CraftyRole4567 t1_ix3q1hj wrote on November 20, 2022 at 2:59 PM

Reply to comment by LizardInASuit in Survey on 12,000 secondary school-aged students (12-18Y) shows that although many adolescents are spending considerable time gaming (at least 3.5hours/day),it is not having a negative impact on the wellbeing and 44% of ‘heavy’ gamers reported higher wellbeing than those who play less or don’t play by giuliomagnifico

I know people who game a lot and are perfectly functional people, physically healthy and with lots of friends in real life. I don’t think it’s an inevitable outcome to have depression or anxiety or weight gain, but especially when we’re talking about kids this young I think that the problem is that they aren’t going to all react identically. Some of them are going to be able to maintain mental & physical health, and life/school/game balance, just fine! Some won’t. The problem is that we don’t know who’s who when they’re 12.

24 hours of gaming a week seems like a lot that young. At that age I was still figuring out what kinds of things I wanted to do, but there was time to try music lessons or different sports. (That said, I probably spent 24 hours a week reading, easily… back in the 80s my teachers worried that that would make me fat and lacking in social skills and friends! ;)