It’s not them, it’s us: the real reason teens are ‘addicted’ to video games || The Guardian

[Hveðrungr]

It’s not them, it’s us: the real reason teens are ‘addicted’ to video games | Keith Stuart and Keza MacDonald

We criticise children for not going outside – while curtailing their freedoms and closing their spaces

www.theguardian.com

If we want to know why many teens choose of their own free will to spend 10 or 20 hours a week playing games, rather than pathologising them, we ought to look around us.

Gen Z are the most closely monitored generation ever to be born. We criticise children and teenagers for not going outside – but at the same time we’re curtailing their freedoms and closing their spaces. Parents will reminisce about how they spent whole days outside, cycling the neighbourhood, but at the same time they’re treating their children’s smartphones like tracking devices, demanding regular check-ins, infiltrating their social media feeds and databasing their activities and friend groups. The pandemic may have abated, but it wasn’t just lockdowns that were keeping kids indoors.

I think this is a good article: some excessive nonsense, but mostly sound.

 

[BeardyHat]

As a former game "addicted" teen, I don't see this as a problem.

While my friends were out, wandering the town, drinking from an early age, causing chaos and running from the cops (small town), I was inside, playing multiplayer Quake and later Half-Life with a friend.

Later, when my friend's started attending parties, getting into drugs, having unsafe sex, moving in with each other and living in squalor, I was deep into the world of Norrath, exploring and leveling my Ranger.

Video games kept me out of a lot of trouble as a teen and while I wasn't perfect in any way (I'd often skip school to play games, barely graduated high school, flunked out of college on my first go) and did attend parties on occasion, I mostly just wanted to exist in a digital world. Later, once I started having success with girls, that steadily dropped off and I started living more and more in the real world. Game were still a fixture and always will be, but it was what I needed at that time.

And even in the mid 90s to the early 00s when my friend's and I were teens, there weren't a lot of spaces to hang out. You weren't allowed in parks after a certain time, you couldn't wander the streets without being harassed. Most the time when we did hangout somewhere, it was the 7-11 parking lot or other vacant parking lots around town.

Basically, the situation doesn't sound too different to how it's described in this piece; people are going to find something to complain about as it relates to teens. At one time, there was complaining that Teens read too many books and lived in fantasy land, then it was Rock & Roll, Dungeons & Dragons, etc, etc, etc.

I guess this post of mine kind of amounts to nothing. I'm broadly agreeing that it's fine for kids to play lots of video games; honestly, I'm not sure what I'll tell my kids if they take a similar direction as I did when they're teens. For all my game playing, doing poorly in school, etc, I got my act together in my 20s and have had much success since then. My friends, my partying friends, love those guys, still hang out with them on the regular and talk to them everyday, but they're sort of floundering as we enter our 40s now; recovering from drug and (or still in) alcohol addiction, working dead end jobs and barely keeping their heads above water. I'm not sure if playing video games excessively lead me down the path I'm at now, but I think I'd choose games every time.

 

[Brian Boru]

people are going to find something to complain about as it relates to teens

Ain't that the truth!

People have always whinged about young adults. Here's proof

Older people love to gripe about the entitled, lazy millennial generation. But it's nothing new – by delving into the archives, we found plenty of parallels stretching back 2,000 years

www.bbc.com

Some more ancient wisdom:

They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.
—Rhetoric, Aristotle, 4th Century BC

[Young people] are high-minded because they have not yet been humbled by life, nor have they experienced the force of circumstances.
—Rhetoric, Aristotle, 4th Century BC

The beardless youth… does not foresee what is useful, squandering his money.
—Horace, 1st Century BC

 

[BeardyHat]

Ain't that the truth!

People have always whinged about young adults. Here's proof

Older people love to gripe about the entitled, lazy millennial generation. But it's nothing new – by delving into the archives, we found plenty of parallels stretching back 2,000 years

www.bbc.com

Some more ancient wisdom:

They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.
—Rhetoric, Aristotle, 4th Century BC

[Young people] are high-minded because they have not yet been humbled by life, nor have they experienced the force of circumstances.
—Rhetoric, Aristotle, 4th Century BC

The beardless youth… does not foresee what is useful, squandering his money.
—Horace, 1st Century BC

The question is: Do writers just not remember being teens themselves? Granted, I'm only about 21-years removed from being one, but I remember pretty damned well being a, for lack of a better term, generic Teen. I knew everything, anti-authority, etc, etc. Based on the teens I knew and know now, it's no different; teenagers are annoying little twits, but so are most kids, so you just smile and nod.

