Are young men really staying home to play video games rather than looking for work?

[Mai72]

https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/its-official-playing-video-games-really-can-make-you-stop-looking-for-work-and-m.html

Interesting article. BTW, the study was focused on unskilled workers who were without a coilege degree. I know a few men in their early 20s who play CS and WoW Classic for 12 plus hours a day. Both of these men have dropped out of highschool and are pumping gas in NJ. Unskilled labor that pays about $10 an hour. What really caught my attention is this part of the article.

One recent study showed that people who choose more free time over more money are generally happier than those who choose money over time. Continuing improvements in the gaming world make it more and more fun to sit home playing games. Meantime, dwindling opportunities in an increasingly automated world means available jobs for men without degrees pay less than they used to. As a result, "For lower-skilled workers with low market wages, it is now more attractive to take leisure," Hurst said.

But like anything it comes at a cost. Leisure is great, but too much of it can be an issue. When you're in your 20s, this is the time that you should be developing your skillset. If you neglect to do this, your future is going to be that much difficult. Especially with the threat of automation. And, of course these men are happy. They have zero stress in their lives which is filled with gaming, reading books and takling vacations. Great if you have the funds, but not so great if you need to work.

Thoughts? Do you know anyone who is staying at home to play video games?

 

[IronWing]

Their lives, not mine.

 

[nakedfrog]

If they dropped out of high school, it sounds like they probably weren't ripe with ambition in the first place (obviously there have been exceptions to that, these do not appear to be them).
No, I don't know anyone like this.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Never understood kids like that. Even if I was addicted to video games (or anything really) I would much rather be doing it in my own house than in my parent's house. At least get to a point in life where you have a job and your own house. If you don't want to do anything else with your life after that, fine but at least support yourself to a basic extent.

I imagine kids who freeload on their parents get nagged at a lot by them to get off their asses, and threatened to be thrown out. Would not want to be in that living situation.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

As I said in the school bus stop thread - Kids these days don't even know how to cook outside of ramen noodles and hot pockets. As long as we keep supporting their life style the more it will grow.

 

[pete6032]

It's an addiction. Developers know that. Some people can't hold a job because they're an alcoholic, others cant hold a job because they are addicted to video games.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I know someone like this. He's 23 or 24 now and he's been doing nothing but playing games since high school. He didn't drop out of school, actually graduated, and played basketball while he was in school, but after that, he was never really able to hold down a job and just played games. Drove his mom and my bro in law nuts. Every once in a while I'd hear that he's working some odd job, but he's still playing video games a lot.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Oh and I'll be honest... I literally was that guy. I played World of Warcraft like crack... I was the most geared hunter on my server. My /played time on that character was over a year (not joking) - and I had 2 other max lvl characters.

Went to college... and magically...started wanting to chase incredibly attractive college girls... quit cold turkey and sold my account on eBay. That was when I lost my computer nerd gaming self Twas rather sad.... I miss part of it still.

But I also dropped 150+ pounds... mostly from chasing the girls. Shit is exhausting.

 

[Mai72]

I know someone like this. He's 23 or 24 now and he's been doing nothing but playing games since high school. He didn't drop out of school, actually graduated, and played basketball while he was in school, but after that, he was never really able to hold down a job and just played games. Drove his mom and my bro in law nuts. Every once in a while I'd hear that he's working some odd job, but he's still playing video games a lot.

I think much of why they play so much is because they are self medicating. I know I was like this when I was younger. I didn't have an issue with alchoal or drugs. It was video gaming. What I noticed was the reason I was playing so much was because it was an escape. Especialy today with the ultra realism of video games. And, the connection that you can make with other people. I could literally play for 10 hours a day and it would all go by in a blur. I still game but I use it as a way to relax or as a reward. I don't watch TV, but I don't use gaming to escape anymore. I have a feeling this is what the young guys in the article are doing.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I can easily see this being the case. I played video games way more than I care to admit when I was 18-22, but I still maintained employment and went to college. Addiction is real, it's a mental ailment, and some people are more prone than others to throw it all away for ___________.

 

[brianmanahan]

As I said in the school bus stop thread - Kids these days don't even know how to cook outside of ramen noodles and hot pockets. As long as we keep supporting their life style the more it will grow.

eh, that's not really a new thing

neither of my grandpas or my dad could cook much of anything besides PB&J either

guys used to get married really young and go from their mom making them food to their wife making them food

 

[snoopy7548]

Yep, not knowing how to cook isn't anything new. My dad could burn water.

If these "young men" weren't playing videogames, they'd be into something else... drugs, sex, rock and roll... anything but a job.

There are and have always been (and always will be) people with zero motivation to do anything other than waste time and work menial jobs to just barely get by.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Bad parenting is the cause. When you don't embrace retro-abortion ...

