JWM - Volume 2, Issue 4 - (Page 69)

was recently invited to join a longstanding thursday night poker game. when i asked how much i could lose (hedging my bets even before sitting down), i was told, “we’ve been pushing the same $100 around the table for about 20 years.” in other words, after some 1,000-plus thursdays, the average player at the game could count on being up or down a mere 100 bucks. as a prospective money-making venture, i would do better selling lemonade for five cents a cup. But, of course, to focus on the bottom line of a weekly poker game among friends is to miss the point. Sure, each player is there to win, but the benefits here are social, not financial. and for that reason, i told my friend i’d think it over. “come on, playing will keep your mind sharp,” he countered. “and at our age, we have to keep our brains in shape.” He was playing the age card, but—aha!—i had an answer for this. or thought i did. Like millions of other iPhone or android owners, i had recently become a manic player of games. “words with Friends,” “Scrabble,” “Draw Something” and other buzzing and flashing contests against distant friends or strangers were daily endeavors, short creative interludes that puzzled, perplexed and delighted. my brain was getting all the exercise it needed. or so i believed. true, game playing and puzzle-doing of this kind has benefits. according to marcel Danesi, Ph.D., a professor of anthropology at the University of toronto and author of Extreme Brain Workout, “Games and puzzles have been shown to delay brain decline and brain degeneration, as well as stimulate new neuron growth and promote brain fitness.” all good, right? wrong. it turns out this recent digitally-induced, game-playing phenomenon of ours is turning us into a collection of shallow-thinking, dependence-addicted, socially inept, insecure robots. in fact, the more experts i spoke to, the more i wanted to hide my iPhone in a dark cave or give it away to some well-adjusted do-gooder in the hopes that he’d come to understand the daily grind of insecurity and mediocrity that befalls the rest of us. The DownsiDe of e-Games just listen to Gerald Goodman, Ph.D., the emeritus professor of clinical Psychology & Psycholinguistics at UcLa and author of The Talk Book: The Intimate Science of Communicating in Close Relationships, who notes the serious potential for “dependence addiction” with electronic games as well as mental health and emotional problems: “Because the interactions are all cognitive,” he says, “the emotional aspect of an individual is or can become underdeveloped.” Goodman adds that people who play games against machines or faceless opponents don’t develop important conversational skills. “they can end up chronic crowders of conversation,” he says. “that is one of the major problems with these electronic games—the inability to then function and communicate in an environment with real people.” as a result, it’s even possible that “this inability may lead to a person feeling lonely and depressed.” jordan Grafman, Ph.D., the director of traumatic Brain injury research at the Kessler Foundation and a former mainstay in brain research at the National institutes of Health, is quick to point out that electronic game playing is something akin to exercising in the baby pool. Yes, you’re moving and splashing about, but are you really getting anywhere? “the cost of getting too immersed in computer games is that you don’t think deeply,” says Dr. Grafman. “and deliberative thinking is critical in all the sciences and life.” Even the man who wrote the book on puzzles, Dr. Danesi, admits there was a troubling downside to these solitary mental aerobics. “on the one I © mediabakery J WM MAGAZINE 69 j w m a r r i o t t. c o m http://www.JWMARRIOTT.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JWM - Volume 2, Issue 4

JWM - Volume 2, Issue 4
Table of Contents
Contributors
JW Experts
Editor’s Letter
Distinctive Products, People, Ideas & Style
A Quiet Place
The Food Trap
Start With the Wine
Hidden Treasures
The Portal
Hidden Hong Kong
Grains of Truth
Game Theory
Mumbai Dreams
JW Experience
My Passion

JWM - Volume 2, Issue 4