What were you doing in 1989?
If you were a kid, you were probably hoping that for your birthday or for Christmas, your parents would get you the newest tech toy at the time, the Game Boy.
This week marks its 30th anniversary
The Game Boy, the Nintendo handheld video game player. It had a small screen, no color graphics and limited buttons, but you could take it with you in mom and dad’s car or anywhere and play simple video games, ancient by today’s standards.But lots of kids wanted them and had them.
Coincidentally, along with the 30th birthday of the original Game Boy this week, comes a new study about the impact of video games on kids’ development.
The study by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology tracked about 900 kids from the age of 6 to 12. The researchers say they found that playing video games did not affect the social development of boys.
But…the study found that girls who played a lot of video games had weaker social skills over time than those who played less often.
The study also found young kids who struggled socially were more likely to play video games as they got older.
While no study applies to every kid because every kid is different, what does it mean for today’s parents who were the ones who learned to play video games on a Game Boy and now have kids who have access to video games on all kinds of devices?
Experts on child development say it means parents need to always monitor and limit the time their kids spend playing video games. And if they complain, it might be helpful to bring out that old Game Boy you had as a kid, just for fun.
(Photo credit Getty Images)