The first videogame was created in 1958 by Physicist William Higinbotham and was a very basic tennis game (not to be confused with Pong). Little did he know his creation would lead to a whole new subculture that comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Some say the disadvantages outweigh the advantages; others say the opposite. But what are the facts? As it turns out many of the “disadvantages” are simply misconceptions with little to no research to back them. Videogames are more than just making a figure move across a screen or lining up your crosshairs on an enemy player. They are an excellent tool which, when used correctly, can be very useful. Videogames can be what keeps a friendship together, or what tears it apart. Which begs the question, are videogames beneficial to society?
Research Findings
Despite what a person may hear, people of all ages play videogames. Earnest.com, an online lender, analyzed “the age, income, education, and gender of video gamers based on anonymized data from tens of thousands of applications for student loan refinancing” (Earnest). They then looked for keywords relating to videogames such as Nintendo, Xbox, PlayStation, etc… and labeled a person a “gamer” if they had three or more purchases containing the keywords. Their results reported 16.3% of gamers were ages 18-24, 14% were 25-27, 12.2% were 28-30, 10.5% were 31-34, 8.6% were 35-40, and 9.4% were 41 and older. However, since this data is from an applicant pool it does not represent the whole nation but can give a rough idea of what it would be like.
Videogames causing violence is a very sociologically challenging topic. Real research related to this topic is hard to come by, but as the Psychological Science Agenda says, “Some studies have yielded nonsignificant video game effects, just as some smoking studies failed to find a significant link to lung cancer. But when one combines all relevant empirical studies using meta-analytic techniques, five separate effects emerge with considerable consistency. Violent video games are significantly associated with: increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal; and decreased prosocial (helping) behavior” (Psychological Science Agenda). This issue runs much deeper than the scopes of this research, and only quotes addressing the myths and facts of this topic will be used.
Videogames “being sexist against women” is not a new idea. Unlike the topic of videogames causing violence, there is a plethora of research on this topic, mainly research against it. T.L. Taylor is a MIT sociologist currently studying the culture of computer gaming. Taylor said in an article, “If you look at the variety of devices and genres out there, women are very regularly playing all kinds of games” (Taylor). The ESA (Entertainment Software Association) found that more than half of Zynga’s, a popular mobile game developer, players are women (USAToday). While it may be less common for women to play games on a console or PC, they “are more likely to play games on social media platforms or smartphone apps…” (Earnest).
Many people have online friends that they have not met in person. A survey conducted by SKOUT, an app that allows individuals to meet new people online, concluded that 76% of Americans have online friends and 83% of them would like to meet their online friends in person. (Cision)
Society has mixed views on videogames, and the PEW research center illustrates this with their research. When they surveyed people on whether videogames were a waste of time, they found “one-quarter of all adults (26%) think most video games are a waste of time, while a similar number (24%) do not think this is true of most games. One-third thinks some video games are a waste of time while others are not, and 16% are not sure. Whites (28%), those ages 65 or older (32%), and those with at least a high school diploma (27%) are more likely than others to think most video games are a waste of time” (PEW). When they asked if videogames were sexist towards women, they found “40% of Americans say they are not sure whether video games portray women poorly. Another 18% say this is not true for most games, while 14% say this is true for most games. More than a quarter of all adults (27%) say this is true for some video games but not others. Notably, the responses to this question show no differences by gender. Young adults are split on the portrayal of women - 24% each of those 18 to 29 think most video games do and do not portray women poorly” (PEW).
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