Sir, – With great interest, I read Dave Hannigan’s piece on the “dumbing down” of sports (“Lower, shorter, dumber: many new so-called sports are just violence porn”, Sport, April 19th).
However, I was a little shocked by the language Hannigan used to describe people who enjoy playing the hugely popular Fifa video game franchise: “The nefarious influence of video games on IQs has been paramount.”
By what metric? What source? What study? Perhaps he knows, but if he does, he didn’t share it with readers. He described these “dunderhead” gamers in a stereotypical manner that would make your average Tolkien cave-troll seem like the most sophisticated being in polite society. Are we not beyond such stereotypes?
Recent studies have shown the positive impact gaming has had on people, especially with regards to mental health. Osaka University published findings in 2024 that strongly suggested “gaming actually leads to improved wellbeing, rather than just being associated with it”.
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Further, a study published in the Journal of Expertise looked at the possibility of skills from playing Fifa crossing over into the real world. The study found that Fifa players and skilled football players both significantly outperformed novices on pattern-recognition tasks and that Fifa expertise transferred to recognising real football patterns.
This suggests that playing Fifa may help develop perceptual-cognitive skills applicable to the actual sport. Quite the nefarious influence. – Yours, etc,
SEÁN KENNY,
Gorey,
Co Wexford.
Joining the dots between men, stupidity and fighting
Sir – I note that all of the “dumbed down” sports listed by Dave Hannigan in his article about collective stupidity are ones in which men are the main or only participants. The conclusion one draws is not that humanity has become collectively more stupid, but men are searching for sports that allow them to fight each other literally rather than figuratively.
Basically, men are looking for physical combat. It seems modern sports with an emphasis on player wellbeing don’t fulfil that need.
Sadly, of course, too many kicks to the head impairs their cognitive abilities. Dumb and dumber. – Yours, etc,
SHEILA O’FLANAGAN,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.
