A few weeks ago, The Northeastern News ran an article called "Gaming to lose a Wii bit of extra weight." The article mentioned a study that found a person could burn 150 calories an hour by playing the Wii Sports game that comes with the Nintendo Wii game system. It also mentioned a website called Workout With Wii, whose creator suggests that a daily regimen of Wii-play could actually help a person drop a few pounds.
Before I'd even read the article, the headline made me laugh. It is unfortunate that so many kids, teens, and even some adults in today's society spend so much time sitting down and playing video games and so little time doing more physical activities. The overall increase in "screen time" has certainly contributed to the increase in obesity in recent years. But I actually think it would be even more unfortunate for those people to think they could use video games as a form of exercise. It's almost as discomfiting as the Burger King "apple fries" that I mentioned a few weeks ago. We have to disguise healthy food as unhealthy to get kids to eat it, and we have to create a form of exercise that requires being in front of a TV in order to get kids to do it? Of course it's better that gamers be standing up and moving a little while playing games, rather than sitting down, but an effective workout from the Wii? I don't think so.
When I did read the article, I found that members of the NU community who were quoted in it are as skeptical as I am about the workout potential of the Wii. But apparently the folks at Nintendo plan to "expand the options available for those who want to work out with the system." That's noble of you, Nintendo...but I don't think virtual sports will put much more than a wii dent in anyone's weight loss goal. How about real sports instead?
Saturday, October 6, 2007
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