What's up, sunshine? Happy Friday.
Friday. Yay. It is a very special Friday
for many of us because we're about to
get some extra time off. Maybe some
extra sleep for Thanksgiving break just
around the corner. I hope you get some
good family and friends time and uh some
really good grubbin, too. In honor of
the holiday, let's start the show with a
Thanksgiving.
Did you know? Did you know the first
Thanksgiving took place way back in 1621
in Plymouth, Massachusetts? A bountiful
harvest led Governor William Bradford to
plan a festival to give thanks. Around
90, Wampenogs, the Native American
people indigenous to that region, joined
for a 3-day feast which featured corn,
venison, and fowl. In 1789, President
George Washington proclaimed November
26th as a day of national Thanksgiving.
Fast forward to 1939, President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt moved it up a week in a
bid to boost the Christmas shopping
season. Say what? Talk about a new deal.
Then in 1941, Congress officially
declared Thanksgiving a federal holiday
and moved it back to the last Thursday
of the month where it remains to this
day. Okay, now let's get to the part of
Thanksgiving that just might be the best
part for some of us. The food. Did you
know turkeyy's most famous side dish
wasn't even at the first Thanksgiving?
We're talking mashed potatoes. Now, the
root cause of this issue, potatoes are
native to South America, and the
spectacular spuds didn't make their way
to North America until the 1700s.
Pop quiz hot shot. what is widely
considered the first commercially
successful arcade video game. Pong,
Space Invaders, Pac-Man, or Asteroids.
If you said Pong, you serving. Based on
table tennis, Atari installed the first
Pong machine in 1972 at a restaurant in
Sunnyale, California, where it stopped
working after just a few days because
its coin box was jammed with too many
quarters. As many of you head into a
well-deserved break this Thanksgiving, a
lot of us might spend some time playing
some video games, maybe on our phone,
computer, a gaming console. Well, check
this out. A new study out of Hong Kong
shows that spending too much time binge
gaming as it's called, could have some
serious consequences on our moods and
our quality of sleep. So, how much is
too much? I caught up with the doctor,
my friend Dr. Sanjay Gupta, to help us
understand and acquire some knowledge
that might help us out. Check it out. Is
gaming entirely bad? Are there any
positives to playing games? I
>> I think there there are and we're
starting to see more of that as you see
more and more people who are gaming. By
the way, about 80% of people game and
about four and 10 people, 40% are doing
it every day. So, you know, this this is
a pretty common thing, but I think it's
surprising why people are doing it.
They're obviously doing it for the
enjoyment of gaming, but overall there's
some some real benefits. 72% are
actually doing it to play with others.
That kind of surprised me because you
think of that as sort of a solitary
activity. 42% say they've actually made
friends online. 32% say it's helped
their mental health. So, you know, we're
starting to get data on this because I
think there were a lot of assumptions
made about gaming and now we're starting
to see the real world. At the same time,
there are concerns about attention and
depression and overall impact on mental
health in the long term.
>> Right. Yeah. It's uh one of those things
that it can create fellowship, right?
someone who may be sitting right next to
you. My neighbor and I, we call it broa.
Instead of yoga together, we're doing
broa. We're playing a game, spending
some quality time. It definitely can
bring people together even who are in
different states or countries. What is
interesting to me, Koi, is that when
someone starts gaming, they often times
are really quite attentive to that and
that can actually help build those
attentive areas of the brain.
Interestingly, as you get better at the
game, as you sort of go into default
mode because you're so good at it, it
can actually start to decrease
attention. So, two things can be
happening in the brain sort of over time
from gaming. First, maybe more positive
and then second, interestingly, as you
get better at it, actually decreased
activity in certain areas of the brain.
>> Let's dig more into that. Uh talk about
some of the downsides of binge gaming.
Okay, we know some things in moderation
generally maybe not bad for you, but
when you're going all out all day on a
game, what are some of the downsides?
>> I think the the headline here is that
when people are starting to to border on
what is known as a gaming use disorder,
it typically means that they are no
longer able to do things in their normal
life without gaming getting in the way.
I think that's the that's the the
biggest thing to sort of measure. I am
gaming right now. Should I be doing
something else? And for students
obviously their homework, their sleep,
their social interaction with family and
friends, real life interaction, that's
when you know it's typically a problem.
