Video Game Driving School — More Dexterity
I had an odd/potentially scary realization while driving the other day. I had to change lanes across three lanes to get into the right turn lane in front of Hawthorn mall. This was during the snow and there was a fair amount of traffic. Well while I was crossing these three lanes, rather quickly, and checking my blind spots and mirrors this car in front of my splashed a bunch of slush onto the windshield and I had to push the windshield washer cleaner button while turning on the turn signal while maintaining a decent speed so as not to get rear ended and then negatively accelerating 
quickly because I still had to turn.
Now, this is not a horribly dramatic situation, but it was a lot of things happening at once and I handled it all in stride without even really flinching, and I honestly think it was because I have been playing a lot of Mario Kart lately. I am not suggesting that we should learn to drive while playing Mario Kart, or that I would have crashed had I not played Mario Kart. But, right as the slush hit my windshield, I felt like when one of those squids inks my car in the game and you have limited visibility. Further, I find that I am often holding down the right D-Pad arrow to hold a banana behind me and holding down he button so I would be drifting at the same time to the get the mini-turbo while the ink is one the screen.
What may actually be happening is that Mario Kart doe not actually work on the driving skills, but rather it helps train your brain to compartmentalize motions at the same time. Until you have to try and do it, you perhaps don’t realize how difficult it can be at the same time to make a) your right and left hand do different actions at the same time that are actually intricate and b) make two different parts of your hand perform two separate actions while using both hands. I know there are still times when I let go to the D-Pad instead of the B-button while playing the game because the wires in my brain get crossed.
I find this skill is also emphasized in Guitar Hero. It find on the guitar (especially once the orange button is added) making my left hand function usefully while keeping the right hand strumming to be challenging during complicated sections. I find it even more challenging on the drums once you add the foot pedal. I have only played the drums once, but there were many times when I just wanted to hit the foot pedal but I would hit one of the drums also. The whole experience makes me appreciate piano players and drummers quite a bit. Guitar players also, but not quite as much as the drummers.
Some of your will mock me for saying that these games are difficult and that I am comparing them to real life, but until you try these activities, don’t mock. I am good at video games, and I am cooridnated, so that I find these tasks challenging means there is some difficulty to them. I get very excited when I find that video games or television has made my life better because people are always giving those mediums a bad rap. I also plan to make sure Isaac plays some of these games to develop advanced coordination. According to Time Warped, jugglers have 5% more gray matter than the average person, presumably because they have to coordinate both hands together. I wonder if people who play games like Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution have similar results.
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Tags: Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, Isaac, Mario Kart, Snow, Time Warp, Video Games
