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Why are so many young people addicted to video games? (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 136 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

~~parents are less involved in their kids lives~~
~~it's no longer safe for kids to play outside in many places~~
~~societal distancing is worse then ever~~
~~there's a mental health crisis that has been ignored~~
~~there's a lack in healthy role models and an abundance of toxic ones~~
~~all across the world there's political turmoil caused by politicians convincing the people to hate eachother rather than those in power~~
~~addiction has been normalized, kids watch their parents glued to their phones and they learn~~
~~kids are taught that they can become anything but will need to come to grips with the reality that they simply cannot~~
Muh video games

Video game addiction is a symptom of multiple societal issues, you cannot simply solve it dealing with the symptom.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Thanks this is far better then the posts blaming parents like they're the only vector in their child's life.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago (1 children)

While parents certainly have a part to play societal issues are the underlying cause.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And making their parents lives better would address most of those societal issues.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago

Of course but that would require threatening the capitalist class and the politicians cannot allow that for obvious reasons

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

But it's so much easier to just blame the one thing, pretend to do something about it, and claim we've made progress.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

It's not just that it's easier to not fix the fundamental societal issues, it's that the politicians make money from not fixing them.

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[–] [email protected] 95 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What else are they gonna do? Play outside in the 100+heat highway adjacent parking lot?

[–] [email protected] 67 points 4 months ago (1 children)

We closed all the youth centers, made it illegal to loiter, banned them from places like coffee shops and malls, made parks miles away from residential home, prevented them from any mobility until they're 16.... It's those damn video games!

I mean god forbid we let them go outside and have unstructured time. They might get addicted to something.

[–] slaacaa 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I mean god forbid we let them go outside and have unstructured time.

That wouldn’t make our capitalist overlords money

[–] [email protected] 83 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I am 51 years old. I distinctly remember "articles" with headlines like this about arcades and the Atari 2600 when I was a kid. This bullshit never ends.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago

Not to mention the younger generation with no work ethic, unlike in my day.. 5am start 6 days a week.. builds character.. then school.. uphill.. both ways.. respected our elders.. bought first house with 22.. kids now.. no respect.. video games.. no work ethic.. living with parents at 30.. avocado on toast.. no house.. AVOCADO ON TOAST.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I wonder about "critical" addiction. I don't remember reading about people putting 12h a day into atari intellivision, nes era platforms

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

IDK, I certainly would've if I could as a kid, because NES and Atari were tons of fun. I probably did actually do that on occasion when doing a sleepover with friends (we loved the Olympics game for NES with the pad).

I wouldn't say I was addicted though, I excelled in school and made sure to finish my school work on time. But I really did like games, and I still do.

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[–] 2ugly2live 50 points 4 months ago (2 children)

"And now our next story. Despite record heat waves, funneling money from public programs, ipad kids, crowed and underfunded schools, book bans, increasing everything so parents can afford less, increasing political unrest and an ever present threat of violence due to lacking gun control, kids seem to only want to play video games!"

[–] [email protected] 35 points 4 months ago (1 children)

“Kids no longer desire to go play outside.”

Outside: record heat waves; strip malls; endless, soulless commodification of human experience; hostile adults; constant, overprotective ties to the rest of the world via invasive tech; hostile capitalism…

Oh, and all this is depressing everyone.

[–] Plopp 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Those things are absolutely contributing factors. But don't be so dismissive of the allure of video games. I grew up in paradise compared to what you describe, and we did play outside pretty much all the time. Then the NES came out. Our parents had to pry our asses from the TVs and throw us outside after that and threaten us with punishment if we didn't go outside to play. All we ever wanted to do was play Nintendo from there on out. Then some friends got computers... Yeah not much time was spent outside in paradise after that. And these days many games are designed to be addictive, to make you spend more time in them. We didn't have that and we were still hooked.

I'm not saying that to bash games or anything, I still love games and have been a computer nerd since back then, I'm just saying.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

I was a child with an NES and virtually every Nintendo machine thereafter. Parents said my first language was Nintendo.

I still played outside all the time. I regularly rode my bike all over town. I didn't have to be threatened to play outside. I dunno, people and situations are different, I guess.

That said, it's certainly harder for kids now. I have a hard time imagining letting my kid ride a bike all over town, mostly because of traffic and stupid drivers. The free public places I used to hang out with my friends are largely gone now. Plus, like you say, the games are now designed to be addicting specifically in the ways that regularly extract more money from players. It's just kinda bad if you're not versed enough in the gaming ecosystem to know what's a worthwhile experience and what's a cash grab.

[–] steeznson 13 points 4 months ago

Yes the decline of "third spaces" which are not work or home is a huge factor. Even in adults who in theory could meet at their local pub (assuming they can afford a £7 pint and it hasn't shut down).

[–] [email protected] 48 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

10 years old... impossible to resist

The solution here is parenting.

I have kids that age, my kids have consoles, and they don't play into the wee hours of the morning. Why? Because I don't let them. I don't have draconian parental controls or whatever, I just tell them they're not allowed and put consequences in place if they disobey. As they get older, the allowed playtime goes up, provided they're meeting their obligations.

It's not rocket surgery, just don't suck at being a parent.

That said, I imagine there are cases where even a good parent can not notice deviant behavior like this. But for the vast majority, a few rules and regular checking in should cover it.

[–] Zahille7 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I know when I was a kid I always wanted to sneak out (to the other room) and play more games after bed. ~~A couple times~~ Many times I did. And I got caught, and got in trouble.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yup, that's my plan as well.

