An Adverse Effect of Social, Gaming, and Entertainment Media on Overall Development of Adolescents

Digital technology in general and social media in particular entail both positive as well as negative impacts on the psyche of the adolescents. The current generation of gen-z has grown up in a media-saturated world. However, it is pretty difficult to judge how media exactly influences their lives. It's commonly observed that social media platforms help saving time establishing contact with our acquaintances. The excessive use of it however leads to various negative repercussions. This may include cyber bullying, low self-esteem, gaming addiction, and less time devoted for doing physical activities. Playing indoor and outdoor games makes adolescents physically fit and mentally healthy. There are however various video games on social media gaming platforms that affect their creativity and logical thinking in an adverse manner. Negative consequences of video game addiction can lead to many problems such as severe body-ache, skin blisters, weakened eyesight, and insomnia. Long-term addiction could lead to obesity, weakness or numbness in the hands, and even blood clots.

Lessons Learned from a Human-Centered Design of an Immersive Exergame for People with Dementia

Cognitive-physical exercises can reduce the progression of dementia. However, traditional methods often induce problems (e.g., lack of motivation), whereas the success of recent virtual reality (VR) exergames such as Beat Saber may provide a playful, motivational, and immersive alternative. Yet, until now, it remains unclear which game mechanics, concepts, and designs work best for people with dementia, and how to implement exergames for and with this user group. In this paper, we adapted a human-centered design approach to address the specifics of developing VR exergames for people with dementia. This includes semi-structured interviews with stakeholders and contextual inquiries to better analyze the user requirements. Based on our analysis, we present Memory Journalist VR - a novel VR exergame specifically designed for people with dementia in a participatory design process. We report the qualitative evaluation based on the feedback gathered in five focus group sessions. Finally, we discuss the lessons learned, which provide important insights for the design of future VR exergames for people with dementia: (i) creating social gaming activities with a focus on shared aspects, (ii) support of an inverse game flow channel addressing decline and variance in cognitive-physical abilities, and (iii) ensuring a safe VR exergame experience.

Eight Hypotheses on Technology Use and Mental Wellbeing: A Cross-Cultural Phenomenological Study of Gaming during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this nonconfirmatory qualitative study, we pursued a range of possible answers regarding gaming’s role in coping with, managing, and surviving the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. With the help of an explorative survey (n=793), a gaming-based interview frame for interpretive phenomenological analysis on Chinese (n=10) and Finnish (n=10) interviews was developed and applied. The interpreted range of experiences yielded an experiential typology consisting of eight macro types, with a specific statically testable psychological hypothesis drawn from each. As a side product, we found a wide spectrum of social experience related to videogame play, which we present as a 27-component taxonomy of social gaming. The study supports including personally meaningful solitary gaming to the existing policies that promote social videogame play during lockdown situations.

Learning Through a Social Gaming Platform

The COVID-19 pandemic that emerged at the beginning of 2020 has influenced all aspects of life, leading to adjustments limiting physical social interaction. One of the fields that has been affected significantly is the education system. Since the government closed all schools since March and has not decided yet when they will reopen, teachers and students have been required to run the learning process. Various new online learning media have played a significant role in supporting the learning process during the pandemic. However, the ongoing learning style causes stressful conditions for students during online learning. It is caused by the limited interaction with teachers, friends and their school environment. Thus, developing a game-based learning media could be an alternative to provide new learning media that is attractive for students. It is expected that using an online game will provide an interesting virtual interaction for students. Keywords: social game, learning, interactive

New Social Horizons: Anxiety, Isolation, and Animal Crossing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Increased participation in activities has been associated with improved positive mental health outcomes. However, there is much debate regarding the net effects of video games on individuals. Typified as a socially isolating activity, many games inherently contain socialization within the environment with game-generated characters or other players. Coinciding with the time of the initial pandemic/quarantine period was the release of a popular socializing and life simulation game, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. We investigated whether participation in this game was related to emotional outcomes associated with pandemics (e.g., loneliness and anxiety). The relationship between deleterious mental health and social gaming, amid a time of enforced reduction in socializing, would allow us to isolate the impact of the introduction of a social video game on improving the quality of life for players of this game. Participants (n = 1053) were asked about their time spent playing video games via an online survey, their socialization in game play, loneliness, and anxiety. We predicted that participants with higher levels of social interaction within the game would report less loneliness and anxiety. Utilizing multiple linear regression analyses, the research found that increased gaming and related activities were predictive of higher anxiety and somewhat related to increased loneliness. However, increased visits to another island were associated with lower levels of loneliness. As such, players may be utilizing gaming as a coping mechanism for anxiety. This research may inform generalized research regarding the influence that social games may have on feelings of loneliness and anxiety.

We-intention to continue playing mobile multiplayer games: the role of social play habit

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to develop and test a theoretical model that accounts for an individual's we-intention to continue playing a mobile multiplayer game.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on habit-intention and habit formation theories, this study conceptualizes social play habit as a determinant of the we-intention to continue playing and identifies its antecedents. The proposed model was tested through a survey of 277 players of Honor of Kings, a popular mobile multiplayer game.FindingsThe results indicate that developing social play habit is critical to the formation of a we-intention to continue playing in the context of mobile multiplayer games. The results also suggest that technological (social features embedded in the game) and individual (desire for co-play and privacy concerns) factors jointly influence social play habit.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to the literature on we-intention by conceptualizing social play habit and verifying its role in facilitating a shared intention to continue playing mobile multiplayer games. Our work responds to the call for understanding the mechanism by which multiple people form a shared intention to continue using an information technology at a collective level. Our findings provide significant insights into the design of information technologies for collaboration.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to extend the literature on gaming habits by considering other players' involvement. Specifically, our study shifts researchers' attention from gaming habits characterized by individual properties to social gaming habits characterized by communal properties.

The learning ecology of Web 2.0 tool use by teacher librarian candidates

The learning ecology captured by this survey of Web 2.0 tool usage among teacher librarian candidates at Western Kentucky University paints a narrow landscape of Social networking and communication tools used for personal activities, which are used to a lesser degree in the professional and academic spheres. Results indicate that the Top five Web 2.0 tools (Social Networking, Communication, Photo/Video Sharing, Blogs, and Productivity Tools) are being used more often in professional settings than previously reported in other national and state studies. Age does not appear to be significant in the learning ecology of teacher librarian candidates' Web 2.0 tool use, indicating that an overall enthusiasm for technology among teacher librarian candidates putthem in a special category of user. Suggestions for further study include exploring how ―gateway‖ Web 2.0 tools such as collaboration and networking tools used by teacher librarian candidates in their personal lives could transfer to the professional and academic spheres, and spur motivation to use other less commonly used Web 2.0 tools such as social gaming, pod-casting or virtual environments. This study confirms that the potential for educators to integrate Web 2.0 tools into all aspects of their lives are currently hampered by limited bandwidth at home, and the use of restrictive acceptable use policies and filters in schools.