OThe Observer published a sensitive article on video game addiction on Sunday and spoke to therapists working in the sector and one affected family. True, compulsive, life-altering addiction, whether to video games or anything else, is obviously devastating to those afflicted with it. Since 2018, when WHO classified gaming addiction as a specific disorder (as opposed to technology addiction), the UK’s dedicated National Center for Gaming Disorders has treated just over 1,000 patients. Fortunately, the numbers suggest it’s rare, affecting less than 1% of the 88% of teenagers who play games.
The article asked, “Why are so many young people addicted to video games?”, which no doubt struck a chord with many parents who despair over the amount of time their children are spending on computers and consoles. However, as the Guardian’s video games editor and correspondent, we think that many of us who worry about how much time our teenagers spend playing games are not addressing the issue of addiction or compulsive behaviour. If we want to know why many teenagers choose of their own free will to spend 10 or 20 hours a week playing games, instead of pathologising them, we should look around us.
Gen Z is the most closely watched generation ever born. We criticize children and teenagers for not going outside – but at the same time we limit their freedoms and close off their spaces. Parents will reminisce about spending days outside, cycling around the neighborhood, but at the same time treating their children’s smartphones like surveillance devices, demanding regular check-ins, infiltrating their social media feeds and logging their activities and friend groups . The pandemic may have eased, but it wasn’t just lockdowns that kept kids indoors.
Even without parental anxiety: where are teenagers supposed to go? In the past decade, YMCA figures show more than 4,500 youth work jobs have been cut and 750 youth centers have closed. According to the Music Venue Trust, two local music venues close every week. The nightclub industry is in freefall. Teenagers can’t hang out in parks without arousing the suspicion of overprotective adults who have decided that these rare recreational spaces belong only to their toddlers; city ​​squares, skateparks and pedestrian areas that were once public are now insidiously privatized, monitored by CCTV and guarded by private security guards.
It’s no wonder, then, that teenagers are retreating into the worlds of online video games, the last places they have left that remain unmediated by their parents or other authorities—the last places where they are mostly beyond the reach of adult control. You can spend all day with your friends in Red Dead Redemption or Minecraft or Fortnite doing whatever you like without scrolling or complaining or having to spend £5 on a latte every 30 minutes. If you don’t have access to therapy, you can at least relax with soothing games like Stardew Valley, Unpacking or Coffee Talk, or chat with your in-game friends. In Elden Ring or Legend of Zelda you can travel freely and for free; no older relatives can suddenly vote to restrict your access to the continent in Euro Truck Simulator.
It is undoubtedly true that spending all day in your bedroom is unhealthy and alienating. But can you blame this generation for being more anxious and withdrawn? They were recently imprisoned in their homes for over a year. In a world where home ownership is a fantasy, where a stable career for life is increasingly rare, and where young people are accused of laziness and complacency, there is immense despair and disillusionment. The minimum wage for an 18-year-old in this country is £8.60, which means an hour’s work could buy them a pint in a London pub; that is, if they even find a job.
The media landscape outside of gaming is dominated by news sources that mock and vilify young people as woke while criminalizing them. The Tories’ last-ditch attempt to drum up support before the election was to reintroduce national service to 18-year-olds – teaching them respect and public spirit. This is the generation that just put their lives, their friendships, their love affairs and their education on hold to save their grandparents. We shouldn’t be surprised that they want to escape into virtual worlds. We should wonder if they ever want to go back to the one we built for them.
Meanwhile, real action on the climate emergency is being held back by ineffective politicians who pander to polluting corporations and right-wing conspiracists who deny there is a problem at all. Scientists wring their hands over how far we should allow protesters to block roads while water companies fill the sea with human excrement. These people will all be dead when it comes time to reap what we have sown, but Gen Z won’t—it’s the one lifetime job they’re guaranteed to get.
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Today’s teenagers play games more than any previous generation. They are also suffering from a mental health crisis, with one in three reporting mental health problems ranging from anxiety and depression to, yes, addiction. If there is a relationship between these things, it is not causal. We like to blame the problems our kids are experiencing on anything from smartphones to social media to video games—anything but ourselves.