I learned far more about setting reasonable limits by getting caught than I ever would with software blocks. I was very curious about computers, so I probably could've gotten around software blocks if I tried, but the guilt of my parents catching me and explaining why I need limits was much more effective.

It takes more effort, but hopefully the lessons learned are more lasting.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Yep I would try to find ways around. Games my parents wouldn't get me I'd give money to my friends to buy me a copy when they went off to get their own. And that's fine. Important thing is boundaries are something they are aware of even if they break them. That to me seems like parenting. It's not fool proof and rules are going to get broken, but it's not a reason to not make an effort.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Every console and PC has parental controls that limit screen time. It's 100% on parents if they don't set it up.

Or, do what my mom did and take it away. I hated her for it, but I admit 20 years later that that was called parenting.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I refuse to use parental controls, because I know my kids will find a way around it (I would). I instead set firm rules with relatively severe consequences if they're not followed. Once I login to the PC, there's no time limit, content filters, etc.

That said, my youngest kept getting into the Switch and messing up peoples' saves, so I put a parental lock on it, but I told my older kids the code and told them I trust them with it. If they abuse their time with it, they lose the console privilege.

It seems to be working. I'll probably give them a PC soon since they're doing a decent job stopping when their timer goes off (they set the timer according to our rules). We have limits (2hr max per day, must be done with homework, they earn time by reading), but again, I don't enforce them with software, I enforce them with the threat of loss of privileges.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Why are so many old people addicted to propaganda?

[–] slaacaa 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It’s their form of escapism

[–] Tylerdurdon 39 points 4 months ago

Escapism in this world? Imagine that...

[–] Zomg 35 points 4 months ago

Idk, same reason older generations liked TV so much. Keep in mind they had to air the "It's X o'clock, do you know where your kids are" commercial because they literally were glued to the TV. So when an older person says some shit about video games, remind them of this.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago

Serious boomer shit that somehow managed to completely miss the question of why the kid was that heavily into games in the first place. The very idea was mentioned once, in the whole article. As an aside. Blegh.

[–] kylie_kraft 20 points 4 months ago

just a cope for the shitty world that the people who write articles like this helped to create, nbd

[–] Zachariah 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Also of concern:
Why are so many people addicted to reading?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Addicted to reading drivel.

I wouldn't mind if my kids were glued to books all day, but newspaper opinion pieces should only be used as toilet paper.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Hey! Those poorly translated east Asian novels that all seem waaaaay to similar to be anything other than one persons fever dream replayed 47 times are just interesting enough to keep me going back.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

We need more third places that kids, teens, AND adults can access. Without needing to drive to them.

[–] njm1314 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Well it's either that or heroin

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Why not both?

[–] steeznson 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

His first console was a gameboy advance? My first was a gameboy and I'm 31! How old is this jabroni from the article?

"Sixteen at the time" is doing a lot of work in this article.

[–] Reddfugee42 10 points 4 months ago

[–] Nacktmull 8 points 4 months ago

Make real life great again /s

[–] Noodle07 8 points 4 months ago

I'm 29, started gaming at 7yo on the game boy color. Just did my resume and cited videogames for a bunch of skills they gave me. This article is 20years too old

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

If I were young I would totally play all the games I could. They young ones saw 2008, pandemic, wars, inflation. If not escapism then what?

[–] kwozyman 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So many comments on this thread are very dismissive and just wave it off as "bad parenting" or "escapism". While both of those arguments are valid and probably a very big part of the problem, should we leave everything on the parents?

We don't allow businesses to sell alcohol towards children because we know it's extremely harmful and addictive. Should we simply let it free for all and then blame parents for not teaching their children that alcohol is bad and for allowing them to go out to the local shop and buy alcohol? Same goes for multiple other restrictions. Not all parents are responsible and educated enough to know how to parent. Articles like this at least show unaware parents this is a real threat and they could at least keep an eye out or educate themselves on the parental control available.

[–] steeznson 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Parents need to accept responsibility for their children's behaviour. Obviously a separate example from this article but the recent suggestion that we should ban sales of mobile phones to under 16 year olds was entirely driven by pearl clutching parents who are unable to say "no" to their offspring - or at least spend 5 mins setting up parental controls.

[–] kwozyman 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Banning phones is an extreme measure. No restrictions whatsoever is an extreme measure. Articles like these simply start the conversation for the society at large to find a solution and, as I was saying in my initial comment some parents are simply unaware of how addictive video games can be. For many older generation (and even some of the younger parents out there that had no contact with video games) video games are often attributed to children's toys. The truth however is not that simple - some games are for children and some are engineered from the ground up to be as addictive as possible. Even if the final responsibility lies with the parents, we need to have those parents informed and articles like this do that.

Often times, things are not black or white but multiple shades of grey. Should we demonize video games? Absolutely not, they're not only fun but they can be a great tool to develop social skills, critical thinking and other adult skill. Should we inherently trust all video games and all parents to "do what's right"? No again. There is a balance in everything and dismissing unbiased articles like this one isn't helping anyone.

[–] steeznson 3 points 4 months ago

Kind of disagree that the article is unbiased. However I do agree with your general point that these issues are a matter of shades of grey. For example, lootboxes are 100% predatory and even parents who are older gamers might not be aware of them.

[–] ChowJeeBai 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Have a SIL that is convinced the exposure to tech is a good thing, and doesn't believe in 'time and place' moderation. Guess what, her kid is addicted to his cellphone at every family gathering. Lol.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's so dumb. Exposure to technology is neutral on its own. It depends what the tech is being used for whether it's a good or a bad thing.

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