As a follow up to my article about how video games have made all of us violent, I managed to find more scapegoated nonsense about games on the same website. This time its even more bullshit that I have to take this one to pieces too because of its ridiculousness. (As usual I’ve abridged the article, but the whole article is here)

Video Games Linked To Poor Relationships With Friends, Family
ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2009) – A new study connects young adults’ use of video games to poorer relationships with friends and family – and the student co-author expresses disappointment at his own findings.

Brigham Young University undergrad Alex Jensen and his faculty mentor, Laura Walker, publish their results Jan. 23 in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

The research is based on information collected from 813 college students around the country. As the amount of time playing video games went up, the quality of relationships with peers and parents went down.

“It may be that young adults remove themselves from important social settings to play video games, or that people who already struggle with relationships are trying to find other ways to spend their time,” Walker said. “My guess is that it’s some of both and becomes circular.”

Statistical analyses also revealed that the more young adults play video games, the more frequent their involvement in risky behaviors like drinking and drug abuse. Young adults who played video games daily reported smoking pot almost twice as often as occasional players, and three times as often as those who never play.

Right….can I say first of all that as a young adult who plays A LOT of games, I completely refute all this “research”. Saying that relationships between friends and family deteriorate is complete shit. In fact, I actually get to speak to my friends more regularly now because of Xbox live. If you consider how much money it would have cost for me to concurrently ring all of them would be an exponential amount of cash. So lets look at the facts. The games I play with my friends are immersive, hence we keep playing together. But that’s just on Xbox Live. What about when they come round mine? We get 4 player Rock Band on the go and have a really good laugh! This is bullcrap incinuating that as a young adult, my social skills have deteriorated. I do concur that uber video game geeks do exist, like this fine specimen of a gentlemen to the right, but I’m sure that they more anomalous. I look at all my close friends and we all play games, and we’re very good friends a result of playing games together. So go figure.

The other part of this nonsensical research is that “the more frequent their involvement in risky behaviors like drinking and drug abuse“. I’m sorry but I drink because a) I’m of legal age to drink, and b) I like to drink. It is completely mutually exclusive from video games!? And what the fuck is a “risky behaviour”? Rape? Murder? Are we back to all gamers being violent again? Anyways, the stereotypical gamer geek is a slight anomaly don’t you think? Not everybody on Xbox Live dresses up as Optimus Prime on fancy dress parties if indeed they are invited to them.

But if this is such sound “scientific” finding, then where is the remedial measures for addicts? Can I go to a rehab clinic because I’ve played too much Guitar Hero, funded by the government? No because that’s stupid. You know when you have played too much Guitar Hero because your wrist fucking hurts!

So again, allow me to forward myself as part of the experiment. I am an avid gamer and play many hours a week, write about them for many hours a week and film myself playing them for many hours a week. I am not an alcoholic, junkie OR a virgin. I am eloquent, educated, and employed. So where the fuck is your argument?

So again, Alex Jensen and Laura Walker, I suggest you get signal.