I was in the local chippie at the weekend and could not help but notice the odd behaviour of a group of adolescent males. One of them was in the queue and then got excited when somebody he knew came in, and started leaping around him and waving his arms around. Then there were six or seven of them standing in a circle outside the chippie eating chips and sort of gurgling and yipping at each other in no language which I recognised. Occasionally one would grab another around the neck while the others guffawed, blowing chips out of their open mouths. If this is what spending endless hours on video games does to people then God help the human race!

To be fair Annie I would be surprised if all yoof that behaved in that fashion could be correlated with spending vast amounts of time on video gaming....and vice versa

Just as neither you nor I are Victor Meldrew as we're over a certain age - well me anyway

That sounds like me most weekends and I'm 37

The Playstation (1, 2 , 3 and 4) has been a big part of my life too

Whats the average time per day on a playstation nowadays ?
2 hours ???.

If the lifespan of the human animal is currently around 80 years and (hypothetically spending that daily waste of time playing from birth until death) then 6.7 years of that would have been spent holding a controller, developing chronic RSI, and doing nothing else.

bah humbug.

Just as well have not played on those machines at all, just added value and been a credit to society, and then died at the age of 73.3.
Or alternatively carried on until 80 and contributed 'that something extra' from your life to those around you....

Your choice I suppose.....................

I've been playing on the PlayStation since I was an OAP and I turned out just fine.

Anyway, what did you order from the chippie?

I cannot believe there is such an odd view towards people that play games?

Firstly, there are idiots in any generation, just because you didn't practice neanderthal behavior, doesn't mean people you went to school with didn't. As a secondary, how is this got anything to do with people enjoying playing games?
We all did, it's just the game changes. Games are media, people consume media, often there is narrative built in so its not a large leap especially with today's games to compare them to a film. Never watch a film, read a book, listen to the radio?

In every generation we have heard that the peers believe the media of today will rot ones brain. Today its VR, games, not so long ago it was films and tv and going back people said the same about radio and books.

Now, I don't play many games any more but I still enjoy a hour or so every few weeks to pick up something, perhaps play with a friend online. Its a good social leveler and does bring people together that wouldn't normally interact.

The notion of one wasting there life as they play "computer games" is idiotic

ultimately, unless you are procreating or actively working to the better of the human race. You to are "wasting your life"

What Sam said.

What I said.

None of which is an idiotic notion or an odd view.



There's one thing to be in control of your level of time utilisation towards 'recreation'.
Maybe an hour or so every once in a while demonstrates you being in control.

There's another thing for 'recreation' to be in control of the useful timespan its going to release back for you to use for other things in your remaining life.
Maybe 2 hours a day demonstrates the opposite to you being in control.

?????

John, you pointed to an average user spending 2 hours on a playstation?

How does this differ from traditional media consumption?

https://www.statista.com/statistics/528073/uk-survey-weekly-time-spent-playing-video-games/

TV statistics quote,
In 2017, the average UK adult aged 16 years and older watched 3.73 hours of television per day, a slight decrease compared to the previous year and approximately 34 minutes less compared to six years earlier in 2010. As in the years before, older viewers generally spent longer hours consuming television compared to younger demographics, with adults in the age group of 65 years and older watching 5.72 hours of TV everyday, compared to only 1.67 hours per day in the age group of 16- to 24-year-olds. Children consumed an average of 1.43 hours of television daily. As of January 1, 2017, there were 26.74 million TV households in the United Kingdom, 1.42 million households more than a decade before in 2007. The leading TV broadcasters in 2016 were the BBC with nearly a third of the audience share, followed by ITV and Channel 4.

source https://www.statista.com/statistics/269918/daily-tv-viewing-time-in-the-uk-by-age/

Your argument seems to be pointed towards "Gaming" rather than media consumption.

As always, there needs to be balance in life.

Good points there Samsite999. I haven't watched 'TV' for two years now. Can't stand the crap. I'll either sit and watch a documentary, a video on youtube that I can learn from (Dinosaurs lately!) or a movie, or play on the PS4 while the TV is on.

That lot will probably total 12hrs a week. I just can't abide trash TV or 'news' or any form of sport. Other than that I'm at the martial arts club, at work, spending time with my son or out socialising with friends.

Video games have gotten to the point where most of them are far more immersive than movies these days. Some have better, less 'political' stories too... The 'Uncharted' games spring to mind. I love them.

So how do you spend your days then Jon?

He spends his two hours on Xhamster. Right arm like Arnie!

Lol.

hahahaha pinnin

Come with me if you want to live?

I think that all this ADHD etc is probably caused by needing to be mentally stimulated all the time. People are no longer able to sit still, or to do nothing.

And communicating with noises instead of words, I'm sure that's happened since Space Invaders.

From the chippie I ordered two veggie burgers with salad and mayo, and a medium chips to share. It's our payday treat once a month.

And another thing - all these stupid words made of two other words.

Brexit is the first one that springs to mind. Then there's coatigan (a cardigan that's more like a coat), wackaging (packaging with wacky jokes like the innocent smoothies cartons),celebutant, edutainer ...

And then there's all these ridiculous dog ones - sprollie and sprocker and jackchi. There is one name for all of these dogs and it is MONGREL!

I can't remember who said that if we don't change the English language, our children will. But this bastardising of words just seems lazy to me, like the English language is leaning on corners chewing gum.

This is a real education Annie!

Actually language, like everything else in life, is always in a state of fluidity whether we like it or not; words and phrases come into fashion and phase out again - remember the tawdry "not three bad"?

It's probably more to do with one's resistance to change which can be more or less depending on one's circumstances.

As a step parent to 2 teenage boys, I can confirm that all the above is entirely conventional behaviour.

Interestingly, many word-mangling teenagers turn into well-spoken critics of the same behaviour in later life.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.