Page 18 - Bexar County Medical Society Purchasing Directory

MEDICAL
TECHNOLOGY

continued from page 17

cause of their years spent staring at
screens? do we, as a society, have a patho-
logical problem with the way we consume
social media and other technologies?
Many American families try desperately
to limit their children’s screen time in an
effort to prevent proposed negative effects
to little avail. Perhaps modern technology
has already woven itself into our society to
an extent that makes removing it impossi-
ble. Try as we may, we continue to navigate
closer and closer to our screens. To my
knowledge, no one has a solution to this
perceived problem. If there really is a
problem with this technology wave that we
Fortnite Gameplay: This is a screenshot taken just before my brother shot
down this unsuspecting enemy (gliding away via umbrella) with Fortnite’s are living in, learning more about how we
Heavy Snipe Rifle. It’s moments like these that Fortnite players live for.
interact with these advances may allow us
In our discussion, my brother and I ultimately come to the con- to tailor our consumption to avoid the consequences of this new
clusion that what seems to be a true pathological addiction, may be kind of addiction. While I am not advocating for foil hats and Nokia
something more nuanced. At the conclusion of our talk, I ask him flip phones, I am interested in learning more about these things with
directly if he thinks he has an actual addiction to Fortnite: you all.
If you find yourself in
“I think I have an addiction. I’m not so sure if it’s a problem all of the time… need of a break from the
Honestly, you have to weigh the positive and negatives. For me personally, I think stress of writing notes, com-
the positives outweigh the negatives… Instead of going out and doing a bunch of plying with federal regula-
bad stuff, or stuff that’s bad for you like alcohol and drugs, I stay at home and tions, and dealing with
play Fortnite with my friends. I live a good life, I just play a lot of Fortnite.” insurance companies anytime
soon you can download Fort-
He makes an interesting suggestion there. Could it be that playing nite to go on a free island va-
video games all of the time might actually be a good thing? Schmitt cation complete with
and livingston, in their study of video game addiction and college automatic rifles and awesome
performance among males, reported that male first year college stu- field surgeon costumes:
dents who were most addicted to video games had lower numbers Check out my discussion
of drug and alcohol violations when compared to the other students on IGd and Fortnite on the
in the study. 13 However, these same students were more likely to Apple Podcast App or
have lower first year Grade Point Averages (GPA), after controlling Soundcloud by searching “In-
for high school GPA, when compared to the other students in the vestigative Inquiries”, or by
13
study. As my brother was arguing, perhaps there is a more com- searching “Tristan C Fielder”.
plicated arrangement of positive and negative effects associated Jump to 13:50 to catch the
with playing games like Fortnite. best part, where we hear from
Whether you think video games present a public health crisis or the expert (my brother). For
a harmless good time, this is something that the vast majority of us those that crave efficiency, the
and our patients interact with daily. does my brother’s story remind Apple Podcast App allows
you of your children? do you see negative effects of gaming in your you to play podcasts at up to
patients or their families? Will our children suffer in the future be- 2X speed.

18 San Antonio Medicine • April 2019