I, personally, feel somewhat offended by this characterization. While it’s true that I can stay up too late playing some video games (have to be specific ones to get me invested enough), I can do the same for other things like binge-watching anime. (And the root cause is my mild depression anyway or my ADHD depending on activity, I believe) But the current vast majority of what I do when playing games is honest practice and effort to reach a semi-pro level at my chosen game. And there are actual careers being made by the pro players of the game, or streamers playing it. On top of that, by learning how to play this team-based game more effectively, I’ve encountered a surprising number of lessons that apply outside of the game. (How to interact with “unpleasant” people, how to make suggestions without making someone feel belligerent and do the opposite, how “expending” a resource first puts you in a worse situation, etc) And on top of that making new friends by playing with the same people for months in a competitive environment. You can learn a lot of practical things, including discipline and dedication, from trying to improve to be a higher level player.

Granted this is a specific “track” that most are likely not going to be following, but I think some lessons apply even if you just want to improve and get a higher “Elo rating”. And there can be negative interactions, just like almost anything in this world can become unhealthy for someone. But I think the vast majority of people can interact with video games in a healthy way that helps them destress, or cope with something in life, or whatever else. Seeing the “overwhelming numbers of reddit posts” feels almost like confirmation bias, or at least just seeing something that feels like a problem when it’s likely affecting less than 0.1% of people playing video games. On the flip side I’ve read stories in the past about how video games have saved lives, because it gave people something to live for in a horrible part of their lives. And when they get to a bettering place, they’re able to interact with them in a much healthier way because they themselves are in a healthier place.

Anyway, this is a big rambly thing I typed on a phone, so it’s hopefully cohesive and understandable. But I felt a need to give an opposite perspective from someone who has never been able to dedicate their free time to anything for more than a week or something until I found a competitive game I wanted to make a run at getting into at least the semi-pro scene with, maybe even someday the pro scene.

EDIT: And I have a healthy life outside of the game too. I’m married with a wife who is supporting me in getting better at this game, I hold the job making the vast majority of our money, have a healthy relationship with family on both my and her side, have good friends, help around the house, etc. I’m not just sitting in a dark parents basement playing games all day. But I do put a lot of hours into it because it’s whats necessary to get better, and maybe I’m choosing to trade that time for some other thing, but it’s a choice I’ve consciously made for improvement, much like someone here might make that choice to build a product. I shouldn’t be “shamed” for building one skill while someone doing almost exactly the same thing but in an “approved” arena is lauded.