Why is wasting entire days on shows or sports fine, but too much video gaming is stigmatized?

Great Debates
1

As someone who tries to limit time wasting activities and be more productive, have more motivation and so on, I decided to drastically lower my video game time. From a few hours every day, to maybe an hour or two every few days…which at one point I did naturally without focusing on it, I had a period where games became boring and I essentially stopped playing them for weeks and months at a time.

Then after a while I realized that even though I “freed up” massive amounts of time I could spend on productive stuff, like learning my target foreign language or learning some IT skills I used to learn before or at least to do some chores around the house, I continued to waste the exact same amount of time in different ways, mostly through binging shows, scrolling and youtube.

So in the end, I was equally wasting time by watching shows and by playing games, I got nothing done and yet if I told people that I watch shows all day, they wouldn’t see it as that big of a problem and will even discuss the shows, but if I told them that I spent entire days playing video games, I would come out across as a loser that won’t grow up.

What is the reason for this hypocrisy? The outdated view from the 90’s and early 2000’s when video games were still probably mostly played by kids and teenagers?

What about watching sports games? Unless you are a grown up “fan” that jumps to cheer every now and then, chances are you aren’t much more physically active than a gamer or show watcher and are equally unproductive. At best, at worst you might be throwing money on bets, tips, booze,etc.

As for me personally, I finally became productive when I started looking into stuff about dopamine baseline, which gets lowered after any ultra stimulating activity such as gaming, binging shows, doom scrolling,etc, so once I cut or minimized all of those activities for a few hours prior to doing house chores, I suddenly managed to get a lot more stuff done, even things like dusting which I hate. Yet, back when I quit gaming, but was still doing these equally unproductive activities, I had zero motivation to do any chores that I didn’t absolutely have to do.

2

Evidently the group you run with watches shows in their spare time, and evidently they perceive spending a bunch of time playing video games as divergent, antisocial behavior. I know it’s not the answer you’re looking for but that’s the answer. Something similar occurred in the mid-to-late 20th century with respect to television. Traditionally, the stigma applied to reading.

None of these forms of media consumption are inherently antisocial. You say your friends are willing to discuss shows, which makes it a shared experience. The same social aspect is present in book clubs and video game groups (clans, guilds, or just friend groups).

ETA: No comment on the factual substance of your dopamine baseline thing. If it works for you, go for it, but if you have problems motivating yourself, seek a mental health professional.

~Max

3

First, IMHO, it’s absolutely a holdover from an era where only geeks, nerds, and/or kids (or some multiclass) played games on computers or consoles. Of course, these days, I see plenty of middle aged or older folks playing little timewasters on their phones as well, but that’s not playing “video games” in their POV.

I will say that maybe early games were a bit antisocial, in that there was little co-op, mostly alternate play, but that still moved on relatively quickly. But the mental image of some geek playing a game far into the night on a bright screen in a dark basement linged well after the reality was something else.

And, of course, for a while, active all ages games as exmplified by the Wii were broadly acceptable.

So it’s like a lot of things, it comes, it goes, it changes. It’s not all of one thing or another.

Now if you’re asking why so many people like games - console, PC, phone, what have you, I think there’s one great commonality. You get to succeed, advance, or improve. Levels, gear, gold, settlements, unlocks, whatever you like, just about every game gives you a steady hit of success and progress. That’s often quite rare IRL, where every day can feel like you’re constantly running to just stay in place and not fall back. So that sweet flavor of success can be quite addictive.

And of course, especially with violent games, there’s a non-zero ammount of vicarious infliction of harm upon others that may or may not be cathartic for some. It can be for me, but others find is distracting or disturbing, and go to great lengths to avoid it (see pacifist playthroughs of many games). But I bring it up because that element has been a media bugbear for decades now: violent games = violent adults. So that is another constant reinforcement of the stigma.

