The Opening Stages of Research Have Begun

Hello all,

Progress has been slow since my initial blog post. As of yet, I have still failed to acquire a mentor for my project, but it has been suggested to me that I inquire of the neuroscience department staff at San Diego State University and UC San Diego regarding possible mentors for my project. As having a mentor for guidance is a core standard of the Sage Creek Genius Project, this is both a setback and a step forward at the same time: while I still have yet to acquire a mentor (due in part to my revising my Genius Project idea over this past summer), I now have the information I need to begin a genuine mentor-recruitment process that is suited to my particular Genius Project.

Regarding the progress I have made on the actual project itself, the process of researching the benefits of video games regarding anxiety reduction has begun. As of yet, my approach of study has been fairly simple; my main focus is currently to research the sandbox genre of video games (such as Mojang's Minecraft) and analyze their effects on the human brain. In the case of Minecraft, the serene, vast landscapes allow a player to become completely immersed in his/her world, free to engage in any activity as desired. This makes Minecraft a perfect game for anxious individuals to play in order to relieve some of the anxiety currently plaguing them. Other than this, progress has, as stated in the beginning of the blog post, proven to be fairly slow.

The large, serene worlds of Minecraft are perfect for enabling anxious individuals to relieve some of their pent up anxiety. In these worlds, players are free to explore as they choose without restriction. Image taken by David Meinen.

Regarding my passion for this project, I am pleased to say that my present idea is just as appealing to me as it was when I wrote my first blog post. As I mentioned, I love to play video games to relieve my own anxiety and I am at present interested in a career in medicine, so by combining these two interests into one Genius Project, I can explore the health benefits of my favorite pastime: video games!

Regrettably, given how little progress has been made in my project (again, in large part due to my project receiving a makeover over the summer), I am unable to say that I have as of yet made any impact upon my community. However, as I accumulate information from various sources regarding video games' capacity to alleviate anxiety, I firmly believe that I will be able to recommend a particular genre of game to individuals struggling with anxiety; this is ultimately my goal for this project.

Lastly, in regard to challenges that I face as I pursue the end goal of my Genius Project, the biggest challenge at the moment is simply acquiring a mentor to guide me as I accumulate my research. In addition to this, a mentor is absolutely necessary according to project guidelines, so I am hoping to remedy this complication as soon as possible. In terms of overall challenge, however, my biggest obstacle is time itself. Among school work, extracurricular activities, etc, I am experiencing increasing levels of difficulty in allocating time to work on my Genius Project. As time moves along, however, I intend to develop a research plan that will regiment how much time I am to spend per week researching video games.

That is all for this post, but I do hope that you all will continue to stay tuned for further updates. I guarantee that this will be an exciting journey, especially if, like me, you immensely enjoy playing video games! I look forward to writing my next post.

Introducing. . . Video Games as an Anxiety Alleviator!

Hello all!

For those of you who are unaware, the senior students at Sage Creek High School are now in the production phase of the two-year-long Genius Project, an endeavor in which students attempt to find a solution to a problem they choose to examine. Regarding my chosen project, I have decided to research the effects that different genres of video games have on the anxiety levels of different individuals.

On the surface, this project sounds like it would be a simplistic endeavor. Ok, you might be thinking, research is a great place to start, but how will research help you to solve a problem? To answer that question, I need to describe exactly what the problem is that I am trying to find a solution for.

The modern world is a wondrously fast-paced environment where there is constantly activity, whether that activity takes the form of employment, academic studies, entertainment, etc. Despite the many benefits that emerge from such an environment, there exists also a glaring side effect of the world's current status that has been demonstrated to be only to humanity's detriment: anxiety.

This man is experiencing an extreme anxiety attack, which is exactly the problem that I am attempting to use video games as the solution for. This image was taken from WordPress.

Given the immense amount of anxiety present in the modern world, especially in today's high school students, and given that I hope to one day pursue a career in medicine, I decided that I would like to attempt to find one solution to this pervasive problem.

Now, given that I have explained the problem I am attempting to solve, you are probably wondering how I am planning to attempt to develop a solution. As it happens, I am an individual who immensely enjoys playing video games. Whether I am engaged in solo play or I am having fun with good friends, I find that I am consistently engaged playing video games whenever I need to relax. Thus, the idea for my Genius Project was born: researching different video game genres and their abilities to alleviate (or, in some cases, not alleviate) anxiety, and develop sample "Anxiety Reduction" plans that contain recommendations for which types of video games to play whenever a person is feeling a certain emotion or is in a particular mood.

Regarding my progress with my Genius Project: at this point in time, unfortunately, I do not have any progress to report. Aside from beginning this biweekly blog, I have only reached out to a new possible mentor at this point in time. I am sure that you are probably wondering, Given that you have been working on this project since midway through junior year, how is it possible that you have not made any tangible progress on  your Genius Project?

Well, the answer to that question is complicated. Since the conclusion of my junior year, I have come to the conclusion that my previous Genius Project idea (researching all manner of stressors and their alleviators and then performing experiments to test the effects of the aforementioned stressors and alleviators on fellow students that volunteer) was much too broad to yield tangible results by May 18 of this year, the date of the TED-style presentation to be given by all seniors. Thus, I decided to narrow my objectives to make the project more manageable for a high school senior, but I still faced the question of what to focus my project on. As I thought about it, I realized that what I really love to do is to play video games, and I thought that if I could use video games as the focus of my project, I would finally have a Genius Project idea that I would genuinely be interested in. As a result, my current Genius Project was born, and I am looking forward to taking the first steps on this educational and practical journey of my investigation into the abilities of my favorite pastime to alleviate anxiety.

As I move forward, my first steps are going to consist of conducting research to determine which video game genres are ideal for relaxation. I realize that this sounds simplistic, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, but I assure you that the realm of video games is quite extensive; henceforth, more than a little effort is required to narrow down the many genres to those that are ideal for anxiety alleviation.

Despite the long road ahead, I am definitely looking forward to the journey. If you would like to view a visual representation of my Genius Project idea, please click here to view the pitch I presented to teachers and peers in June 2015. Note that the pitch is a bit dated as it was created to reflect my previous Genius Project idea, but the basic idea remains anxiety mitigation.

Finally, if you have any comments to offer me, please do not hesitate to do so; I welcome and value any feedback that you give me about my project.