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Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

1843magazine.com

11–20 of 535 posts

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#11

My friends were getting addicted to "Evercrack" 15 years ago, playing for days on end, affecting school, work, and social life. Other games had similar effects (usually mmorpgs). Nothing new here

Scale and the surrounding economic/social circumstances are new.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#12
As a teenager and early-20-something I was video-game obsessed, dropping out of sports and university, and wondering why anyone would want to devote their life to anything as pedestrian as a realistic career.

At 30 I've realized how harsh and cruel the world and its people (not everyone, but many) can be, which is the primary motivation for making some big changes in my life away from video games.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#13
post #5

I think this is where UBI leads if it ever happens.

UBI will prime the pump, entrepreneurs will make alternate reality enticing, value will be found there, new goods and services will sprout. Manufacturing and service working parents and grandparents will complain about the alternative working kids, just like manufacturing workers didn't see value in being a service worker. "They're not making anything real."

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#14
post #5

I think this is where UBI leads if it ever happens.

It's a real possibility, but consider thinking about it this way: Many jobs do not provide (marginal utility > income) to society, and many even produce negative marginal utility.

Everything from utility companies to the financial sector to government to even academia has a heck of a lot of perverse incentives and corruption.

Over half a century ago John Maynard Keynes--one of the most influential intellectuals to shape the world today--said "it's better for people to toil over their bank account than each other."

I would easily wager it's better people toil over their virtual realities than their bank accounts, provided we're able to keep the scarcity problem solved (which I'd bet we'd be able to pull off).

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#15
I played plenty of computer and video games when I was young. I don't have as much time now but every once in awhile I'll go on a Rocket League or Overwatch binge and I wonder if modern games really do enrapture us more than 8-bit games ever could. It's not that older games weren't as well-designed as far as games go, but there's only so many times you can beat Super Mario Bros. 3/Super Metroid in a week, or in a lifetime. Whereas competitive multiplayer games with no defined ending has the tendency to make you lose track of time.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#16
post #3

slow news day, huh? seems this story is aired about every 2-3 years... EDIT: I'm being downvoted for pointing out that these kinds of articles have been rehashed for years? thanks. continue on, then.

It's been happening more and more for almost the past 8 and it's been getting worse both in the data and anecdotally.

I know a lot of qualified people who've graduated from school and still haven't found work. In CS I know some who have struggled to get a job. That said, those who taught themselves had jobs either while in school or lined up for right when they got out, but that's how it is everywhere if they're willing to move/commute.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#17
post #5

I think this is where UBI leads if it ever happens.

That's what scares the shit of me regarding UBI.

I don't mind paying for it even if it does keep young men immersed in a fantasy world.

But I have a daughter. And she will be surrounded by men whose idea of women will be shaped by game characters that fail the Turing test but have big tits.

I guess for her first birthday after puberty I'll have to get her a taser.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#18
post #2

How long do you think before we are in a Ready Player One world where we spend both our free and job time in an alternate reality?

I sort of did this with Second Life when I was in my teens, logging on daily to have fun and hang out and also to script/build/sell things for real money, answer support requests in-world and so on. I don't go on nearly as much as I used to, but I still draw some passive income from my store there.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#19
I really like this read, something just smells off about blaming young people for "wasting years" on video games. We've got a horribly stacked real life "game" where the boomers and elites have horded everything and fucked future generations, blaming an individual for dropping out and not wanting to really participate in that trainwreck is being dishonest at best.

Re: Young men dropping out of the job market to spend time in an alternate reality

#20
post #5

I think this is where UBI leads if it ever happens.

It's a real possibility, but consider thinking about it this way: Many jobs do not provide (marginal utility > income) to society, and many even produce negative marginal utility. Everything from utility companies to the financial sector to government to even academia has a heck of a lot of perverse incentives and corruption. Over half a century ago John Maynard Keynes--one of the most influential intellectuals to sh…

> provided we're able to keep the scarcity problem solved (which I'd bet we'd be able to pull off).

I'm curious as to how we can pull that off given that an ever increasing percentage of young smart capable people are opting out of solving real world problems in favor of "toiling over their virtual realities"...

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