4

I don’t do either, not that I don’t waste my time (like posting here) but I’m with you. I don’t know what games you play, but some involve interaction with other people. Not everyone watches sports with other people, after all, some people play games with others in the same room. And watching sports is more passive than playing a game.
Maybe the bias is that we are blasted with ads and read stories about the previous day’s or next day’s sports games, which makes them seem socially more acceptable than video games.

5

I think it’s mostly a thing that wasn’t done when “we” (for some group of we) were kids, and it’s what we told the kids not to do so much.

My younger adult friends all play video games, and discuss what they like and don’t like about video games the way people in this message board talk about movies. I tried to get into video games during the pandemic, but I’m really clumsy at a controller, and learned to use a mouse left-handed, and I’m just not very good at the physical skills involved.

6

I’m not sure I’d consider EITHER watching TV OR playing vid games excessively exactly laudable. Somewhat perversely, I admit, I consider reading a “higher” form of activity.

My “criticism” of all 3, however, is more along the lines of advocating getting off your ass, moving your carcass, and interacting with real things and people in meatspace. But all things in moderation are fine.

7

I’m pretty much in agreement with Max_S, except for this bit of premature advice. Of course, it would be wonderful if everyone had as much access to mental health services as they wanted, I’m not sure “not doing chores that I didn’t abolutely have to do” is a particularly bright red flag.

When I look at my own use of “recreational time” and look at things like the number of hours folks log on Steam, the amount of money generated by professional football, the number of TV shows and movies and books being cranked out, music produced, etc. I am staggered by the very first world circumstance of folks generally having a lot of “free time” on their hands. It seems pretty natural that some of us feel a bit uncomfortable about that. Not quite guilty, but when we look around and notice that there are plenty of problems out there that could use some attention it puts us on edge.

Especially when some folks snipe at us for whatever it is we’re doing/not doing.

8

Who are these “people” in the first place? Close friends whose opinions you trust? Random strangers in line at the grocery store?

Why does their opinion of you matter to you so much?

In my experience, when someone says something like the last part of the quoted part above, they’re projecting.
They’re communicating far more about their own personal deep-seated convictions than they are about any opinion stated by another individual, let alone “people” plural.

9

My take is a sports game is a event of a time that is not set by you, but you participating in a form of celebrating and routing for your team (town/city). And thus is seen as a communal shared experience, even if you watch it alone as you can share your experience with others after in conversation. Gaming simply does not have that social/communal aspect, at least not in it’s history and even with the internet there is still very little community that is recognized in gaming. As such it’s seen more as a anti-social behavior. Though I have to admit, and I am facinated by, the is community that is sometimes present in online games.

10

I’m sure you could find people who would consider watching shows all day to be a problematic, blameworthy waste of time.

But if it really is the very same people who look down on those who spend too much time playing video games but not too much time watching shows/sports/YouTube/whatever, I suspect the most likely explanation is what others have said: they have a somewhat old-fashioned view of how complex, absorbing, or mature video games could be. Maybe they’re imagining you spending all day playing Pac-man or Tetris.

But it’s remotely possible that when they’re spending all day watching shows, they’re also doing something productive at the same time, like exercising or doing chores around the house. Or that they’re watching with other people and interacting with those other people, and they see it as a social, communal activity where they see playing video games as a solitary one.

11

I mean, the word “Couch potato” was not invented to describe gamers.

Watching TV all day long is absolutely viewed negatively.

12

I suspect some if it comes from ignorance. For me, that’s certainly the case. My kids, born in the 80s and 90s never played video games. I don’t know anyone who does. I don’t really understand what happens in those games, but vaguely assume people are stealing autos, or shooting aliens. Since I don’t know what is happening, it’s hard to view it as something interesting or productive. I don’t feel the same way about someone playing solitaire on their computer, but if they said they were doing it “all day,” I’d think that was excessive.

13

I could say the same thing about the hours spent daily by a calculus professor, or an aeronautical engineer.

Why do you feel that this game is different from the other games?