 

[Brian Boru]

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely Players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His Acts being seven ages.
—William Shakespeare, As You Like It

 

[BeardyHat]

The question is: Do writers just not remember being teens themselves? Granted, I'm only about 21-years removed from being one, but I remember pretty damned well being a, for lack of a better term, generic Teen. I knew everything, anti-authority, etc, etc. Based on the teens I knew and know now, it's no different; teenagers are annoying little twits, but so are most kids, so you just smile and nod.

How dare the authorities on this board edit my post mentioning my anti-authority, that's just rude.

Also, replacing my word with Twit? We can clearly see the UK/Eurocentric-Bias on display. Why do you hate all Americans @Brian Boru, what did we ever do to you beyond bring a little more Freedom(tm) to the world? 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

Very upsetting, I will be speaking to the manager and you won't be receiving a tip.

 

[ipman]

Yes it's an interesting article.

I think a number of vectors have come together.

One is the massive increase in the ability of all our new tech to create new worlds, which we can explore and inhabit while also interacting with; stories, characters and real people online.
While the outside world in our cities has become more dangerous, or is perceived to be by caring parents.

So young people who still seek adventure and excitement have to do it in virtual worlds.

There is also a traditionalist aspect of the media which likes to pit some parts of society against other parts. As traditionalists are generally older and view their pasts through rose tinted nostalgia lenses, they are led to believe that it is the young they should critique for living a contemporary lifestyle.

I did think the whole national service idea was just pandering to those traditionalists. It was a ridiculous idea unless the youngsters are playing war games and becoming the war drone pilots of the future.

And lets face it, anyone who complains about youngsters gaming, has never done any gaming. They have no idea what they are talking about.

Kudos to the Guardian which often posts articles that try to give a balanced view of gaming; through to raving about new and old games. Gaming is as we know is a new media form, based on active engagement and I think gamers are learning a lot from many aspects of gaming. And it is a good way to escape the 'nagging' parents.

 

[Pifanjr]

It’s not them, it’s us: the real reason teens are ‘addicted’ to video games | Keith Stuart and Keza MacDonald

We criticise children for not going outside – while curtailing their freedoms and closing their spaces

www.theguardian.com

I think this is a good article: some excessive nonsense, but mostly sound.

Covid lockdowns showed pretty clearly that if you restrict how much people can go outside they start watching more TV and playing more games.

 

[Hveðrungr]

How dare the authorities on this board edit my post mentioning my anti-authority, that's just rude.

Also, replacing my word with Twit? We can clearly see the UK/Eurocentric-Bias on display. Why do you hate all Americans @Brian Boru, what did we ever do to you beyond bring a little more Freedom(tm) to the world? 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

Very upsetting, I will be speaking to the manager and you won't be receiving a tip.

(Sorry, they're understandably being a bit over-cautious on this thread because I accidentally mentioned politics in the OP and they had to edit it out. My bad.)

 

[BeardyHat]

(Sorry, they're understandably being a bit over-cautious on this thread because I accidentally mentioned politics in the OP and they had to edit it out. My bad.)

Nah, I was pretty sweary, is the issue, you're all good.

I just tend to swear like a sailor, as does my wife, so I have to reign it in sometimes. My kids are very good at it too, so I've had to teach them when it's not appropriate, which I don't always remember...

 

[Colif]

Covid lockdowns showed pretty clearly that if you restrict how much people can go outside they start watching more TV and playing more games.

As someone born long before these restrictions. I would have stayed inside and done it anyway, 2020 didn't change me at all... (nervous twitch aside)

I think it only really affects those who want to run around outside...there are lots of people who did this long before they were told to stay inside... penalties for us is being told to go outside and "play"

Helicopter parents who track your entire existence need to be shot (down). Stranger danger just got carried away. Kids locked in rooms until 21... no wonder they go to Uni and want to be in a safe space. Never allowed to grow up... no danger.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I just tend to swear like a sailor, as does my wife, so I have to reign it in sometimes. My kids are very good at it too, so I've had to teach them when it's not appropriate, which I don't always remember...

I'm with Stephen Fry on that one too.

---

---

Re: Op. I also think there's a lot of hand wringing about 'screen time'. As if watching trash TV or Youtube is the equivalent of playing an involving game.

 

[COLGeek]

How dare the authorities on this board edit my post mentioning my anti-authority, that's just rude.

Also, replacing my word with Twit? We can clearly see the UK/Eurocentric-Bias on display. Why do you hate all Americans @Brian Boru, what did we ever do to you beyond bring a little more Freedom(tm) to the world? 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

Very upsetting, I will be speaking to the manager and you won't be receiving a tip.

Brian still deserves his tip and your admiration.

Me on the other hand, well...

You'll be okay.

 

[Zed Clampet]

My kids never left the house, and they seem to be well-adjusted. Doing all the right things in college. I, on the other hand, was never in the house, and I'm a complete disaster.