to the article, 17% of US children are overweight. Can video games help keep kids in from becoming obese which ?

According to Dr. John Ratey, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of Spark, an upcoming book about exercise said, “Physical education used to be a joke, That has changed simply because we are catching up with the gamer generation.” Video games are not just for the home anymore. Gym teachers are using them to help teach in the public schools. Some of the games being used are bike racing, weight lifting, bench press and leg lifts. For example, Kim Mason, a phys-ed director in Rogers, Ark persuaded her public-school district to invest $35,000 in brand-new video-game equipment. Mason is not alone, 35 states and over 2000 school have set up fitness centers where the children use not just their thumbs but their whole bodies in exercise while playing the games. Many people believe that the games trick children into the exercises habit, hopefully life long helping to curb obesity.

“Alasdair Thin, a researcher of human physiology at Heroit-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, found that college students burned twice as many calories playing an active video game in which they dodged and kicked for 30 minutes as they did walking on a treadmill. Studies have not yet shown how the new games measure up against a real session of, say, soccer.

But while gym teachers claim that it is effective, there are critics who believe there is a downside to children using video games for exercise.

Namely, that the children will become bored and the games are expensive.

“Video games are not the answer,” says Warren Gendel, founder of Fitwize 4 Kids, a chain of traditional children’s gyms. “Kids will get bored and be back on the couch.”

The cost for a video game system in the school is 4,000 per unit or you could spend $5 per unit for a traditional kick ball. Further, the video game has only one use, the kick ball can be used for many different sports and exercise activities.

I would rater go outside and ride my bike then sit in front of a TV and play Video games. And while there might be short term benefits but long term it will not fix obesity.

Katie