Jane McGonigal TED talk.

Jane McGonigal recently did a TED talk about how games can positively influence our lives and even extend it by up too 10 years! Quite a Claim huh? Here's the link too the TED talk, take a watch and see the maths behind it and her interesting opinions on the matter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfBpsV1Hwqs

Well, that saved me butchering the maths and finer details of what she talks about! Now for my two penneth.

Firstly I'd like to say I love what Jane is doing for games and the industry and for everyday people with Super-better  It's truly inspirational and it's great that we have people like her it the world! She's taken a bad situation and made it better for herself and in doing so has not only inspired many people but also created a product to help people in similar - tragic - circumstances!

However I feel like I'd just like to highlight a few things I picked up on with some of the research and evidence she presented in the TED talk;

The top 5 things people say on their deathbed;
Now I've neither been on my deathbed nor have I been close to anyone who has been. Not close enough to listen to their biggest regrets. I've also not read the research that compiled these top 5 phrases or sentiments. This means I'm approaching this blind however I feel it is still something too consider. When people are asked questions like this often they will conform too what they think the researcher or person asking the questions wants too hear.

Say for example someone was doing a psychological study on how working hard has long term effects on people. Due to a number of bias' present in psychology it's difficult to get an accurate answer. Social conformity bias for example -  someone may say something along the lines of "I wish I didn't work so hard". This may be because they think it's what they think other people have said and don't want too stand out. Or it may be because it's what they think they want the researcher to hear. (Yes we also have a pschological tendency to do this) However people also suffer from the "Screw You" effect which is telling you the complete opposite of what you want too hear!! - Just worth mentioning!

Many people also won't want they're lasting legacy or final words too be something that is maybe more selfish or less profound, there are many things too consider with these sorts of studies, it's a very subjective area of psychology and sociology.



Also I'd like too address the fact that McGonigal claims it could add up too 10 years onto your life.
this is the claim that "worried" me the most about her TED talk.

She says studies have shown that people who practice those 4 stimuli on average live 10 years longer. She claims this information has been gathered from 1000's of peer reviewed studies. Which it will have been however, I can't help but feel some researcher bias may have crept in the the collation of the data.

I mean it's difficult for us too be objective about things when he have a particular view or opinion that we're trying to prove or reinforce. We tend to ignore the things that disagree with the outcome we want. I'm not suggesting that Jane McGonigal intentionally mislead anyone or indeed did mislead anyone. I'm just saying there is more too it than what was first presented too us on the TED talk. Since Jane McGonigal doesn't have a background in psychology I'm sure she wasn't aware of some of the problems & complications with collecting & collating such data first hand.

I'd Also like too people who have had the chance too exercise those 4 stimuli may have led very different lives to those that haven't. I'd be interested too see the sample sizes and those sampled for the study too see if it's representative of the general population. (If there was ever such a thing) I really hope that the samples were well selected and diverse too re-enforce the argument Jane puts forward since it could help many people. I really love the work that she's doing however when someone claims they could make me live 10 years longer alarm bells start too ring. Flashbacks of emails from Nigerian Princes' start to occur...

I've written my opinions here without investigating into the studies since I didn't want it too affect my initial opinions or judgements, however if I get chance too look into it I will and I'll update it here.