Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion college - video games.

I would have done better in many of my freshman classes if Quake 2 had never been released. I remember playing until the sun came up on school nights, making learning things in class that day very difficult. I fell asleep in physics more than once, and missed it repeatedly. I still got my EE degree.

Other significant distractions included:

A long distance relationship that was on again / off again.

Conversing with my intellectual peers. For the first time in my life I was surrounded by very smart people, and it was intoxicating just to talk with them.

Yes, it does happen. I've especially heard of it in relationship to kids who are on the spectrum (diagnosed or not) or who had spectrum traits. As another poster said I don't necessarily think the video games are causing it though there can be an addictive component. More often, it is the case that the video games end up being the place an unhappy kid who isn't adjusting well buries himself. Or, even a lesser level kids who aren't good at coping with anxiety, stress, concentration can flit back and forth from online to schoolwork which is not a habit that works well over the long term.

I do think it is a reasonable concern and a good reminder that with a middle schooler it is important that they start to learn to tune out distractions and take personal responsibility for their work. I prefer "work before play" rather than interspersing studying with video games, you tube or Facebook. The interspersing approach might seem like a functional one during k-12 but the increasing demands of APs or college may start to make it clear why that doesn't work very well.

Thanks for the comments, very interesting.

I keep looking for opportunities for responsiblity and independance.

As an adult, I know myself and my relationship to tasks enough to say, "I need to have the TV on while I grade papers" (CSI and Law and Order work really well for that, for me). That kind of noise helps me block out the noise in my head long enough to get a grunt task done. I even have a mix on my iPod called "Music for Quiet Productivity". It has lots of music with some rhythmic texture, with no singing, or singing in a language I don't understand.

Or, "I need to have silence now, so I can concentrate on this problem." Or even, "I'm getting that creative, visual design urge, so I'm going to work on a dorm design in Sims2 before I go into the classroom this weekend."

A kid could figure this kind of thing out in middle school or high school with some guidance and a little bit of freedom to experiment.

Well, my husband drank beer and played video games while doing one of the hardest programs in the Navy and graduated first in his class. His friends hated him for it, since he'd be calling out answers to them as they studied while he just played games the whole time.
He is getting good grades in his upper level college classes, too, now, even with watching the baby and playing the video games.

Different, I know.

If you are intelligent enough, you can get through undergrad (and law school) even if you are personally dedicated to having close to zero engagement with your classes.

The downside is that when you are actually asked to do things in a professional setting, your skill set is essentially nonexistent.

Yet, many do not. Would the theory be that their parents didn't provide appropriate guidance?

Yes. And, if you consider education more than just jumping through hoops to get a piece of paper you are missing out on a huge opportunity that you will likely not have again in life.

I totally disagree. Depends on the kid. But yes, at some point they do move out and have to self manage. But younger isn't necessarily better.

Possibly. I think that was how I operated in high school. I learned nearly nothing, I feel like.

In his case, when he graduated and started in his new job, he first had to get some qualifications. He got them (while annoying his superiors for being too much of a "know it all"), but then they quickly marked him out to be the next leader of all the guys in charge of handing out qualifications.

He just soaks stuff up and doesn't seem to need to go over it very much in order to remember it.