Week 9: Gaming and literacy

Having read this week's resources and watched the online presentations related to gaming and social change, the question that popped into my mind foremost was: "why are we so attracted to screens?". Now this may be old hat for many who have read extensively the literature pertaining to digital technologies but for me, it's all new. I have a son who spends his life with online gaming and another who is perpetually watching online shows. My daughter is connected to her handheld device 24/7. Why? Why do my husband and I watch mindless shows when we're tired after a day's work? Why is it impossible to ignore the invitation from a lit screen, even if one is engaged in an absorbing and interesting activity that does not involve the screen? 

Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (click to link to article) discuss the “orienting response.” This term was coined by Ivan Pavlov in 1927. The "orienting response is our instinctive visual or auditory reaction to any sudden or novel stimulus. It is part of our evolutionary heritage, a built-in sensitivity to movement and potential predatory threats. Typical orienting reactions include dilation of the blood vessels to the brain, slowing of the heart, and constriction of blood vessels to major muscle groups. Alpha waves are blocked for a few seconds before returning to their baseline level, which is determined by the general level of mental arousal. The brain focuses its attention on gathering more information while the rest of the body quiets" (Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi, 2002). 

The authors go on later in the article to state that even babies display this orienting response to television, "Dafna Lemish of Tel Aviv University has described babies at six to eight weeks attending to television. We have observed slightly older infants who, when lying on their backs on the floor, crane their necks around 180 degrees to catch what light through yonder window breaks. This inclination suggests how deeply rooted the orienting response is" (Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi, 2002). 

While I have read no further, this would seem to explain the initial fascination with the screen. One can only imagine that, since television is for consumption only, the opportunity to interact with the screen might raise that attraction exponentially. In fact, in the same article, the authors go on to say that "Many video and computer games minutely increase in difficulty along with the increasing ability of the player. One can search for months to find another tennis or chess player of comparable ability, but programmed games can immediately provide a near-perfect match of challenge to skill. They offer the psychic pleasure—what one of us (Csikszentmihalyi) has called “flow”— that accompanies increased mastery of most any human endeavour" (Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi, 2002). 

"Flow experience" is the term coined by Csikszentmihalyi to describe the completely engaging process of creating something new, an experience in which one is so ensconced as to be unaware of the world around one, or of one's body. It is a state of ecstasy during which one is existing in a life less ordinary. A good resume of his thinking is available in a TedTalk here Flow Experience. 

It seems to me that there is a parallel here to be drawn between Csikszentmihalyi's Flow Experience and the act of serious online gaming. Jane McGonigal, a game designer, in her TedTalk Gaming Can Make a Better World describes her work in creating socially provocative games intended to change the world. She discusses how the world of gaming is significantly more exciting and elicits feelings of great power in the gamer which cannot be achieved in real life. This sounds a lot like ecstasy. She goes on to describe the four things that gamers are virtuosos at. These are: 1. Urgent Optimism (extreme self-motivation and a belief that an epic win is always possible and can be had NOW) 2. Weaving a Tight Social Fabric, (we like people better after we've played a game with them as playing with them builds bonds and trust, and cooperation) 3. Blissful Productivity, (gamers know that they are happier working hard than they are when relaxing, gamers are willing to work hard all the time) and 4. Epic Meaning (gamers love to be attached to awe inspiring missions). Again, this reminds me of Csikszentmihalyi's flow experience. If gamers are truly engaged in their mission, on a level of ecstasy, being creative and solving problems of epic scales, they are in a state of flow, surely... I am very excited to learn more about the games in which Jane McGonigal is involved whose goal it is to problem solve real-world issues such as a world devoid of oil. Here too, lies great fodder for the use of games in educational contexts.

I had no knowledge of any of this last week and am now fully inspired to find out more.