And the threshold seems to be somewhere
around 3 hours a day. So which is a lot,
you know, uh it's a lot of screen time
just on the games. But when once you get
beyond that point where you're starting
to see it interfere with activities of
daily life as it's called, that's when
it becomes problematic. Sometimes I get
the same sort of feeling from a
competitive aspect and a wanting to win
aspect when I played in the NFL. It's
kind of that same that that um you know
pressure to perform and you know my
teammates are relying on me. Can I get a
good score for the team? So that's
personally what I feel at times.
>> I imagine that some of the same areas in
your brain that were activating when you
played football, obviously it's a very
physical game, but some of the same
brain areas were probably activated in
gaming. show us like what parts get
activated or what kind of hormones might
be released as you're start playing
games.
>> So there's all these different areas of
the brain. The thing about gaming is
that so many different areas are being
activated. So first of all, just in
general, this is the last part of your
brain to develop frontal loes and
prefrontal areas and that's your that's
your judgment and that's also
inhibition. So in the beginning you may
have more inhibition because you're sort
of figuring out the game. As you get
better and better at it, your inhibition
may start to go down. Now you need
inhibition in life. So if you get too
disinhibited that could be problematic.
Uh you got visual cortex which is near
the back of the brain. You have spatial
areas which is on the right side of the
brain. But I think a big one koi is
really sort of more at the base of the
brain which is your emotions your
amydala. And these games can be very
stimulating uh to that particular area
of the brain. So again uh in moderation
it appears to be a good balance between
inhibition emotional centers and all the
other things once you start to overdo it
and interestingly when it becomes rote
that's when a lot of these areas sort of
will decrease in activity instead of
increasing. So that that's a little
counterintuitive but that's essentially
what's what seems to be happening over
time.
>> And for all the people out there not as
smart as you who don't know what rote is
really quick
>> wrote just uh routine just something
routine
>> learn something new every day. There you
go. It
>> it is interesting if you just look at
games overall, puzzles overall, uh word
puzzles, crossword puzzles, soduku,
things like that. Um people think of
those as brain training exercises, which
they can be. I mean, they can actually
make you better at, you know, words or
numbers or whatever it might be that
you're doing. So, I think that's
probably the closest sort of thing. The
difference I think between video games
and those things is again video games
are really designed through the imagery,
through the way that they move you up
level to level
>> to keep you hooked,
>> to keep you addictive. I don't think
anyone's ever been overly overly
addicted to a cross word puzzle, but you
sort of do it, you move on. Video games
are different.
>> I love it. I get smarter every time I'm
around you. I'm so glad our viewers get
to enjoy you as well.
>> I try not to be ro try not to be ro.
>> You are the best. If I do Sanjay so
myself.
>> Today's story getting 10 turkeys out of
10. A heartwarming holiday tradition
that's helping those in need. Have you
ever participated in a Friendsgiving?
Group of friends in Warwick, Rhode
Island gather every year for their
annual dinner. And over the last few
years, they've started using the
gathering to help make the holiday
season brighter for others. They build
meal baskets for struggling families.
Don Burgess said they started it during
the CO 19 pandemic and the idea and the
guest list has grown each year.
>> Three years ago, I said, you know, maybe
our friends would like to get in on the
action and have a little party and stuff
some baskets.
>> Now, it's a full-blown holiday assembly
line. This year, they knocked out 17
baskets complete with all the fixings,
the dessert, and yes, even turkey. They
deliver the baskets to families just
ahead of Thanksgiving and say it's been
an amazing way to come together to make
their community a better place.
>> You feel extremely good after you
deliver your baskets to the people that
are in need. It's a great feeling.
>> Rise up. Time now for some Friday
shoutouts. This first one goes to Mr. So
cool. All of our friends at Hammond
Academy of Science and Technology in
Hammond, Indiana. Thank you for making
us part of your day. And a huge shout
out to our YouTube subscribers,
including Mr. Jwitt from Estego Middle
School in Esteego, Michigan. You rock,
dude. Like you, we are going to be
taking the next week off for
Thanksgiving break, but be sure to
follow us at CNN10 at Koiwire on
Instagram for some exclusive bonus
content, teaser, maybe even some fun
behindthe-scenes videos that uh we'll be
posting throughout the week. Play that
Friday music nod there. I am thankful
for you, big dog, and Chelsea and
Brendan and Sabrina. Love my CNN 10 team
and we especially are thankful for all
of you. You are why this is the best 10
minutes in news. Stay hungry for
knowledge and turkey and stay curious.
You are more powerful than you know,
especially around the holidays. Make
someone smile. I'm Koi Wire and we are
CNN 10.
Heat.