Have you all ever seen kids as young as 4 these days playing with ipads and smartphones? They are soooooooo annoying.
I know it is kind of ironic that i am complaining about kids these days with their ipads, but i really don't remember being that young or obsessed as they were about playing mobile video games. So much so that they are often looking down rather than up at their surroundings.
I often played video games at home. Back then the only mobile video game available was on the gameboy console which i did not get until much later in life. Yet, today i see kids as young as 4 years old being attached to their smartphones and tablets.
The parents are of course not blameless. They often give kids access to the ipads because they do not want the kids bothering them. Gone are the days where parenting skills are necessary. After All you can just rely on your ipad to help take care of your kid.
This is clearly a problem, as we have already discussed previously. I mean you have kids who seem to be more interested in what is in their screen rather than what is around them. I will definitely not get my kid an ipad.
Sunday 25 October 2015
Saturday 17 October 2015
Learning about the environment through video games. An Oxymoron?
Wow, the last 2 weeks of school has left me guilt ridden. I mean, the lesson highlighted the fact that part of the reason why people are losing touch with our environment is due to their increased exposure to media, in particular television (though i feel that kids these days tend to play more video games than they do television). So,it may seem kind of ironic that i am sharing about environmental issues through video games. With that, i felt that i should probably clarify in this post about my entire reason behind discussing environmental issues through video games.
Can video games actually be effective when trying to promote environmental issues?
Writer of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv (2005) describes how our children is losing direct contact with nature. He identifies indirect interaction with nature through the media as Vicarious environmental experiences. He argues that this is one of the less effective interaction with nature a children can have.
Video games would definitely fall under this category. However, my goal of writing this blog has never been about providing the sort of experiences that we get directly from nature. Those kind of experiences are irreplaceable. There is definitely some regret that i feel when i think about the fact that i did not spend as much time as i should outdoors when i am younger.
However i truly believe that videogames can still be an effective way to communicate environmental issues. Afterall, much of the video games that i have discussed thus far has some basis in reality. If we can harness the interactive nature of video games, I believe that interest can be generated about the environment. And it is clear that i am not the only one who thinks this is the case
One of the most interesting papers i have read recently is titled " Why conservationist should heed pokemon"(Balmford et al., 2002). In the paper, it was found that children were better able to identify pokemon characters as opposed to commonly found fauna in their local environments. The paper concludes that more should be done to engage children. Sadly, growing up, no one ever introduced to me the idea of environmental issues through games. Much of my opinions of the environment was shaped by reading news articles, movies and television shows. Video games are inherently different from other forms of media because it has an interactive element to it. It can show players how their actions have a direct consequence to the environment. It is unsurprising that video games have been used to taught other subjects in schools since it is such an effective medium.
Fortunately it would seem, there are organisations that are working on such a project. The Science for Nature and People (SNAP) organisations is working on their "Gaming for future of environmental communications". This is clear indication that people are exploring new unique ways to bring across the message about saving the environment.
Come on companies, there is gold to be made in making video games with an environmental message and it would also be the right thing to do to ensure that there are children in the future to play your video games.
Can video games actually be effective when trying to promote environmental issues?
Writer of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv (2005) describes how our children is losing direct contact with nature. He identifies indirect interaction with nature through the media as Vicarious environmental experiences. He argues that this is one of the less effective interaction with nature a children can have.
Video games would definitely fall under this category. However, my goal of writing this blog has never been about providing the sort of experiences that we get directly from nature. Those kind of experiences are irreplaceable. There is definitely some regret that i feel when i think about the fact that i did not spend as much time as i should outdoors when i am younger.
However i truly believe that videogames can still be an effective way to communicate environmental issues. Afterall, much of the video games that i have discussed thus far has some basis in reality. If we can harness the interactive nature of video games, I believe that interest can be generated about the environment. And it is clear that i am not the only one who thinks this is the case
One of the most interesting papers i have read recently is titled " Why conservationist should heed pokemon"(Balmford et al., 2002). In the paper, it was found that children were better able to identify pokemon characters as opposed to commonly found fauna in their local environments. The paper concludes that more should be done to engage children. Sadly, growing up, no one ever introduced to me the idea of environmental issues through games. Much of my opinions of the environment was shaped by reading news articles, movies and television shows. Video games are inherently different from other forms of media because it has an interactive element to it. It can show players how their actions have a direct consequence to the environment. It is unsurprising that video games have been used to taught other subjects in schools since it is such an effective medium.
Fortunately it would seem, there are organisations that are working on such a project. The Science for Nature and People (SNAP) organisations is working on their "Gaming for future of environmental communications". This is clear indication that people are exploring new unique ways to bring across the message about saving the environment.
Come on companies, there is gold to be made in making video games with an environmental message and it would also be the right thing to do to ensure that there are children in the future to play your video games.
