I gamed heavily on my laptop for the first three years of its life. Not so much the past two, but it's been fine. I guess those first couple of years of playing all day every day didn't hurt it. What you're doing—simply closing the lid and allowing it to sleep, rather than shutting down—is what Apple recommends users do with their laptops. Keep doing it. About three months ago I’ve made the decision to stop playing video games and actually start fucking taking control of my life! By all standards I’ve had a unhealthy relationship with video games and would like to share some key tips in dealing with video games addictions.

• Video games were at least as strong as TV at predicting attention problems, study said
  
• TV and video games have a similar relationship to attention problems
  
• AAP recommends that parents limit 'screen time' to less than two hours per day

(Health.com) -- Parents who believe that playing video games is less harmful to their kids' attention spans than watching TV may want to reconsider -- and unplug the Xbox. Video games can sap a child's attention just as much as the tube, a new study suggests.

Elementary school children who play video games more than two hours a day are 67 percent more likely than their peers who play less to have greater-than-average attention problems, according to the study, which appears in the journal Pediatrics.

Playing video games and watching TV appear to have roughly the same link to attention problems, even though video games are considered a less passive activity, the researchers say.

'Video games aren't less likely than television to be related to attention problems,' says the lead author of the study, Edward Swing, a doctoral candidate in the department of psychology at Iowa State University, in Ames. 'They were at least as strong as television at predicting attention problems.'

However, the study doesn't prove that video games directly cause attention problems. It could be that kids who have short attention spans to begin with might be more likely to pick up a joystick than a book, for instance.

The relationship between video games and attention is probably a two-way street, Swing says. 'It wouldn't surprise me if children who have attention problems are attracted to these media, and that these media increase the attention problems,' he says.

Swing and his colleagues followed more than 1,300 children in the third, fourth, and fifth grades for a little over a year. The researchers asked both the kids and their parents to estimate how many hours per week the kids spent watching TV and playing video games, and they assessed the children's attention spans by surveying their schoolteachers.

Previous studies have examined the effect of TV or video games on attention problems, but not both. By looking at video-game use as well as TV watching, Swing and his colleagues were able to show for the first time that the two activities have a similar relationship to attention problems.

C. Shawn Green, Ph.D, a postdoctoral associate in the department of psychology at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, points out that the study doesn't distinguish between the type of attention required to excel at a video game and that required to excel in school.

'A child who is capable of playing a video game for hours on end obviously does not have a global problem with paying attention,' says Green, who has researched video games but was not involved in the current study. 'The question, then, is why are they able to pay attention to a game but not in school? What expectancies have the games set up that aren't being delivered in a school setting?'

Experts have suggested that modern TV shows are so exciting and fast paced that they make reading and schoolwork seem dull by comparison, and the same may be true for video games, the study notes.

It's unclear from this study whether that's the case, however, because Swing and his colleagues didn't look at the specific games the kids were playing.

'We weren't able to break [the games] down by educational versus non-educational or nonviolent versus violent,' says Swing, adding that the impact different types of games may have on attention is a ripe area for future research.

The study also suggests that young kids aren't the only ones whose attention spans may be affected by video games.

In addition to surveying the elementary school kids, the researchers asked 210 college students about their TV and video-game use and how they felt it affected their attention. The students who logged more than two hours of TV and video games a day were about twice as likely to have attention problems, the researchers found.

These attention problems later in life may be the result of 'something cumulative that builds up over a lifetime' or 'something that happens early in life at some critical period and then stays with you,' Swing says. 'Either way, there are implications that would lead us to want to reduce television and video games in childhood.'

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the leading professional organization for pediatricians and the publisher of Pediatrics, recommends that parents limit all 'screen time' (including video and computer games) to less than two hours per day.

For his part, Green says that how much time kids spend playing video games should be a matter of common sense and parental judgment.

'A hard boundary, such as two hours, is completely arbitrary,' he says. 'Children are individuals, and what makes sense for one won't necessarily work for another.'

Copyright Health Magazine 2011

'Hi Guys! Lory here with some tips on how to record your Mac screen.' If that sounds familiar, than you've been watching too many gamer videos. It's time you made your own.

