Gamers have long had the stereotype that they are overweight, greasy, caffeine-addicted hermits with pale skin and acne who never left their parents’ basements. Gamers are depicted this way in many popular shows and movies, such as Southpark’s “Make Love Not Warcraft.” In the episode, the boys gets fatter, more unhealthy, and more covered in acne as they hide themselves in Cartman’s basement playing World of Warcraft. Playing into the stereotype of gamers, the boys chow down Hot Pockets and Rockstar to try and level their characters enough to battle a much stronger character.
While this depiction is comical, it does lead me to wonder about the connections between gaming and health. Anecdotally, the gamers I’ve known have been widely varied in terms of health: some are daily runners, some want pizza and Mountain Dew every night, but most fall somewhere in between. Just like any other grouping of people, the gamers I’ve known are diverse in terms of health. For this post I have two questions: who is creating this stereotype of the unhealthy gamer? and is there truth to the idea that gaming causes poor health?
You don’t need to go far to find “health experts” reporting the negative effects of gaming on your health. An article from so-called experts on video game addiction states, “An addicted gamer is not going to take the time to properly care for himself [sic]. Showers, face-washing, and brushing hair and teeth all get put on the back burner. It simply becomes less of a priority, if it’s a priority at all.” This of course isn’t backed up by any fact on the site, but stated as if it’s a given. The actual research is varied: most say, yes, if you do an inactive activity for long periods of time you are at risk of things like weight gain, but that gaming isn’t necessarily an inactive activity. Besides games that induce physical activities like Wii games, most games encourage much more movement than consuming passive media like TV.
From the research I’ve conducted, it seems the strongest link between games and poor health and obesity falls into the realm of advergames. In one study, children who played an advergame featuring snack food ate 50% more calories in the subsequent meal. This suggests that games may be a super effective way of delivering a message and/or encouraging specific kinds of behavior. If that power is used to do things like promote sugary food, are video games themselves to blame? I don’t know, but I do know that like with any powerful medium, it should be used for good, not for evil.
If the research showing video games cause poor health is fairly dubious, we may ask if video games encourage healthy habits. On this the research is abundant. There are some research institutes that focus specifically on the overlap between health and games. Games can help people make healthy decisions by reinforcing positive habits, but even more, games and health overlap in many ways: exergaming, physical therapy, disease management, health behavior change, biofeedback, rehab, epidemiology, training, cognitive health, nutrition and health education. And on and on.
Another study suggests that games can be even more effective than other types of motivation for getting kids moving: “Not only are video games not always to blame for childhood obesity, but some experts suggest that children can actually use them to stay physically fit.” How does this work? Well, surprise, it depends on the parents. If parents are an active part of a gamer’s life, if they help encourage healthy behavior, if they’re willing to play active video games, then kids’ health will be positively impacted by digital play. If parents use video games as a pacifier so they can do other things, kids risk being influenced by things like advergames and are more susceptible to making poor eating choices while playing.
So who wants video games to be seen as unhealthy? Mostly addiction services and those who want to sell you some other products and services to “fix” your game-addicted child. If games are to blame for overweight kids, think of all the industries that benefit, namely the sugar industry and other groups that profit off of selling kids and parents things like cereal, candy, and soda. Oh it’s not your kids’ food, it’s their lifestyle! It’s the video games! The trouble is, the research just doesn’t back that up.
The discussion of whether video games positively or negatively impact our health will likely rage on and never be solved. But like many things, it depends on how you look at the issue.
