Game On!

Start by asking students to write down five activities that they really enjoy.

When they have had a few minutes to write, have them share some of the activities they named.

After students have named 5 – 10 activities, ask students to raise their hands if any of the activities they wrote down involved video games: whether it was “playing video games” in general, a particular kind of video game (a particular game system, a genre like puzzlers or first-person shooters, or a series of games) or a specific game.

Tell students that playing games is actually the most popular online activity among Canadian kids their age, and that both boys and girls play games often. Ask students to name good things about video games and write their suggestions on the board. The list will likely include:

• Video games can improve your reflexes and hand-eye coordination
• Video games can help you learn how to solve problems
• Video games can give you a chance to be creative
• Video games can let you be part of telling a story
• Video games can teach you things about history, science, etc.
• Video games can teach you how to work with other people to get things done
• And most importantly, video games are fun!

Now ask students to go back to the list they made of activities they enjoy. How many of those can they do at the same time as playing a video game?

Possibly some – like eating snacks or listening to music – but not most of them.

• Even in some cases where it is possible to do both, it will be less fun – how much of a movie are you really getting if you’re watching it and playing a video game at the same time?

What things are they not doing when they’re playing games?

Have students access the student chapter Game On or display it on a screen or a digital whiteboard.

Go through the Course Presentation, explaining the different reasons why we may find it hard to quit playing games.

Ask if any of the points also apply to other digital or screen activities besides playing games, for example:

• Duty: you may feel like you should be around if your friends need to text you or connect to you on social networks?
• Random rewards: you may feel like if you aren’t reading texts or on your social networks, you’ll miss something important (something people will be talking about at school tomorrow, or something about you!)
  • This is sometimes called FOMO (fear of missing out)
• Intermittent rewards: you never know when someone is going to post a funny tweet or video, or text you some juicy gossip
• Fantasy: you may be totally into the world of your favourite comic or video and want to read just one more episode
• Achievement: if you’re making something online (a game, a story, a video, etc.) you may want to do just one more thing before you quit

Point out to students that the different activities we do are like the food we eat: even if something is good, if we eat too much of it we don’t have room for other good things. That’s why we try to eat a balanced diet and why we need to balance our lives between things we do on screens, like playing video games, and other activities.

Explain to students that the kinds of foods we’re tempted to eat too much of have lots of things like salt, sugar and fat that keep us eating even when we know we’ve had enough. (Some companies even make a point of mentioning this in their ads, like the slogan for Lay’s chips: “Bet you can’t eat just one!”)

Ask students if they have done an activity in the past. If so, what might have changed since then?