Video Games and Your Child’s Brain
Issue #1989
- WEALTHY: Like it or not, your stocks are under pressure (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: A potentially serious problem with your kids’ favorite pastime (Dr. Al Sears)
- WISE: War Games vs. reality
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- 3 easy ways to talk to strangers (Ilise Benun)
- Michael Masterson on selling - the world’s most valuable skill
- It’s Good to Know… 3,400 articles (and counting)
- Add "atrophy" to your vocabulary
It’s OUR Birthday… But YOU Get the Presents
“My goal is to get you to understand something, remember something, realize something and (ultimately) do something that will make you healthier, wealthier and even wiser.”
With those words, Michael Masterson kicked off the very first issue of ETR back on June 5, 2000… and now, nearly seven years later, we’re celebrating ETR’s milestone 2000th edition by offering you some of our best programs at very deep discounts.
Would you like to earn $375,000 from your own business 3 years from now? Have you dreamed about retiring to a gorgeous second home out in the country or up in mountains? Or for now are you just hoping you could get a 25% raise at your job this year?
ETR is here to help ambitious people like you succeed. Our programs give you the information, the tools and the encouragement you need to get going and reach your dreams and aspirations.
Right now many of our programs are available at up to 65 percent off regular price – that translates into hundreds of dollars in savings.
If you want to be in a better place six months to a year from now, today is the time to get started.
The One Thing Pushing Your Stock Prices Around
By Rick Pendergraft
"Hey Rick, why’d that stock rise/drop?" This is a question I hear often. I usually answer that it went up because of buying pressure or down because of selling pressure.
Some people may think I am being a smart-ass, but I’m just telling the truth. Regardless of news surrounding a stock’s motion, buying pressure or selling pressure is the only reason for a price move. Sure, that pressure can be the result of any number of reasons, but the price doesn’t move until the pressure is there.
This is why I encourage investors to take advantage of "sentiment analysis" when they are considering an investment. Sentiment gauges how much potential buying or selling pressure there may be on the stock. Look at it this way: If most of the investment world is bullish on a stock, odds are they already own it, leaving very little room for additional buying pressure. On the other hand, if everyone is bearish on a stock, but you like it, there is plenty of room for buying pressure to push prices higher … especially if the company announces some positive news.
Two of my favorite sentiment tools are the Short Interest Ratio and Analyst Ratings, both of which can be found on Yahoo! Finance.
[Ed. Note: Find out how Rick Pendergraft can help you make money - no matter what the market’s doing - as the editor of ETR’s new investment service, the ETF Options Trader. ]
David Lightman: "Is it a game… or is it real?"
Joshua: "What’s the difference?"
War Games (MGM, 1983, screenplay by David Bischoff)
Video Games and Your Child’s Brain
By Al Sears, MD
Did you play video games when you were a child? They weren’t around until I was in college. But nowadays, kids all over the country are spending a lot of time in front of the TV or computer, playing those games.
That’s a big change. And with the arrival of ever-better technologies, video games are increasingly vivid, realistic - and addicting.
I’ve wondered for years whether playing these games influences brain development. I think it might make a kid’s brain work faster, able to process more visual information. And my nine-year-old son seems to be able to multitask in ways I can’t. But I’ve also wondered if there’s a dark side to brain development, induced by the shocking brutality in some of the videos. Now, for the first time, I’ve found new evidence that violent video games do alter brain functioning.
Researchers at Indiana University in Indianapolis used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to map out which parts of the brain are stimulated when kids play different types of video games. One group of adolescents played a violent game called "Medal of Honor," while another group played an equally exciting but non-violent game called "Need for Speed." After 30 minutes, doctors collected the MRI data.
The teens playing the non-violent game showed activity in the frontal area of the brain. This is the area associated with concentration, inhibition, and self-control. The teens playing the violent video game showed no activity in the frontal area of the brain. Instead, the game activated their amygdala. This is the "reptilian" brain that’s associated with emotional arousal - especially anger.
This study is sobering for a number of reasons. The reptilian, or limbic, brain is the least cerebral and most animal-like part of the brain. It’s where your most basic instincts reside. Instincts to do with things like feeding, survival, and procreation.