The Mac comes with a very easy to use screen recording program built in. It's called QuickTime Player and it is the perfect way to get started in the business. If you've completed your training and are ready for a screen recording program with more features, we've got some recommendations for you, too.

How to record your Mac's screen using QuickTime Player

QuickTime offers the fastest, easiest way to quickly get to screen recording without any fuss or muss.

1. Launch QuickTime Player on your Mac (The easiest way to find it is to search with Spotlight).

2. Click on File from the App menu on the left side of the screen.

3. Select New Screen Recording from the drop-down menu.

4. Click on the caret next to the red button to select your audio options.

5. Select your Microphone. If you aren't using an external mic, choose Internal Microphone. If you don't want to record audio, choose None.
6. Select Show Mouse Clicks in Recording to display a dark circle that appears when you click on the screen.

7. Click on the red record button to begin recording your screen.

8. If you want to record your entire screen, click anywhere on your screen, then click the prompt.
9. If you want to record a portion of the screen, drag your cursor from one corner of the section to the other, and then click record when prompted.

10. Click the Stop button in the Menu bar on the left side of your screen when you're done recording.

How to record a higher frame rate using QuickTime Player

Anyone that's tried to use QuickTime to record fast-paced action games will know that the frame rate is not very good. QuickTime usually records at 30 FPS, which will look choppy when you're playing fast-paced games.

There is a little trick that will increase your frame rate when recording with QuickTime. It is possible to improve the recording speed to as much as 60 FPS.

1. Click on the Apple menu icon in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.

2. Select System Preferences from the drop-down menu.

3. Click on Displays.

4. Select the Display tab.

5. Tick the Scaled option.

6. Select Larger Text.

7. Click OK when prompted to confirm that you want to scale the resolution of your screen.

This isn't an official way to increase the frame rate when recording your screen with QuickTime, but it seems to work pretty well most of the time.

Best advanced editing screen recording apps for Mac

If you want to do more with your gaming sessions than just record and publish them, there are a few programs out there that will let you do some extra stuff, like edit before publishing and the like. These are the best one's for the Mac.

Capto

Capto is a solid screen recording app that works with full HD, in full screen, and at 60fps. It also works with your iPhone or iPad so you can record on any screen you want. It has a handful of editing tools so you can trim and crop videos, as well as annotate clips. When you've finished editing your screen capture video, you can push it to all the social things with just a click right from Capto.

When you're ready for the next step in editing your gaming sessions, Capto is the perfect advanced-beginner program

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• $29.99 - See in the Mac App Store

iShowU HD

ShinyWhiteBox has been building recording software for the Mac for years. iShowU has grown into a feature rich program that gives you tons of recording options, including connecting to your Mac's camera if you want to build in a little personality. You can even record your keyboard and mouse activities to help your viewers to know what to do next. It has automatic full screen recording detection that will switch to full screen recording as soon as you switch to full-screen gaming.

If you're looking for a program that lets you do more than just record your screen, iShowU HD has all the goods. You can download a free trial version to see if it's the right program for your needs.

• $29.99 - See at ShinyWhiteBox

Screenflow 6

ScreenFlow is probably the most versatile and robust screen recording program that also has an intuitive and easy to use interface. You can record your Mac screen, iPhone or iPad, and capture your Mac's camera image, all at the same time. You can also edit videos with an editing program that looks a bit like GarageBand. You can even produce animations and motion graphics and add closed caption subtitles.

ScreenFlow has all the important recording and editing tools you need and presents it with a clear and understandable interface. You can download a free trial to see if you like it before you buy.

• $99 - See at Telestream

OBS Studio

Open Broadcast Studio is an open source software program for videos and capturing real-time screen recording. It has a lot of helpful tools for setting up the perfect recording ahead of time and includes audio mixing tools to help you adjust your sound for those moments you yell with glee (or anger). It's a little complicated, and takes some getting used to, but it's free and works really well. It's got more recording and set up options than QuickTime, but won't cost you any money to use.

• Free - See at OBS Project

Any questions?

Do you have questions about recording your Mac's screen using QuickTime Player? Put them in the comments below. If you have suggestions for great screen recording software for the Mac that we didn't mention, we'd love to know about it, too.

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C.J.'s next Fishing Tourney will be in July

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