Are video games dooming our children? That’s the dire prediction from one charity in the UK. Research conducted by the Youth Sport Trust, a British charity that monitors and coordinates school sports, has released a report indicating that almost one in four children in the UK believe that video games are exercise, as The Guardian reports.
The report was released to coincide with School Sport Week in Britain, and comes with a warning from YST’s chief executive that children are becoming “hostages to handheld devices.” The group found that 23 percent of children, between ages 5 and 16, “think playing a computer game with friends is a form of exercise” and that 35 percent speak to their friends more now on social media than in person.
Of course, the telephone and the postal system were also said to be the doom of face-to-face communication in their days, but as The Telegraph reports, the report, dubbed “Class Of 2035″ posits that school sports are at a “critical crossroads” and must be focused on “to avoid a physically and socially disengaged future generation, over dependent on technology.” The report suggests that schools need to look at ways to integrate technology into school sports, because it’s not going away.
“There is no resisting the march of technology. Policymakers can feel nostalgic for a time before the challenges new connected technologies have brought in engaging young people, or they can harness these technologies to their advantage.”
The classroom is no stranger to video games these days. Minecraft is now arriving in many classrooms, while World of Warcraft provides case studies for university economics and, of all things, medical classes, among others. However, it probably won’t be as easy to integrate video games into school sports. While the report is enthusiastic about the need, it seems to be lacking in actual ideas of how to accomplish this.
“In order to get children active from a young age, a more holistic approach to PE is needed, one which integrates technology and the delivery of a seamless, intuitive and digitally enhanced form of physical activity.”
It’s a laudable goal, but it begs the question: how does one digitally enhance physical activity?
Virtual reality may offer one answer. Several different virtual reality headsets on the way in 2015. As the Inquisitr previously reported, this includes at least one device designed to integrate video games and real life. Surely other possibilities exist, waiting for a clever entrepreneur to tap into them.
So, readers, what are you waiting for? Get out there and invent the next great technology to bring video games and school sports together – before that 1 in 4 gets any worse.
[Photo by Martin Rose/Bongarts/Getty Images]
British Charity Reports 1 In 4 Children Think Video Games Are Exercise is an article from: The Inquisitr News
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