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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7716754" data-attributes="member: 37579">This is a tricky subject. There is very likely a chicken-and-egg situation going. The economy is bad and unemployment is high so people turn to videogames, which slows their finding of a job and boosting the economy. But I think the "Great Recession" of the late '00s is far more to blame with that. While I know politics is verboten on this forum, the decline of the USA as a world power is also a huge factor that deserves *some* mention: it's too big of an elephant. (Elephant the idiom not the political system: the decline is a systemic problem that has been going on for 20-30 years and is far beyond individual parties…) The nation peaked and is on the downward spiral, like the UK following the Second World War. The USSR broke itself trying to win the Cold War through uber communism and the US has seriously hurt itself through hardcore capitalism, but is simply falling apart at a slower rate. The past couple generations have faced the hard reality that their lives might be worse than their parents: housing and education have become harder to afford, and careers scarcer. It's something the cynical and embittered Generation X faced and now Millennials are facing it as well, knowing they might not only be worse off than their parents… but their grandparents! That's a hard, bitter reality and escapism is a nice alternative.That drives a lot of the problems mentioned in the articles, like youths staying at home longer and not finding careers. Videogames aren't a factor there… They're a symptom of a much larger problem.Ditto Japan. That nation has an ageing population. But that grey population is marked by a work ethic that pushes them not to retire and to work all the way to the grave, and experiences greater longevity than their Western counterparts. All that said, escapism and gaming CAN be a problem. Like marijuana. Pot is totally not physically addictive. It's not going to mess up your life nearly as badly as alcohol or any other drug, legal or otherwise. But marijuana is dangerous because it makes it okay to be bored. It makes you feel good without having earned the sensation and makes it easier to remain in an otherwise unsatisfying place in your life. A job or relationship or living accommodation. Because, without the easy escape, you might be more motivated to make actual and lasting changes in your life. But to some degree, it's the unavailability of the dreams. The amount of work required or the impossibility of the task that drives people not to even try. People feel trapped. Videogames are not the only cause for this. "Living for the weekend" has been around for a while. The Al Bundy situation where you come home to the television. But videogames do ramp that up to 11, with increased positive feedback.Moderation in all things...Dating is another story. Videogames potentially don't impact dating. You come home from work, you play a videogame, you go to bed. Videogames aren't affecting dating, they're affecting TV consumption. A solo activity. It's not affecting weekend activities. Kinda. The thing is, it IS tempting to just play videogames on weekends. If you don't already have plans, rather than doing something random and potentially boring (going to a singles bar, coffee shop, bookstore, or other place to meet women) you just play videogames for guaranteed entertainment. Going out to meet women or men becomes more of a social activity, dependant on the schedules of friends.I played a lot of videogames on weekends, and going out to the club was often a much needed break from videogames. But had I (and my friends) been more active during the day, I'd have stayed on the computer or consoles in the evenings to relax. And when my friends were busy, I never went out to the club solo. Not leaving the house reduces your availability. That chance of meeting someone. Meanwhile, spending your free time playing videogames doesn't make you that interesting of a person. You're not being active (and thus traditionally physically attractive) you're not engaging in activities that make for a diverse range of engaging conversations, and you're not practicing social skills. Heavy use of videogames makes you less datable. While so many other commenters here are lambasting the article for drawing tentative connections between two potentially unrelated phenomena… I'm totally going to do the same. I do wonder if the above-mentioned reduction of dating and the spike of misogyny are strongly related. There's a strong connection between the videogaming and misogyny, as seen by the GamerGate and the inherent sexism in that movement & its origins. You have an entire generation of youths who are making themselves less available to date, and thus less active sexually. Pair that with media portrayals of youth as debaucherous affairs and some pretty heavy objectification of women in videogames, and you end up with young men becoming embittered. Because, as always, it's easier to look at an external factor to blame rather than looking inward.</blockquote>

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