This works well in times of crisis. If you’re starving, your reptilian brain will drive you to find food. If someone is chasing you and you’re in danger, this part of your brain will put you into "fight or flight" mode. In other words, to protect yourself, you’ll either become violent or you’ll run for your life.
But this area of your brain has no capacity for logic, reason, or objective decision-making. It has no way to express tolerance, understanding, or love. Now consider that millions of teenagers are over-stimulating this portion of their brain for hours every day.
Cause for concern? I think so. Because other research has shown that both repetitive actions and repetitive thoughts hardwire your brain, reinforce whatever actions or thoughts you’re practicing, and make it more likely you’ll repeat them in the future.
What do I mean by "hardwire"? There are connections between your brain cells that are called dendrites. Repeated activities stimulate dendrites and create neural pathways between different parts of your brain. The more you practice a certain activity, the stronger that neural pathway becomes. These structural changes are the physical mechanisms of learning.
And your brain, like the rest of your body, follows the "use it or lose it" rule. Neural pathways that are not being used eventually get "pruned."
The Indiana University study, coupled with what we know about conditioning and learning, is not proof that playing video games leads to violence. But it does give us reasonable cause to suspect that children who spend a lot of time firing up their reptilian brains may be more prone to violence - and may be less likely to have self-control.
An extreme example of this occurred when authorities discovered a teenage girl who had been locked up in her bedroom for her entire life. Her parents never spoke to her, never touched her - never even acknowledged her. They kept her alive by sliding trays of food under her door.
When police arrested the parents and rescued the girl, she was 12 years old. She was unable to communicate with words, as she had never spoken or been spoken to. Psychologists tried to teach her to speak, but she couldn’t learn to do it. After running brain scans, they discovered the area of her brain that rules speech had atrophied. Due to lack of use, the neural pathways had collapsed - in this case, irreversibly.
I’m not suggesting that all kids who play violent video games will go nuts and lose their ability to be rational. But the nature of the human brain is clear: Practiced behavior becomes dominant. Functions that are ignored get cut off - sometimes forever.
I’ve never bought my son a video game. Yet they are so popular among his friends, he is still exposed to them. I suspect your children or grandkids are too. And I think there is reason to keep the violent ones away from them as much as you possibly can.
I have one other practical piece of advice for you if your child or grandchild is having a hard time controlling his or her aggression. You might consider a nutritional supplement.
Studies show that omega-3s have the power to reduce aggression and violence. For instance, British researchers gave violent prisoners a fish oil supplement along with their regular daily meals. In a matter of days, the prison guards started to notice a change among those prisoners. The results showed that the group taking the supplement had a 37 percent decrease in violent offenses and a 26 percent decrease in overall offenses.
Your brain is 60 percent fats, and omega-3 fats are essential for your brain to function properly. Children today suffer from a dramatic omega-3 deficiency. And violent video games just might be making a nutritional deficiency worse.
I give my son a daily teaspoon of cod liver oil as a natural source of omega-3 fats. These days, you can find it without the bad taste of the cod liver oil my grandmother used.
[Ed. Note: When you can’t spend time in the sun, cod liver oil is the most effective and reliable source of vitamin D. Dr. Sears uses it so much that he has begun importing his own cod liver oil from the cold waters of Norway. It’s completely free of mercury. Get yours HERE.]
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Networking Tip: Get the Conversation Going at a Networking Event
By Ilise Benun
Putting yourself out there and making contacts could be crucial to the success of your business. But if you’re shy or if you have a hard time talking to people you don’t know, networking can be next to impossible.
Here are three easy ways to get the conversation started:
1. Take charge of your table.
Whenever you find yourself at a table of strangers - at a conference or seminar, for instance - designate yourself "table moderator." Suggest that everyone introduce themselves and exchange business cards. Then listen carefully as the introductions are made, and make mental notes about the people you’d like to get to know better or follow up with after the event.
2. Use the buddy system.
Whenever possible, network in pairs. Being introduced by someone else makes conversation easier, especially if you’re shy about meeting new people. Be sure to return the favor by giving quality introductions to your colleague.
