Instead of wondering whether videogames are bad for you, does anyone think videogames are ''good for you? Or at least, better than the alternatives you could reasonably'' do?
Looking back at my youth, I think adults framed videogames as "You either play videogames or you're productive.". However, from my personal experience, it was more "You either play videogames or you self-destruct.". Because half the kids in my town ended up as drug addicts, and the other half as alcoholics. The few of us who didn't, we all played videogames.
In other words, as cringe as it is to say, I really wonder about whether videogames saved me. I mean it. I think the best case I've seen from my graduating class is one guy who's a functioning alcoholic, and another guy who's doing pretty good who plays videogames like me.
What's more than that is the fact that I feel like I have more of my day when I play videogames? Like when I spend the entire day watching...bullshit...it feels like the entire day flew by, I did jack shit, and I don't really feel satisfied at all. There are time when I boot up a game, and then two hours later I feel like I have a gigantic list of accomplishment, and then I look at the clock and like two hours have passed. It's incredibly satisfying. There's just this feeling that I've actually lived more life playing games than any other leisure activity.
It's probably also because when you play a game, it's one of the few activities of consumption that you really can't be passive. You have to physically engage with the content. Part of this might be the quality of videogames, too, though. I've noticed a lot of Gen X/Millennial gamers play solo games that are more akin to a novel (Xenogears picrel), and therefore require a lot of patience, focus, attention, and other generally positive traits of mental aptitude.