For this new episode of the Building Bridges podcast, Iām delighted to interview Dr Rachel Kowert, a research psychologist from Austin, Texas, whoās dedicated her career to studying video games and gamers. Since the beginning of the pandemic, weāve spent more time playing video games than ever before in the history of video games. But what if it wasnāt a bad thing?
I discovered Rachelās work in one of my favourite newsletters, Anne Helen Petersenās Culture Study. That particular edition was titled: "Parents deserve so much more when it comes to the ways video games are discussed in our popular media." A few days before, the New York Times had just published yet another gloomy piece about the dangers of games and parentsā āalarmā.
In a fantastic Twitter thread following the publication of this lazy piece of journalism, Rachel showed that it was āfar more moral panic than actual informationā. When the wise man points to the moon, the fool looks at the finger, especially if it can generate more clicks and views.
Itās high time we stopped blaming games (and screens) for everything. In her Parent's Guide to Video Games (which I couldnāt recommend enough: itās the shortest, most effective read on the subject!), she writes:
āFirst it was the radio. Then it was film, television, rock and roll, and comic books. Today, video games have become the scapegoat of choice for a variety of societal problems, including gun violence, obesity, and addictive behaviours. The fears surrounding the potential negative influence of video games have become more exaggerated and widespread as they have become more popular, more realistic in design, and now, as they are networked online.ā
In this interview, Rachel shares fascinating lessons from decades of video games research. What is video games addiction? Whatās the link between games and crime? Whatās their impact on cognitive development? What about physical and mental health? Do they help us connect better with others or not? In these times of pandemic and social isolation, many gamers see video games are a lifeline. Their experience of games is more relevant than the āmoral panicā of clueless video games detractorsā¦
I hope you enjoy listening to this podcast! Do not hesitate to share it with your friends and colleagues, gamers and non gamers alike! š¹ļø
For access to the full transcript, there will a paid version of Building Bridges to which youāll be able to subscribe soon. Stay tuned.
Follow Building Bridges on Twitter! You can listen to all our podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Also Building Bridges is part of a network of Substack newsletters, which you may want to discover: thereās Nicolas Colinās European Straits, thereās my Laetitia@Work, and our French newsletter, Nouveau DĆ©part.
(Credit: Franz Liszt, Angelus ! PriĆØre Aux Anges Gardiensāextrait du disque Miroirs de Jonas Vitaud, NoMadMusic.)
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