 

[Red Squirrel]

One of my college mates was addicted to WoW. But he was also one of those guys that HAS to get straight As. It was an odd combination. He would get home, study for hours then play WoW till like 3-4am or however long the raid lasted. Show up next morning with blood shot eyes due to lack of sleep, be super tired all day, and repeat the cycle all week. We had this one course called TR. Most people including myself skipped the actual class as it was pointless to go, but the whole idea of the class was to build a project on your own time, anything you want, and write a technical report on it. You had all year to do it but it was 100% self paced. I wrote a forum software which I never ended up releasing. (it was good enough to get an A but not really good enough to use in production). He kept procrastinating it. "Lots of time I'll come up with something". Fast forward to grad day. We're all together getting ready, putting on the grad suit and hat and all that and we're like "where's George?" (made up the name) The dean overheard us and is like "oh, he didn't make it". It was kind of funny but sad. Straight A's student, failed the whole program because he procrastinated one class to play WoW.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

eh, that's not really a new thing

neither of my grandpas or my dad could cook much of anything besides PB&J either

guys used to get married really young and go from their mom making them food to their wife making them food

Yeah like I said in that thread though it was moreso that women were able to do it at least... Now even they can't cook lol.

It's one of those things of we just need to take the safety labels off and let the problems solve themselves.

 

[Mai72]

One of my college mates was addicted to WoW. But he was also one of those guys that HAS to get straight As. It was an odd combination. He would get home, study for hours then play WoW till like 3-4am or however long the raid lasted. Show up next morning with blood shot eyes due to lack of sleep, be super tired all day, and repeat the cycle all week. We had this one course called TR. Most people including myself skipped the actual class as it was pointless to go, but the whole idea of the class was to build a project on your own time, anything you want, and write a technical report on it. You had all year to do it but it was 100% self paced. I wrote a forum software which I never ended up releasing. (it was good enough to get an A but not really good enough to use in production). He kept procrastinating it. "Lots of time I'll come up with something". Fast forward to grad day. We're all together getting ready, putting on the grad suit and hat and all that and we're like "where's George?" (made up the name) The dean overheard us and is like "oh, he didn't make it". It was kind of funny but sad. Straight A's student, failed the whole program because he procrastinated one class to play WoW.

Where is he today? That sounds sad.

I brought up this article to a guy I know who plays video games waaaaay to much. Maybe it was a bad idea because he looked annoyed. Lol. Anyway, he told me of course guys are playing video games. There aren't any good jobs, welcome to capitalism, blah blah blah. The inability of people to take responsibility is staggering. There are jobs. Lots of good paying jobs. We all have the same 24 hours. What you do with your time will determine the quality of your life. Play video games for hours, eat like shit and smoke cigarettes all day. Your life is going to suck. Welcome to minimum wage.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Where is he today? That sounds sad.

No idea. Last I heard he went to Toronto and went back to school. Failing this 3 year course basically set him 3 years behind since he had to start over. Meanwhile most of us were able to get a job stay in the north and buy a house etc.

 

[destrekor]

Q: Are people becoming addicted to _____ rather than looking for work?
A: Yes. Presumably since the dawn of mankind.

I'm convinced most of these people were likely to have found something to become addicted too one way or the other. Gaming can just get a lock on someone primed for addictive behaviors because of the extreme level of interaction, challenge, and reward - it stands to reason video games might just be the most likely to be experienced early in life. If they skip the video games it'll likely just be something else that's very rewarding. Some potential addicts may skip gaming entirely too just because of other interests or skills, perhaps they just suck at games (usually digital coordination) and never got that drip feed of reward hits that came with the conquest and victory.

 

[zinfamous]

But I also dropped 150+ pounds... mostly from chasing the girls. Shit is exhausting.

Holy shit, I would basically be a fetus if I did that!

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Holy shit, I would basically be a fetus if I did that!

Like I said, it's exhausting chasing those girls. They keep trying to get away too. Plus my school was built on a hill.

 

[brianmanahan]

Like I said, it's exhausting chasing those girls. They keep trying to get away too. Plus my school was built on a hill.

uphill both ways yeah yeah sure

 

[Red Squirrel]

Holy shit, I would basically be a fetus if I did that!

I'd technically be able to float. Now I'm kind of curious to try that. Need to cut out all the carbs and load up on helium.

 

[rh71]

I have little respect for the full-time Youtubers making money off that lifestyle and doing little else. Incredibly short-sighted. Google is enabling them but what do they care if the ad money is coming in...

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I have little respect for the full-time Youtubers making money off that lifestyle and doing little else. Incredibly short-sighted. Google is enabling them but what do they care if the ad money is coming in...

I have mixed feelings. Part of me agrees and part of me thinks that the people who succeed at making the lifestyle pay have zero other marketable skills.

 

[Red Squirrel]

My fear for the Youtubers who rely 100% on that income is that their whole income scheme could end at the drop of a hat. Youtube's algorithm could ban their account for some stupid reason, or some assholes could report 3 of their videos for copyright etc... it's a very fragile thing that can stop outputting fast. There is not really any staff behind Youtube it's all automated and sometimes it fails hard and it's very hard to get that fixed.

Worse is the ones doing it from really expensive places to live where they rent. If you're going to do it, make sure you're in a living situation that does not rely on a steady stream of income or at least save enough that you have a year or two of income in case the whole Youtube thing dies out completely then you have a chance to find something else.