What an amazing article, and bravo to the researchers for this amazing analysis.
Now, I will get onto my down voting.
I have watched generations of men devote himself to video games. They develop amazing skills in these artificial worlds. At the same time, I was reading tons of books, writing a few of my own and generally avoiding TV and video game. Of course, I was the freak. But I cannot wonder if that life in the fantasy land a video game has not left its traces in these men.
Have you ever considered that it could be a multitude of reasons?
It’s easy to preach on high about enjoying books but I think that’s folly, we all enjoy different things and just because yours is “socially accepted” (for lack of a better term) doesn’t mean it’s inherently better. What you read is usually more important than the fact that you read, for example.
Regardless of that particular point: I find that men, especially young men, are consistently being told that their behaviour is bad. No matter what they do.
If they seek career status then they’re contributing to sexism by not making space for women (an extreme example but one I have been accused of openly).
If they seek male companionship and shared experiences they’re accused of “lad” behaviour and if it’s in public they’re usually targeted by police for loitering or giving an aura of unsafety.
If the world is hostile to you, why not retreat into a world where you basically put everything aside and feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfilment from a virtual world? The benefit is that nobody makes you feel bad about it while you’re doing it.
It’s only after the fact that people look down on you for enjoying yourself.
Note: I don’t really play games and I read a lot of books like you, but I make games and I really despise that people look down on my customers for enjoying themselves.
Reading books are another type of fantasy land - games vs books have their pluses and minuses. Video games can be far more social, but can be vapid. Books can also be vapid, and very isolating, and give you the false belief that you are experiencing things. Books and games can be intellectually and emotionally stimulating. I've read a lot and played a lot, and, as usual, I've found a balance to be the best. I don't read as much as I used to (at least fiction), and going back and reading the occasional fiction book now and then has given me a different perspective on books.
> "I was reading tons of books, writing a few of my own..."
How is this not the a different flavor of the same "fantasy land"? Even if the majority were non-fiction, there's a difference between acquiring skills and acquiring trivia [1]; pop non-fiction is not all that deep.
[1] And I say this as a person whose book collection is measured in tons.
Now, I will get onto my down voting. I have watched generations of men devote himself to video games. They develop amazing skills in these artificial worlds. At the same time, I was reading tons of books, writing a few of my own and generally avoiding TV and video game. Of course, I was the freak. But I cannot wonder if that life in the fantasy land a video game has not left its traces in these men.