Dude, you don’t have a job because of video games!
We are sure of one thing: the economies of Russia, Ukraine and the whole world are changing. As factory jobs dwindle, young people without higher education are increasingly faced with the problem of unemployment. According to the latest research, video games are the main reason people stop looking for work.
So how does gaming affect unemployment? Scientists – economists from Princeton, Chicago and Rochester have put forward the theory that being in a video game creates a comfort zone, so young people do not even think about looking for a profession. They feel much happier living with their parents and spending all their free time in front of the screen with a joystick in hand.
Numbers
Since 2007, time spent playing video games has grown by an average of 5 hours.
There is enough data to support the theory. According to research, 22% of men between 21 and 30 years old do not work or work at all without a bachelor’s degree. These figures create a large gap with 2000, when only 9.5% were not looking for a profession in the same situation.
Instead of getting busy, these people spend 75% of their “working time” playing computer games. On average, these unemployed people spend 8.5 hours a week in front of monitors. In the pre-crisis period, from 2004 to 2007, a man in the same situation spent only 3.5 hours a week on games.
The time spent in games has increased by an average of 5 hours. It’s hard to pinpoint the root cause of the jump, but the researchers believe they’ve found the source.
Scientists have conducted statistics that open their eyes to the fact that the reason for the increase in time spent in front of monitors is technological progress in the gaming industry, which has developed significantly compared to the same pre-crisis period.
Many popular games look much better and more complex graphically than they did 10 years ago. Moreover, a new class of games has been developed, modeled in such a way as to tighten the player as much as possible. Games like Destiny, Dota 2 and GTAV can easily consume gamers for hundreds or even thousands of hours.
Having paid attention to the huge popularity of such games, it is not difficult to guess why people spend more and more time on video games, especially if they have endless free time due to unemployment.
Increase in happiness
Researchers suggest that video games make even an unemployed man happier.
We are not used to associating unemployed people with happiness, but the facts suggest otherwise.
According to General Social Survey, young people without a bachelor’s degree are happier today than young people in the early 2000s generation. From 2001 to 2005, 81% of these men said they were either “happy enough” or “very happy”. To date, the figure has grown to 88%.
In other words, for this particular segment of the population, unemployment rises in parallel with the level of happiness. Statistics show that one indicator always resonates with another, but researchers suggest that video games make even an unemployed man happier.
Huge problem
The obvious link between gaming, happiness, and unemployment may sound like a dumb guess, but there is a link.
The obvious link between gaming, happiness, and unemployment may seem like a silly guess, but there is such a link, and it can have dire consequences. Since almost a quarter of capable young people without higher education are out of work, they will not be able to master any skills and gain life experience. Most likely, this will lead to the fact that they still get a job, for which they will receive pennies all their lives.
And the happiness of people who are not looking for a job may soon be over. Grown men without higher education are no longer as happy as they were 15 years ago. If this trend continues, a generation of unhappy, unemployed men will rise before our eyes, leading to depression, drug addiction and other problems.
