On Video Games and Sloth

A long time ago (in blogging time, not real time) I posted some queries about the long-term effects of video games on society. After scouring the Internet, all I found were research papers on violent video games and whether or not they correlate with crime and then a few on video games and their effects on grades. Meh.

Recently, with the help of my kids, I got addicted to Star Wars: Battlefront on the XBox. Here's a nice intro to the game. It's quite long, but it has some good gameplay moments in the middle.

I like the game, but it eats hours and returns nothing. It's all empty life calories. You don't even get any great memories out of it. I loved the time playing, but I couldn't come back and tell you any stories about the games I played. It's a totally empty experience. After a short period of learning the game controls, it's all pleasure and no effort.

There's no way that prolonged use of this doesn't have an effect on you, particularly if you're a kid. There's no introduction to working for your fun like there is in sports or in outdoor hobbies. Can you imagine being able to go fishing and catching a huge bucket of fish after a few minutes of fiddling with the pole? Can you imagine building a go-kart in 10 minutes and then being able to use it for days afterwards?

Of course not. Other interests can't compete because the energy required for participation is so high. It's not that the pleasure is less, it's that the effort needed to get that pleasure is just colossal in comparison to video games. Kids don't regulate this themselves. Heck, adults don't regulate it well, either. Just look at the time I've spent playing Battlefront. It has to be imposed through discipline, either internal or external.

As a last note, I discovered that reading was incredibly boring after having spent a few days with Battlefront. Even reading my old favorites was difficult. There must be a psychological training that goes on as you play where you become accustomed to effortless pleasure and begin to rebel against having to exert yourself in any way to have fun.