Thursday 15 October 2015
Fallout : War and the environment
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| Fallout 4 cover box |
I can't wait for the release of Fallout 4 next month (although exams are clearly in the way of me actually playing the game). I just thought that fallout would be an interesting game by which we can explore the impact that war has on the environment, which i believe tends to be one of the most overlooked impacts of war.
Of course in the fallout series, much of the world's population and environments were devastated from nuclear war (although such a war is unlikely at this point we should definitely hope that it doesn't happen). Although many of things portrayed within the video games are probably fictional (like the presence of super mutants and other oddities), it gives us a good visualisation of how inhabitable earth would be if we were to destroy our environment from our wars. We, as a species, now have the ability to irreversible change our environments in ways unimaginable from our weapons of mass destruction.
Friday 2 October 2015
Bioshock: Feasibility of Artificial environments
Behold Rapture, a city under the sea, much like that envisioned in many different sci-fiction shows of the past. Here, the city is built upon the energy of hydrothermal vents found deep in the sea. And lo and behold, this city is indeed a technological as well as aesthetic beauty. Makes you wonder whether or not we could build such a structure with our ingenuity- to be able to conquer an environment that we were never meant to.
If anything, we know that living away from our natural environment is probably a gargantuan if the results of the artificial environment "Biosphere 2" was any indication of the importance our natural ecosystem has on the sustainability of the lives of humans.
The world's first and largest artificial environment was constructed in 1987 at the St. Catalina Mountains in Arizona. Dubbed "Biosphere 2" in recognition of it being the only other known environment to support life as far as we are aware, it was built to try exlore the feasilbility of building artificial environments in space as well as to explore whether or not organisms could survive and thrive under such conditions.
Within "Biosphere 2" all supports thought to be necessary for live to thrives was present- from plants to animals. There were even unique environments build within "Biosphere 2" itself such as desserts and oceans".
Various abiotic aspects of the environment could be controlled within "biosphere 2". Factors such as temperatures, humidity (everything that could affect the ability for different species to thrive).
During the second mission, it was noted that the oxygen amount of within Biosphere 2 was rapidly decreasing. This led to many problems to the health of the people inside Biosphere 2 as the oxygen level dropped to 14%.
It was later found that the reason for the rapid drop of oxygen within the environment was a due to the imbalance between the rate of photosynthesis and respiration within the enclosed system.
Learning points from the experiment
I found the idea of an artificial environment really cool but the problems faced by the crew of "Biosphere 2" showed us how suited for life the earth really is. The earth is in a stable state precisely because of the environment and all the natural processes such as carbon sequestration of the Ocean. If any one thing goes wrong than it could lead to many problems as observed in Biosphere 2.
As we known in the past, climate change from natural processes have led to a series of natural extinction events. For example, one of the reason suggested for the Permian-Triassic extinction event was due to the environment being notably anoxic. The huge change the the oxygen concentration in the atmosphere led to death of many organisms on earth.
Knowing the fragility of the environment shows us the importance of taking care of our environment. If anything, indicators of the six mass extinction event show us an even greater need to take care of our environment.
 |
| Figure 1: Picture of Rapture. The city under the sea in the video game bioshock. |
If anything, we know that living away from our natural environment is probably a gargantuan if the results of the artificial environment "Biosphere 2" was any indication of the importance our natural ecosystem has on the sustainability of the lives of humans.
The world's first and largest artificial environment was constructed in 1987 at the St. Catalina Mountains in Arizona. Dubbed "Biosphere 2" in recognition of it being the only other known environment to support life as far as we are aware, it was built to try exlore the feasilbility of building artificial environments in space as well as to explore whether or not organisms could survive and thrive under such conditions.
Within "Biosphere 2" all supports thought to be necessary for live to thrives was present- from plants to animals. There were even unique environments build within "Biosphere 2" itself such as desserts and oceans".
Various abiotic aspects of the environment could be controlled within "biosphere 2". Factors such as temperatures, humidity (everything that could affect the ability for different species to thrive).
During the second mission, it was noted that the oxygen amount of within Biosphere 2 was rapidly decreasing. This led to many problems to the health of the people inside Biosphere 2 as the oxygen level dropped to 14%.
It was later found that the reason for the rapid drop of oxygen within the environment was a due to the imbalance between the rate of photosynthesis and respiration within the enclosed system.
Learning points from the experiment
I found the idea of an artificial environment really cool but the problems faced by the crew of "Biosphere 2" showed us how suited for life the earth really is. The earth is in a stable state precisely because of the environment and all the natural processes such as carbon sequestration of the Ocean. If any one thing goes wrong than it could lead to many problems as observed in Biosphere 2.
As we known in the past, climate change from natural processes have led to a series of natural extinction events. For example, one of the reason suggested for the Permian-Triassic extinction event was due to the environment being notably anoxic. The huge change the the oxygen concentration in the atmosphere led to death of many organisms on earth.
Knowing the fragility of the environment shows us the importance of taking care of our environment. If anything, indicators of the six mass extinction event show us an even greater need to take care of our environment.
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