All of us here have a deep passion for Video Games. We play them for work, and we play them outside of work. So when someone comes along and tells us that gamers and gaming are ruining the economy, you can understand that we were abundantly pissed.
A study conducted by a research team including faculty from Princeton and the University of Chicago claims that with Video Games becoming stronger distractions, more and more young men are choosing to not work, instead spending more time playing games, and hence slowing economic growth.
Younger men, ages 21 to 30, exhibited a larger decline in work hours over the last fifteen years than older men or women. Since 2004, time-use data show that younger men distinctly shifted their leisure to video gaming and other recreational computer activities. We estimate that gaming/recreational computer use is distinctly a leisure luxury for younger men. Moreover, we calculate that innovations to gaming/recreational computing since 2004 explain on the order of half the increase in leisure for younger men, and predict a decline in market hours of 1.5 to 3.0 percent, which is 38 and 79 percent of the differential decline relative to older men.
While they are right in saying that games have become more compelling over time, but so have movies, TV shows and other forms of recreational entertainment. And off these mediums have also been creating more jobs for young adults. Being a Streamer, or a YouTuber is a valid job in 2017, and much of that is thanks to Video Games.
The study then goes on to say that technological advancements have also lead to lower working hours, and hence lower income. But is that supposed to mean that we should slow down technological growth?
An obvious candidate for this decline in younger men’s hours is a decline in demand for their labor, resulting in a corresponding reduction in their real wages. There is evidence that declining demand for manufacturing and routine employment has contributed to a secular decline in wages and employment rates for less educated workers.
We ask if innovations to leisure technology, specifically to recreational computer and gaming, reduced the labor supply of younger men. Younger men increased their recreational computer use and video gaming by nearly 50 percent over this short period. Non-employed young men now average 520 hours a year in recreational computer time, sixty percent of that spent playing video games. This exceeds their time spent on home production or non-computer related socializing with friends. Older prime age men and women allocate much less time to computer and gaming and displayed little upward trend in these activities.
I can only imagine that by ‘recreational computing’, they mean watching porn and jacking off.
It seems like they they wanted to blame video games for something and this study sounded like the way to go. Honestly, this is a dumb study. Video Games have given to way to so many more jobs, content creators, worldwide events, and tons of engaging entertainment.
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