| | TV and the brain. TV is passive and most studies have shown that even rats become dumber when exposed to TV over a long period. The moving images capture the attention, but it is only when one flexes his or her mental muscles that they grow.
On the other hand, the "first person shooter" games, as well as computer gaming in general have been shown to build various kind of perceptual and mental skills. Because of these violent games, the average high-school graduate applying to the Air Force tests at the skill level of a WWII Ace fighter pilot, in terms of motor coordination, reflexes, three dimensional imaging, etc. - all the fighter pilot skills and aptitudes.
On another front, because in many of the most popular games you are acting as a member of a team or platoon, fighting an organized group of opponents, the kids are acquiring the ability to keep track of multiple characters mentally, without a major effort, which is why the various TV dramas sitcoms now often have twenty or more major characters, as opposed to five or six up to about 15 years ago. Both the script writers and the viewers have upgraded their mental skills substantially.
Unfortunately, 99% of the schools never caught on to the opportunities that the computers provided. Even though products such as the LOGO programming language were tested extensively, especially at MIT, where it was developed specifically to teach good epistemology to young kids, and shown to work really well in building mental capacity, very few schools had or have yet today a clue. The schools, including the Montessori schools in almost every case, tried to plug the computers into the slot of an interactive workbook, and then, as the computers got cheap and powerful, as a tool to do other things, like writing a paper. Rarely did any school of any kind, private or public use the computers for what they were perhaps most valuable for - building active intelligence.
I note in passing that a fair number of home schoolers did and still do forge ahead in using the computers more creatively. The other sad thing is that the computers themselves have become increasingly dumbed down, for which I mostly blame MicroSloth.
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