3. Put your Web address (URL) on your nametag.
When you go to a networking event or conference, put your Web address on your nametag, along with your name. Not only will it be a conversation starter, it will also plant a little seed, giving people the idea to visit your website.
[Ed. Note: Networking expert Ilise Benun is the author of Stop Pushing Me Around. Get more networking strategies with Ilise’s free e-newsletter, Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor.]
Treasures From the ETR Archives: Michael Masterson on Selling - the World’s Most Valuable Skill
[Ed. Note: Our mission at ETR is to help you reach all your goals, and to help celebrate our upcoming Issue #2000, we are presenting you with some of Michael Masterson’s most powerful, life-changing messages to date. To read each full article, click the link embedded in the text.]
"On the road to wealth, developing a financially valuable skill is the most important step. It’s the foundation upon which every other step is based.
* * * * *
"Face-to-face selling is both an art and a science. The artistic parts - timing, tone of voice, charisma - are intuitive. So there’s not much you can do about them. The scientific parts, though - what needs to be said when - can be greatly improved by planning and practice."
* * * * *
"Contrary to what you may think when you get out of college, the world is really NOT looking for smarter advertising. Despite our best hopes and the results of every focus group I’ve ever attended, most people most of the time want to be sold hard.
"Hard doesn’t mean hypey. Hard means ‘Convince me! Make me a believer.’ Hard means understanding the complex emotional/psychological desire of your prospect, recognizing his beliefs and feelings, and giving him a big, multilevel promise that makes his molecules shake.
* * * * *
"There is something basic to every business that I call, for lack of an MBA education, the ‘basic selling dynamic.’ By that, I mean the fundamental things you have to do to make a single profitable sale: figuring out where to advertise, how much to spend on advertising, how to position your product/service in terms of the competition, how to price it, what kind of guarantee to give, etc. Until you get that working, the future of your business is uncertain."
[Ed. Note: Learn how you can be part of an exclusive group of 25 to 50 ambitious businesspeople that Michael will be leading through an elite 5-day program that can help you dramatically increase the profitability of your business here.]
ETR Contributors Weigh In On Our 2000th Issue Celebration…
"I always find something practical in ETR that I can use immediately."
"Early to Rise would have delighted Benjamin Franklin… and I’m sure he would have read it as avidly as I do. I always find something practical in ETR that I can use immediately.
"Sometimes it’s a health tip, which tells me, as one recent article did, that I don’t need to buy CLA if I eat grass-fed beef. (As extensively as I read in the health field, I have never seen that anywhere else.) Sometimes it’s the reminder that other people struggle in the same areas I do, and how they solved their problems. Most of all, I think it is the honest and straightforward manner in which Michael writes that means so much. He shares his experience with us rather than simply telling us what we should do.
"Having had the pleasure of meeting Michael at Bootcamps, I am further impressed with how much he sincerely wishes to help people reach the success he has. I know many people are thankful to him for the insights he has given them. I know I am.
"ETR’s positive tone and down-to-earth advice remind me daily of the actions I need to take to be healthier, wealthier, and wiser. And the beauty of it is I know I am wealthier, and I hope wiser, as a result of reading Early to Rise.
"Thank you, Michael, for providing me with a daily dose of inspiration via Early to Rise."
Virginia Avery
Communications Specialist and ETR contributor.
It’s Good to Know: 3,400 Articles (and Counting!)
Over the past seven years, Michael Masterson has written:
- nearly 1,200 full-length ETR messages
- more than 2,000 brief articles
- more than 170 journal and blog entries
Turn YOUR Brain into an Idea-Generating Cash Machine
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Word to the Wise: Atrophy
To "atrophy" (AY-truh-fee) - from the Greek for "not fed" - is to waste away or deteriorate.
Example (as used by Dr. Sears today): "After running brain scans, they discovered the area of her brain that rules speech had atrophied."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker… build your self-confidence and intellect… increase your attractiveness to others… just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR’s new Words to the Wise CD Library, on-sale now through the 28th to celebrate the 2000th issue of ETR.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007