Researcher Says Gaming Deforms Young Hands

[johnman]

I am assuming he is mentioning controllers here, and not keyboard and mouse. As i have been gaming form a very early age and my hands are jsut fine thank you.
That or hes just another "look at me" american wanting his 15 mintues of fame by claiming theres conspiracy afoot.

 

[Abedeus]

Same thing happens when you play the guitar, play any kind of sport with a tool (hockey, tennis, skiing), write too much...

Basically, you should live in a bubble and occasionally get infected.

 

[KDR_11k]

If MS was lobbying Lieberman I expect the talk to be more about his attempts to ban videogames because of violence rather than any health issues. MS doesn't even have games a kid under 8 years would want (or at least be allowed) to play, they're probably more worried about the 12-16 year olds that would be affected by enforcing the M rating. Claims of conspiracy are ridiculous there, they've got much bigger open issues they'd want to hide first. Most likely noone bothered to check or maybe they did and this guy is just misinterpreting his data.

 

[Avida]

Arthritis = bad, yeah, fine. I'll accept that gaming has a whole bunchof negative effects too but i shant agree it 'deforms hands'. At worst it just forms them differently, to better suit the purposes they will be used for. Welcome to the 21st century Tomich!

 

[Abedeus]

Game controllers deform your hands? Has this guy ever used a pencil?

Yeah... Basing on how much pain can excessive writing cause, using a pencil is MUCH more dangerous than playing a game.

 

[Video Gone]

Batten down the hatches, another Peter Thompson wannabe ahoy! We're taking on conspiracy theories! Trim the consoles, secure the mice! We're heading in to one HELL of a fight!

 

[XJ-0461]

The Ps3 and Xbox controllers are shaped to fit people's hands and the Wii encourages movement. So there. And why the hell does he have a problem with crayons?!

 

[GRoXERs]

MS doesn't even have games a kid under 8 years would want (or at least be allowed) to play

Oh god, if only that were true... Have you been on XBL playing pretty much any game rated M lately?
Last time I played Gears 2, there was a screaming 6-year-old playing. He proceeded to swear at me like a sailor because I "took his sniper" then didn't stand still for him to TK me.
Ugh.

Anyway, back on topic, here's a picture of Michelangelo's David (or rather, David's hand.)

Spoiler: The Perfect Man

For comparison: the "damaged hands" of a child (with Mr. Tomich's wacky lines)

Spoiler: Really dude? Really?

 

[whatchamabiscut]

This is why we harvest limbs from the poor, duh.

 

[Dectilon]

To be fair, you can get carpal tunnel syndrome from using a keyboard...

As much as I think this is overblown, I wouldn't mind more ergonomic game controllers. Put Logitech on it!

 

[Logizomechanophobia]

Wait, I thought gaming warped minds not hands?

All kidding aside, repetetive movement, especially typing can result in carpal tunnel syndrome. But that doesn't deform hands per se and requires years of continous typing. Where is this guy getting his proof from? I wanna see some empirical studies or I'm calling bull.

Edit: Crap, Dectilon beat me to the Carpal tunnel stuff

 

[Echolocating]

Repetitive stress injuries are nothing new. Everything in moderation, I say.

The guy is clearly nuts if he thinks people should not play video games or color with crayons at all until they are of a particular age. I could waste my time and produce a study on the detrimental effects running has on young, developing bones, but for what reason? Tomich is clearly using fear mongering to bring light to his conspiracy theories.

Besides, we all know that video games will run with neural implants soon enough so we won't have to worry about our "crooked fingers". ;-)

 

[ssgt splatter]

Ok, the first half of the article makes sense, my fingers are a little curved but the whole conspiracy theory part...that's just dumb

 

[SomeBritishDude]

WANKER'S CRAMP!

Ahhhh! I was wondering why I had deformed hands. I didn't play video games till I was 11. This explains it.

But in all seriousness, It actually sound pretty plausible. I myself don't have deformed fingers, but like I said, I didn't play video games a lot till I was quite old. Still, the guy does sound a little loony near the end of the artical, but this may just be the escapists tendency to try and put a spin on these kinds of storys to put video games in a good light.

Also, not letting kids use crayons? WTF?!

 

[Iron Mal]

Between gaming, wanking, cracking my knuckles, martial arts, driving, writing, typing, guitar playing and other exhaustive activities using my hands I should have hands resembling a smashed dinner plate by now.

As it stands my hands are actually in rather good condition (I don't believe this claim at all).

 

[lacktheknack]

By exactly the same token, isn't holding a book also likely to cause these problems? So what, my kid is supposed to lie in his crib or bed for his childhood? Geez...

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

MY HANDS MIGHT BE PALE BUT THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL!

There's nothing wrong with my hands and I've been playing games since I was 4 years old.

 

[Cylem]

That would explain why my right ring and middle fingers are warped into a pencil-holding position, but it doesn't seem like that big of a deal... My family's got terrible joints anyway.

If you were to not move my hands at all/very much for the first five years of your life, I'd assume you'd lose motor skills or something. Babies are tactile learners after all... I'd rather have funny-looking fingers than be unable to draw.

 

[ElephantGuts]

Oh God! It's all so clear now! Videogames are a global conspiracy to slowly deform the bodies of children until future generations are only slightly more human than the Mole People...and then the Mole People will have their day of victory over the surface world...

Oh well. It'll take more than Mole People to stop me from playing videogames.

And I don't think my hands are deformed.

 

[man-man]

*Looks at own fingers*

... yeah, this shit doesn't fly. I've been playing all kinds of games (started on a Gameboy, progressed quickly on to PC/consoles) from well before I was 8, and my fingers are dead straight.