14

Because (and it’s just an example) I figure people play it for 15 or 20 minutes at a time, not hours or days. I could be wrong.

BTW, I’m not trying to be judgmental about people playing video games. I really don’t care. I’m just expressing my ignorance, and a theory that such ignorance leads to uninformed criticism.

15

I often recall a line I read in an old thriller novel - IIRC in the Parker series. The protagonist stopped in some roadside bar and commented on uselessness of the barflies watching the game on TV out of concern for SOMEONE ELSE’S successes and failures. I thought that insightful.

And then, it is magnified afterwards when the passive viewers talk as though THEY played some part in the outcome. “We crushed them!”

16

I enjoy gaming a lot, and think it offers substantially better value than just about any other media, and deserves a lot more respect.

However, I also get why saying you’re into gaming can be a red flag in some contexts.

Several of my friends are currently, or have in the past, lamented dated guys who spend hours every night gaming. They are somewhat cocooned…It can be sociable sure, but generally with others online. I dont know too many people who play offline multiplayer on a near daily basis.

TV is a bit different; you can talk to people while they are watching sports. TV episodes end and then you can talk about the show.
And if someone were to binge TV every night then I think it would be looked on as negatively as a nightly gaming habit.

17

Although, as a (paywalled) New Yorker piece observed in 2016, you don’t really hear about “couch potatoes” anymore:

18

And you don’t have to go back too far to find the “olds” lamenting young kids reading gasp magazines instead of proper books. The goalposts are constantly shifting.

Not as much as it used to be. I would posit that it’s because the people who grew up watching TV all the time are now hitting retirement/get off my lawn age. They can’t harp on something they themselves do, so they need to blame the next technological addiction. Soon we’ll see Millennials and Zoomers wag their fingers disapprovingly at kids spending all day buried in their VR headsets or simulated-reality AI immersion suits.

19

To me, watching TV is finite. Even if you’re binging, the show is going to end. A long binge seems like a “sometimes thing” - you have one Saturday a month where nothing else is planned, you’re going to spend it binging one whole season of a show, and then get on with life by Sunday. Spending a couple hours watching TV on a weekday night is just a thing that everybody does (except for you that don’t. Good for you.)

Gaming is more of an investment of time. You play to have more play time. If you’re playing with a team you sometimes have to work around your teammate’s schedules. It’s so enveloping as an experience, it’s extremely hard to get up and leave. And there are games that don’t end. You just keep playing and playing and the game is always there.

I have plenty of friends who game a few hours a night, most likely in non-team games. They’re playing about as much as I am watching TV. Nobody bats an eye at that behavior.

It’s when you’re addicted to playing, staying up way too late, eschewing your household duties, missing work, ignoring your family, that’s when gaming gets stigmatized. The description of that kind of gamer probably leaks into one’s perception when you proudly say you’re a gamer.

If you said watching TV was a hobby, I don’t think people’s minds go right to the idea of staying up way too late and not doing chores because you watch TV. Maybe some people do it on the regular but even if being addicted to gaming is not too common, I’d say being equally addicted to TV is even less common. TV is too passive, and gaming is immersive.

20

When I watch a show these days, I’m often surprised and impressed by the amount of effort some people seem to put into it, not only pointing out minutiae, writing fanfic… It is apparent that many people like watching shows multiple times, listening to the commentary, participating in fan-sites/messageboards, etc. Folk commonly watch TV and use their phones/computers at the same time - often participating in live-time discussions.

For the past several years I’ve sorta felt like I wasn’t putting ENOUGH effort into my TV watching. For me, TV is pretty transitory. And there are only a couple of shows I have cared to watch more than once. (Buffy, Angel) With other shows, I enjoy it while watching, but after I only tend to remember the broader outlines. I’ve previously commented that I tend to lose track of what was going on between streaming seasons, and folk have suggested that I need to pay more attention.

Just saying, it seems some folk approach TV watching with dedication comparable to gamers.