Trashy UK national newspaper, The Sun, have once again taken spun a story to reflect badly on the game industry, which is hardly surprising following the Nintendo 3DS incident.
The story, which claims that the likes of computer games and Facebook are leading to temporary dementia in children, takes the comments of leading neuroscientist Baroness Greenfield entirely out of context.
“Screen technologies cause high arousal which in turn activates the brain system’s underlying addiction. This results in the attraction of yet more screen-based activity,” Greenfield explains, continuing to claim that connections in the brain “can be temporarily disabled by activities with a strong sensory content – blowing the mind. Or they can be inactivated permanently by degeneration – ie. dementia.”
She then stressed “There is a need to be outside, to climb trees and feel the grass under your feet and the sun on your face”, before commenting on the rise in “trolling”, where malicious messages are posted online, and then stating that many youngsters are living their lives through Facebook.
“What does it say about their identity if they are defining themselves by how others see them?” she questioned.
So, all in all, not a single direct reference to video games at all, and just a mention of “screen technologies”. So that encapsulates everything ranging from mobile phones to even cinemas, surely? Well done The Sun, it’s not as if your reputation is tarnished enough.
The Sun: Computer Games “are giving kids dementia”
