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| -Short Attention Span Theater- | |
| We’re losing a whole generation of young men to video games | |
| 2017-07-11 | |
| [NYPost] One night in the mid-1990s I tried out a computer game called “Civilization.” You started with a screen that was completely black, except for one square of land. As you pushed outward from this base, you’d make discoveries about the land around you and its inhabitants. You’d start to build a society, first primitive stuff like granaries, then advancing to roads and weapons. Trade-offs would arise: Should I build a library or a cannon? As your world advanced, you’d run into other civilizations. It was disconcerting to discover somebody else had a battleship while you were working with catapults. As I was journeyed through all of these fascinating challenges, I discovered to my surprise that the sun had come up. Something had gone haywire with time. It was already 7 a.m. If you had asked me at any point in my relationship to “Civilization” whether I was happy, I would have said no. I was ecstatic. I was euphoric. Making simulated granaries. Building simulated roads. Firing simulated cannon. These were my obsessions. After a while I realized that becoming master of a fake world was not worth the dozens of hours a month it was costing me, and with profound regret I stashed my floppy disk of “Civilization” in a box and pushed it deep into my closet. I hope I never get addicted to anything like “Civilization” again. Today millions of people, disproportionately young men, are similarly caught in the throes of video games, which are far more enticing than their 1990s counterparts and often involve many players engaging at once. The hand-eye coordination of these men is no doubt impressive, plus they form friendships and learn to work through problems in teams. Surveys tell us that these men are happy. The 1990s fear that playing first-person shooter games turns you into a violent psycho has been debunked. The problem is that for many young men, video games have become a substitute for living. They’re so addictive and soul-consuming that they’re unlike other leisure activities. Every hour spent on “Ghost Recon” or “Grand Theft Auto V” is an hour that could have been spent more productively. Sure, that’s also true of golf — but rarely do you hear that someone has quit his job and is living in Mom’s basement obsessing over putting. The problem is that for many young men, video games have become a substitute for living.Yet video-game addicts are engaged in a mass retreat from life. Men aged 21 to 30 worked 12 percent fewer hours in 2015 than in 2000. The percent of young men who worked zero weeks over the course of a year doubled in that period, to an alarming 15 percent. Those working hours were largely replaced by gaming, and fully 35 percent of young men now live with their parents or other close relatives, up from 23 percent in 2000. Their unemployment rate jumped by 10 percent. More at the link
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| Posted by:badanov |
| #26 Young people do eventually come out of cyberspace and back to earth. I was helping a friend put in a sink in a bath room and we chose nice faucets, sink, cabinets and after a weekend the half bath looked cool. My friend had a son who had been an avid gamer for years and he popped in and just couldn't stop talking about how cool his half bath was. He realized reality can be impacted by creativity and soon he was part of the remodeling crew. |
| Posted by: Glavish Wittlesbach4243 2017-07-11 18:34 |
| #25 no mo uro is correct, but then the gals are only doing as instructed/encouraged by our system. The guys are refusing to take part in a system that demands they 1st confess their original sin of being born male, and that they also spend their entire life making amends for it. And as for that inflection point? That would be the one where for a time, women outnumbered men in the workforce. The only time in the history of the Industrialized West. We have Obama to thank for that. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2017-07-11 18:30 |
| #24 Arma 3 coz it teaches you to be a sneaky f*ckin Chernarusian. |
| Posted by: badanov 2017-07-11 17:19 |
| #23 The problem is that for many young men, video games have become a substitute for living The problem is that amoral hypergamic young women told themselves that the whole world should worship their ladyparts, and that each and every one of them deserved only the most alpha male and wouldn't give the time of day to any other guy, and told themselves that it was morally acceptable to divorce a guy and take all his stuff the microsecond they were even slightly bored. Ninety percent of young women in cities and close-in suburbs are having sex with 10% of the most alpha and wealthy young men in a sick carousel, hoping that some day one of those alpha men will blow off all the other women in his de facto harem and want only her, verifying her own notion that only her ladyparts are worship worthy. And of course, if it doesn't work out, out comes the divorce club. If Chad Millionaire or Brute Billy the Biker doesn't marry them eventually, they'll settle for someone "less", but will always be looking to cheat with an alpha should one become available. The bottom ten percent of men and women console each other with themselves. Eighty percent of young urban men have little chance at all at companionship, sex, friendship, marriage, etc. Does that sound harsh? Does it sound like hyperbole? In the postmodern urban world, it describes all but some small single digit percentage of people 18-34. Rural America does a better job of matching up young people, but rural America is shrinking in population. Given these facts, young men retreating into internet pR@n and gaming is a rational act. I don't think it's ideal by any means - I would advise them to work out, be healthy, develop their vocations and avocations and be patient looking for one of those few young American women who isn't a totally hypergamic sociopath. But the response of these guys as rational actors makes sense in many ways. Thank God I was born and got through my youth before this stuff blew up in the country's face. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2017-07-11 16:59 |
| #22 You've never been trapped on an oil rig in the Gulf for 3 weeks with literally nothing to do but answer the phone twice a day:p |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2017-07-11 16:17 |
| #21 Am I the only one left in the whole world who doesn't play video/computer games? I just don't see the point in them (and have no desire to). |
