Would young men be rioting in the streets if they didn’t have video games to pacify them?
Hear me out.
We are seeing record levels of young men unemployed and living with their parents: The future for them is bleak. Saddled with college debt, they can barely get a job that pays miimum wage, while living independently is forever out of reach.
I feel like at other points of history, there would be more social unrest, but things are exceedingly calm given the economics.
I was watching a video by Healthy Gamer, a gamer bro-turned psychiatrist. He points out that video games are very addictive and seductive because they MIMIC accomplishment. You can grind to get to the next level, you can gain new skills, you are continually put on a treadmill of constant progress. It’s very satisfying in a hollow way, satisfying in a way that might make you forget that society has nothing to offer you but debt and homelessness after you followed all the rules.
Are video games weapons of mass distraction, the metaphysical equivalent of a million Christians being fed to a million lions every day?
Ok so first of all, it’s not than just young men who play video games, so it’s kinda shitty to imply that it’s only young men.
It’s also shitty to imply young men are the people who are obligated to riot, or the only people who do riot.
We’ve noticed a trend of less violence from people over the last several decades, which started before video games, so video games might be unrelated.
There’s always been something that feels like accomplishment but isn’t. Reading about how to do something tricks your brain into thinking it’s done that or is making progress on a project, but education only goes so far.
So imo it’s probably a combination of things. Video games might be one of those things but people feeling like they are rebelling by just reading about countercultural things may also be a factor, as well as humans being less violent and also maybe people are just scared and don’t want to die.