Are Video Games Making Kids Smarter

This video had some really cool information. 

I have never contemplated the amount of time I (let alone my children) have spent playing video games.  But that the presenter anticipates he has spent 8-10K hours on one game alone is amazing.  I remember the first time I comprehended the number of texts that my son had sent in one month - I was floored.  How was it possible to send 5200 text in 30 days?

Gamification is an interesting concept.  Many companies and industry use some type of gamification already, such as video training at McDonald's.  Times they are chaning.  It was often a struggle to do crew training with a one on one setting and the introduction of computer training that training productivity actually went up.

It is surprising to learn that the act of learning increases grey matter.  That is incredible.  We can actually stimulate our children to being smarter.  What did not surprise me was that video gaming stimulates the production of dopamine.  It does make total sense.

Just this morning I was watching Thomas the Train with my 3 & 4 year old grandson and I realized that some of their vocabulary use was coming off of the video which they have watched repetitively.  They do not have cable and they have a few DVDs that they LOVE, including Thomas.  The narration of Thomas is done is a very proper UK English and I see that carrying over in their speech patterns.  They are not yet "gaming," but they do tackle small apps on the IPad and I am always impressed at their ability to teach me how to play a new app.

The presenter puts forth the notion that children with ADD or ADHD do well in video games and then find the world too slow.  I think that concept makes sense.  I am a doodler, I'm never content to just listen to a lecture, I must have my hands doing "something."  I carry handcrafts for car rides, listen to music or books on tape while working around the house, and overall have a need to have some type of multitasking going on in my environment.  But this concept causes me to wonder if we will ever create such stimulated environment that it will become unhealthy.  When will it be too much?