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This is a fairly long read, and the first half of it is relegated to describing the repetitive and seemingly meaningless gameplay in Mass Effect: Andromeda, however once you are past that, it gets into some very interesting discussion about young low-skilled men in society. The gist is that a bunch of twenty-something guys are wasting their 20s sitting around playing video games and that when they get into their 30s and 40s, it will have substantially effed up their lives. The article however goes much much deeper than that and touches on a lot of political and social elements that surround this phenomenon, and they do tie it all back into "real" gaming. And just a reminder, if you want to be violently forced out of gaming...again...Daikatana is on sale.
Eventually I quit playing. I already have a job, and though I enjoy it quite a bit, I didn't feel as if I needed another one.
But what about those who aren't employed? It's easy to imagine a game like Andromeda taking the place of work.
The economy has rebounded since the great recession, and national unemployment now sits below 5 percent. But that figure only counts people who are actively seeking work. Even as the unemployment rate has dropped, labor force participation—the number of people who either work or want to work—has dwindled. In particular, young men without college degrees have become increasingly detached from the labor market. And what they appear to be doing instead is playing video games.
In 2000, just 35 percent of lower-skilled young men lived with family. Now a slight majority of lower-skilled young men reside with their parents, whether they're employed or not. For those who lack employment, the figure is 70 percent. The vast majority of low-skilled young men-roughly 90 percent-have not built families. "If you're not working, as a man in your 20s with less than a bachelor's degree, you're pretty much single and childless," Hurst said last year on the podcast EconTalk.
Yet this group reports far higher levels of overall happiness than low-skilled young men from the turn of the 21st century. In contrast, self-reported happiness for older workers without college degrees fell during the same period. For low-skilled young women and men with college degrees, it stayed basically the same. A significant part of the difference comes down to what Hurst has called "innovations in leisure computer activities for young men."
Eventually I quit playing. I already have a job, and though I enjoy it quite a bit, I didn't feel as if I needed another one.
But what about those who aren't employed? It's easy to imagine a game like Andromeda taking the place of work.
The economy has rebounded since the great recession, and national unemployment now sits below 5 percent. But that figure only counts people who are actively seeking work. Even as the unemployment rate has dropped, labor force participation—the number of people who either work or want to work—has dwindled. In particular, young men without college degrees have become increasingly detached from the labor market. And what they appear to be doing instead is playing video games.
In 2000, just 35 percent of lower-skilled young men lived with family. Now a slight majority of lower-skilled young men reside with their parents, whether they're employed or not. For those who lack employment, the figure is 70 percent. The vast majority of low-skilled young men-roughly 90 percent-have not built families. "If you're not working, as a man in your 20s with less than a bachelor's degree, you're pretty much single and childless," Hurst said last year on the podcast EconTalk.
Yet this group reports far higher levels of overall happiness than low-skilled young men from the turn of the 21st century. In contrast, self-reported happiness for older workers without college degrees fell during the same period. For low-skilled young women and men with college degrees, it stayed basically the same. A significant part of the difference comes down to what Hurst has called "innovations in leisure computer activities for young men."