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.
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| 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. |
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.
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