| Posted by: Barbara 2017-07-11 16:00 |
| #20 For those of us brought up on ASCII terminals the two week slog was the cat's pajamas. All the high speed super graphics just made it more obvious that the computer was in control, your mind couldn't do the imagination of those "twisty passages" at the same rate. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2017-07-11 15:38 |
| #19 Railroad Tycoon Platinum.... |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2017-07-11 15:19 |
| #18 Harpoon Classic War in the Pacific Admirals Edition Flight Simulator My top three life killers |
| Posted by: Shipman 2017-07-11 14:13 |
| #17 I loved Civilization back in the day. When Civilization Revolution came out for the consoles I fell in love again, similar game without the super-nit-picky details and designed for a 2 hour game instead of 2 week slog. Yet I don't think it caught on, the typical fan wanted the 2 week slog of minutia. Go figure. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2017-07-11 13:50 |
| #16 ...unfortunately, today, 'bearing false witness' is rewarded. You taking your lumps may include 5 to 10 in prison. Not worth it. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-07-11 13:22 |
| #15 Much safer being a gamer these days. Yeah, my son is safe. But he isn't producing any grandchildren for me. The challenge in life is to face its risks, take your lumps, keep going and thrive in spite of the risks. You try to meet women, you're gonna get rejected a time or two or maybe even three or four. Shake it off and keep trying, dumbass, the right girl is out there somewhere. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2017-07-11 11:39 |
| #14 Much safer being a gamer these days. Drugs and alcohol are taking a toll on many people. Many men are not dating because the women are so difficult. Last night all young men were out and about. Not a single female. This is a very difficult world for young men but they stubbornly refuse to change. So they go and do as they wish free of the many constraints of socialization. |
| Posted by: Dale 2017-07-11 09:52 |
| #13 The problem is that for many young men, video games have become a substitute for living. TL/DR: My hobbies are ♫Great♫ and Your hobbies are time wasters for LOSERS. |
| Posted by: magpie 2017-07-11 09:52 |
| #12 Couple of comments: 1) I fell pray to the allure of Civilization too. It started when I was working on VAX computers and the screen was delimited by different characters or letters for the pieces, armies, ships, land etc. This was literally a follow on to Dungeons and Dragons (You are in a maze of twisty passages....) The challenge wore off as the bit-head in me realized that you could never really beat the machine. 2) Long about the mid '70s I read a study by psychologists that planned to deal with the anti-social inferiority complex ridden computer geeks at IBM. They were shocked, and honest enough to report, that reality did not match their preconceptions. Rather than feeling inferior, the geeks KNEW that they were superior to their run of the mill peer group and that the others weren't worth the waste of time. It was judged to be a result of the mentality necessary to be told constantly by an infallible machine that you had screwed up. Only those with incredible self confidence could deal with that. 3) living in Mom’s basement obsessing over putting. Yeah, well Mom's basement doesn't stimp fast enough. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2017-07-11 09:02 |
| #11 Games are now far more internet linked, so now they teach far more (genuine) social skills. But even games like Tetris raised coordination and quick thinking skills. Nothing is worse than the one-way IQ destroying fakenews box called the TV. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2017-07-11 08:53 |
| #10 Yeah and the generation before was lost to Console games, and the one before that to Television, and the one before that to Radio... Next up is getting lost to Social media and mobile phones. Its relatively new so people get into it - and later, like the author's experience with CIV, will decide 'meh - back to life.' and it will become a side-item. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2017-07-11 08:42 |
| #9 I had to stop playing Eve Online as it became a second job, one I didn't have time for |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2017-07-11 08:36 |
| #8 So video games are kind of like personal Galt's Gulches? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2017-07-11 08:20 |
| #7 I play Arma 3 with friends and it teaches you a great deal about working in a team, delegation, roles and communicating swiftly, verbosely and accurately! Also dealing with differing skill sets. I think computer games like Europa Universalis also enable kids to learn history vastly better than schools ever did! |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2017-07-11 08:01 |
| #6 I've seen people playing EVE online Who are very disabled and for them, it's massively liberating. Who enter into the economic aspect and learn vast amounts about trade etc. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2017-07-11 07:55 |
| #5 Some are addicted, yes. Most realize the deck is stacked against them at collages and at dating and said "fuck this". When the only way to play is to lose, people stop playing. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2017-07-11 07:51 |
| #4 The problem is that for many young men, video games have become a substitute for living. It's not just the 'young men.' The 'machines' create a dangerous co-dependency. Mind the Dodge Caravans weaving in traffic. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-07-11 07:49 |
| #3 After a while I realized that becoming master of a fake world was not worth the dozens of hours a month it was costing me, Basically describes most of popular entertainment and the spoon feeding Lefty news fronts doesn't it. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-07-11 07:42 |
| #2 Nonsense, Herb. I've this problem with Grom Jr, and he (and his friends) are definitely don't suffer from low self esteem. IMO, computer games are (inadvertently) designed to appeal to certain types of introvert, high IQ mentality. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2017-07-11 03:55 |
| #1 Why shouldn't young men dive into video games, when the world has made it clear they're the problem and getting rid of them is the solution? Oops, turns out we need these young men to work so we can get that delicious, delicious tax money. |
| Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 2017-07-11 03:47 |