Gaming can lead to unfortunate outcomes such as the loss of relationships and career opportunities. “Excessive video gamers are at risk of showing lower educational and career attainment, problems with peers, and lower social skills.”¹
These long term, life-changing relational effects have not been adequately discussed by the industry and media.¹ The more time spent gaming the more strained relationships often become.² Video games preoccupy time that otherwise could be spent developing relationships, at work, or contributing to society in various ways.³
The Association Between Video Gaming and Psychological Functioning¹
Juliane M. von der Heiden, Beate Braun, Kai W. Müller, Boris Egloff- Frontiers in Psychology
“However, the media as well as professionals have underscored the potential dangers of excessive video gaming.”
“Excessive video gamers are at risk of showing lower educational and career attainment, problems with peers, and lower social skills.”
“Potential consequences of video game use have been identified as well, such as a lack of real-life friends, stress and maladaptive coping, lower psychosocial well-being and loneliness, psychosomatic problems, and decreased academic achievement.”
“On the other hand, potentially problematic video game use may also lead to psychological problems because it reduces the amount of time and the number of opportunities gamers have to practice real-life behavior.”
“Finally, poorer performance in school was related to the potentially problematic use of video games.”
“Spending many hours per day in front of a computer screen may prevent a person from (a) developing and practicing functional coping strategies, (b) finding friends and support in the social environment, and (c) showing proper school achievement, factors that are potentially harmful to the person.”
The Relationship of Online Gaming Addiction with Motivations to Play and Craving Nicole Alexandra Cross - Bowling Green State University
“As with any substance or behavioral addiction, excessive online gaming has been found to be associated with several negative consequences including considerable time devoted to playing the game (e.g., up to 16 hours per day), sleep deprivation, and social and romantic impairment. Additionally, online gaming addiction is characterized by loss of control over gameplay, ceasing participation in other activities, and risking the loss of important educational or career opportunities.”
“Online gaming addiction can also lead to psychosocial problems such as obsession with gaming and lack of real life relationships.”
What Families Should Know About Video Game Addiction Sarah M. Coyne - Institute for Family Studies
“Video game addiction can negatively impact the family dynamic. Gaming can cause problems in the parent-child, sibling, and marital relationship.”
“Conflict may be high as families struggle to know how to talk to the individual about their gaming habit. Parents might feel completely overwhelmed, seeing a problem in their child, but not knowing what to do about it. Spouses may resent each other, especially if gaming causes a loss of employment or influences the co-parenting relationship.”
“Families would do well to understand the major symptoms around pathological video game use and intervene where appropriate when a significant problem arises.”
“Spouses reported gaming decreased help around the house, talking with their children, and financial loss due to the money spent on video games and problems at work.”
Game Over: Video Games Strain Relationships with Friends and Family² Meghan Vivo - Video-Game-Addiction.org
“Research published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence links young people’s use of video games to poorer relationships with friends and family…The more time students spent playing video games, the worse their relationships with peers and parents got.”
“The most striking part is that everything we found clustered around video game use is negative.”
“Young adults who spend a lot of time playing video games are more likely to be involved in risky behaviors like drinking and drug abuse.”
Are Video Games Negatively Affecting Marriages? Frankie Wallace - Head Stuff
“Last year, a highly publicized study by the company Divorce Online found a correlation between divorce and the popular video game Fortnite.”
“When they talked to the spouse of the gamer, 75% of women stated that they wished their husband would spend less time playing and more time being an active part of the relationship and that the constant gaming usually led to arguments.”
“When it comes to video games, 57% of children say they have been bullied while playing online games.”
Study finds young men are playing video games instead of getting jobs³ Ana Swanson - Washington Post
“When I play a game, I know if I have a few hours I will be rewarded, he said. With a job, it's always been up in the air with the amount of work I put in and the reward.”
“Yet in the new research, economists from Princeton, the University of Rochester and the University of Chicago say that an additional reason many of these young men — who don't have college degrees — are rejecting work is that they have a better alternative: living at home and enjoying video games.”
“As of last year, 22 percent of men between the ages of 21 and 30 with less than a bachelor's degree reported not working at all in the previous year — up from only 9.5 percent in 2000.”
“Young men without college degrees have replaced 75 percent of the time they used to spend working with time on the computer, mostly playing video games.”
“People have switched so much time, more time than we would have predicted, to computers and video games, and our model attributes that to technological progress.”
“The paper attributes one-third to one-fifth of the decline in work hours by less-educated young men to the rising use of technology for entertainment — mainly video games.”
“They find evidence that a portion...of the decrease in work time of less-educated young men can be a result of the appeal of video games.”