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Study Says Gamers are Anti-Social, Drunks and Junkies

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Computer game players 'more likely to drink, ignore family and have low self-esteem'

Regular players of computer games are more likely to drink alcohol, stop talking to their family and have lower self-esteem, a new study has found

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/technologynews/4323067/Computer-game-players-more-likely-to-drink-ignore-family-and-have-low-self-esteem.html

I wholeheartedly disagree with this article, though I can imagine how easily a non-gaming person can come to these conclusions. I mean, when you look at a person playing a game, it's easy to think that that someone gets 'zombified' by the whole activity of playing a game (imagine being able to step outside of yourself, and watch yourself as you play a game. Or, even easier....ask someone to film or take a picture of you when you're really intent on your game). When you look at the photo, you'll see a person so engrossed on gaming that a person who doesn't 'get it' will come to a conclusion that it's somehow a self destructive activity of some kind.

I mean, think about it. You're just literally sitting there, for more than an hour or two, pushing buttons and flicking thumbsticks.

That's how gamers probably look to non-gamers....hence conclusions like what this study says, are probably drawn easily.

IMHO it isn't fair, and you could make the same conclusion about a couch potato (someone who watches movies / TV all day). It's funny how reading a book doesn't get the same criticism....perhaps because it's argued that you supposedly 'learn something' when you read.

So what about the ones who read Mills and Boone all day, or 'The Amazing Spider Man', or FHM magazines all day?

See how this isn't working out in favor of the study at all? Practically any human activity which involves you just 'sitting there, being engrossed' is supposedly anti-social behavior.

Granted, there are probably some who game far too much for their own good....but that's the way it is with everything else in this world. In moderation, gaming is fine, so long as you've got your priorities set straight.

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