# Why is wasting entire days on shows or sports fine, but too much video gaming is stigmatized? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 23, 2024, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-wasting-entire-days-on-shows-or-sports-fine-but-too-much-video-gaming-is-stigmatized/997999 "2024-02-23T19:47:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2024, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-wasting-entire-days-on-shows-or-sports-fine-but-too-much-video-gaming-is-stigmatized/997999/21 "2024-02-29T23:40:56Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > 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. When I was a kid there was the (sexist) meme of the housewife neglecting the house and the cooking and the cleaning to watch her soaps. Addiction is addiction. Games may never end, but after you binge one show there are five others which get recommended. You can watch reasonably high quality content on YouTube on TV and get just as sucked in as to any game. I resist but only because I’m doing things on deadline. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2024, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-wasting-entire-days-on-shows-or-sports-fine-but-too-much-video-gaming-is-stigmatized/997999/22 "2024-03-01T02:02:23Z")
Huh. Yeah. You’re right. I guess video games and tv ARE exactly the same. No idea why people are rotten about it. Terrible shame. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2024, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-wasting-entire-days-on-shows-or-sports-fine-but-too-much-video-gaming-is-stigmatized/997999/23 "2024-03-01T02:12:02Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Addiction is addiction. It’s really this. Most diversions are fine when done in moderation. It is when that diversion starts consuming more time and affecting your relationships and job and other duties you need to see to (like cleaning the house). I do not think games are more or less likely to get people hooked than gambling or sports or TV or any of many things. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2024, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-wasting-entire-days-on-shows-or-sports-fine-but-too-much-video-gaming-is-stigmatized/997999/24 "2024-03-01T02:58:34Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I do not think games are more or less likely to get people hooked than gambling or sports or TV or any of many things. I suspect that some activities are more potentially addictive than others due to the way they affect the brain, but beyond that I couldn’t say. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2024, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-wasting-entire-days-on-shows-or-sports-fine-but-too-much-video-gaming-is-stigmatized/997999/25 "2024-03-01T03:05:02Z")
I suspect you are right. Some games now incorporate gambling elements in them. These elements may be disguised as “gameplay” but, many have noted, it is still gambling. So much so that some countries have been considering [laws banning things like “loot boxes” from games](https://esports-news.co.uk/2023/07/19/loot-box-law-in-the-uk-principles/) because it is essentially a way to get kids into gambling. Needless to say the gaming companies fight hard against this because there is loads of money to be made. Yeah…some games are definitely trying to get our monkey brain to press the button over and over to get a dopamine hit. But, you then get into the problem that computer gaming is a hugely broad category and many, many games never go there at all. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2024, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-wasting-entire-days-on-shows-or-sports-fine-but-too-much-video-gaming-is-stigmatized/997999/26 "2024-03-01T08:06:37Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I do not think games are more or less likely to get people hooked than gambling or sports or TV or any of many things. I agree, but I think that the TV people have studied ways of getting their viewers more addicted. Back when I was a kid there would be a show, it would end, they’d run the credits, there would be some commercials, and then the next show began. Now they practically bleed into each other, so it is harder to give up, and the credits run under the final seconds so there is no time to change channels. Streaming services automatically play the next show in a series. And there are arcs, so that if you don’t watch every week you can get lost. Those guys ain’t dumb. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2024, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-wasting-entire-days-on-shows-or-sports-fine-but-too-much-video-gaming-is-stigmatized/997999/27 "2024-03-15T00:54:06Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > And there are arcs, so that if you don’t watch every week you can get lost. > Those guys ain’t dumb. Maybe they are. Depending on the show, having story arcs will get me to stop watching. This is mostly with procedurals like Law & Order and NCIS. The episodes with story arcs involving the main characters are, IMHO, the worst episodes for those shows. I prefer the criminal of the week. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2024, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-wasting-entire-days-on-shows-or-sports-fine-but-too-much-video-gaming-is-stigmatized/997999/28 "2024-03-15T05:54:44Z")
Me too, but it appears that we are in the minority. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2024, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-wasting-entire-days-on-shows-or-sports-fine-but-too-much-video-gaming-is-stigmatized/997999/29 "2024-03-15T16:57:28Z")
ISTM it’s not even just gaming/simming being stigmatized, but the “othering” of any avocation other than sports by the sports heads. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-wasting-entire-days-on-shows-or-sports-fine-but-too-much-video-gaming-is-stigmatized/997999.md?page=1)