The inspiration for this post came from when I originally started doing some research into this topic, and then became alarmed at the scale of clearly motivated research and unreliable datasets. There’s no point in linking someone to a journal article claiming that video games are unhealthy when 90% of journal articles erroneously claim that video games are healthy. It would be the same problem with cigarettes and cancer in the 50′s, except unlike with video games, people couldn’t visibly notice themselves getting cancer after smoking.
It’s more of an “I think therefore I am” sort of proof, since the harm is visible and obvious to all victims, but like with fast food they have to pay attention in order to notice that they feel unwell afterwards. That’s the opposite of unfalsifiable; it’s instantly falsifiable. Look for an article saying that video games relieve stress, play a video game, pay attention to whether you feel cognitively exhausted afterwards, and then it’s immediately clear that something doesn’t add up.
My goal here is to minimize harm. Advising people to quit cold turkey is increasing harm. Which is why I gave a list of games that serve as alternatives.
You’re right that with a post this long and controversial, I should have put my core arguments in the first paragraphs instead of sprinkling them throughout. That was very poorly thought out on my end.
The inspiration for this post came from when I originally started doing some research into this topic, and then became alarmed at the scale of clearly motivated research and unreliable datasets. There’s no point in linking someone to a journal article claiming that video games are unhealthy when 90% of journal articles erroneously claim that video games are healthy. It would be the same problem with cigarettes and cancer in the 50′s, except unlike with video games, people couldn’t visibly notice themselves getting cancer after smoking.
It’s more of an “I think therefore I am” sort of proof, since the harm is visible and obvious to all victims, but like with fast food they have to pay attention in order to notice that they feel unwell afterwards. That’s the opposite of unfalsifiable; it’s instantly falsifiable. Look for an article saying that video games relieve stress, play a video game, pay attention to whether you feel cognitively exhausted afterwards, and then it’s immediately clear that something doesn’t add up.
My goal here is to minimize harm. Advising people to quit cold turkey is increasing harm. Which is why I gave a list of games that serve as alternatives.
You’re right that with a post this long and controversial, I should have put my core arguments in the first paragraphs instead of sprinkling them throughout. That was very poorly thought out on my end.