Updated on May 8, 2011
Since 1963 the rate of overweight or obese kids in America has tripled. One in three kids and teens today are either overweight or obese. Childhood obesity has become the number one health concern among parents. The American Heart Association lists some statistics for children ages 2-19 that are either overweight or obese.
Since 1963 the rate of overweight or obese kids in America has tripled. One in three kids and teens today are either overweight or obese. Childhood obesity has become the number one health concern among parents. The American Heart Association lists some statistics for children ages 2-19 that are either overweight or obese.
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| Unhealthy habits, photo taken from International News.com, |
Now day’s parents have to find new inventive ways to get kids to eat healthy or to exercise. Kids want to watch TV or play video games instead of going outside to play or doing moderate to vigorous exercise. Technology has been growing over the past few years and has produced interactive games, which cause people to burn more energy or calories. In this blog I’m going to talk about how interactive games have become an effective way for kids to get the exercise they need, I will admit I am only giving a few examples however, there are a lot other games and gaming consoles out there as well.
According to Bruce Bailey a professor of exercise science at Brigham Young University, in a March 10 article written in Voice of America, they found that interactive video games can increase physical activity from moderate to vigorous levels, however this is assuming that the appropriate games and levels are chosen. If the child is actively participate it could meet the requirements for physical activity.
Bloomberg Business week reported in a March 7 article, Elizabeth DiRico, an exercise physiologist for Cigna Healthcare in Findlay, Ohio, said Bailey's findings mirrored the results of a similar study she did with college-age students in 2008.
DiRico also mentioned that the exergoamers were way better than inactive digital games, and was able to introduce kids to different and fun ways of exercise that they may not have tried or thought of.
The thing with kids is not only that they're sitting in front of video games, but also there's often a lot of mindless snacking going on. This makes it harder to snack while they're doing it," DiRico said. I think the major thing is that this is an alternate or supplement to traditional exercise plans.
Not all researchers believe that all exergames are beneficial. Some games require more movement than others, for example Wii’s boxing game has several levels as well as different levels of physical activity, where as Wii’s golf game doesn’t have as many levels nor physical activity.
Interactive video games can help children burn more energy. Photo taken from voanews.com
The Wii was the gaming consol that started the whole move to interactive gaming, followed by the Play Station Move and now the Xbox 360 has brought the Kinect to the interactive gaming circle. Just in the past 5 years this technology has evolved and has become a big impact on the gaming world. Below are videos commercials demonstrating how these three gaming systems have been competing for the spot of interactive gaming system.
Wii by Nintendo
The Play Station Move by Sony
Xbox 360 Kinect by MicrosoftThe technology is out there, and people are constantly looking for new ways to change their exercise routine and if kids are willing to try this why not. It’s still getting their exercise in for the day, just in a more technology savvy way. So why not with something that is interactive, fun, and entertaining. Just don’t throw your back out.
Your use of multimedia was very good. The photographs created a great visual effect and the videos gave us extra information about the gaming systems.
ReplyDeleteYour use of sources could use a little work. The links were very good, but I was confused as to what a few were linking to until I clicked on them. I also would have put the source of the photographs in the caption for the photograph instead of in the body of the post. This added more body than was needed.
Otherwise, great job on the post! It gave out a lot of information to the readers.
I really connected with this post. The kids I nanny for are constantly choosing video games over playing outside, and these new technologies have been a blessing for getting them up and moving. You are totally right about how people are so engrossed in their technology that they are becoming inactive and unhealthy. The statistics you provide only underline further this fact (making your information more imperative)!
ReplyDeleteI think the only thing I would suggest is proof reading your posts prior to posting them. You provide a lot of great information, and I would hate for people to discredit what you are saying because of a few typos or redundant statements.
This topic gets down to the problem of obese and overweight children: video games and snacking. I think it's a very worthwhile topic that could have been a little more detailed in your post.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Bobbie's and Abbi's posts. I'd like to add a couple comments about things I learned in journalism classes. If possible, try to avoid parentheses because they give an informal feel and sort of say that the information within them isn't as important. Instead, offset information in parentheses with commas.
Also, your lead was good but try to restrain from telling us "I'm going to talk about" and try a more creative approach like, "This post examines video game technology and its attempt to inject exercise into children's routine."
Great topic to explore, especially with spring on the way (I'm getting eager to spend some serious hours outside!). Childhood exercise has definitly changed in the last two decades, its harder to get kids away from the television and video games. These interactive gaming consoles have given us a way to incorporate exercise with games. Great videos, and links the picture really gives us a good idea about how this is a pressing issue and needs to be addressed. I only found a couple grammatical errors and a few places that could have been re-worded for easier reading. For example, in your third paragraph you say "in an aritcle in Voice of America according to Bruce Bailey professor..." I would have reworded it to read "In an article in Voice of America, Bruce Bailey, a professor of exercise science says" and then begin the quote. But overall great post, very informative, I also liked your pun at the end.
ReplyDeletei agree with the above posts - this was an interesting topic, and one that is very relevant to modern life, but the post could have used some editing.
ReplyDeleteHowever, what I'd like to point out is that your post could be more in depth about the topic of video games as excercize.
First off, your article points to exercise games as a fairly recent development. However, there have been games that encouraged exercise since the 1980s - the original Nintendo (NES) had an accessory called the power pad and a series of games - World Class Track Meet, Dance Aerobics, and Athletic World that forced gamers to exercise to play the game. Although none of these games were very popular, exercise games have been in existence for quite some time.
Also, one really can't write about exercise gaming without mentioning Dance Dance Revolution - arguably the first popular game that also encouraged exercise, and one of the most successful. (One of the more popular news stories "in the day" was that a gamer lost 200 pounds by exercising via DDR)
Again, this was an interesting article, but some more background on the idea of exercise in games would be good.