Please don't let gaming consume your life • Hacker News Board

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#91

Post by jmduke » Tue, May 22, 2012, 1:51 AM UTC

dromidas wrote: post #62

jmduke wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Psychological addiction is never healthy for the mind, no matter what the stimulus is. That being said, spending an exorbitant amount of time devoted to exercise is generally better than spending an exorbitant amount of time devoted to passivity.

That's a very life stylist point of view. Who's to say that exercising, producing useful things to society, or social interaction is in ANY way "better" than spending your days playing video games? I for one am an avid gamer and I would rather game than quite a large number of other activities that people find rewarding or fulfilling, but I don't go write on some blog saying that they're wasting their life away joggi…

Firstly, I should have been more specific. I meant better physically -- physical activity, even overactivity, is better under the vast majority of circumstances to video gaming.

Secondly, I don't have negative opinions about gaming -- I play a lot of video games myself, in addition to other hobbies. I have negative opinions about obsessions, whether its an obsession with gaming or an obsession with work. (By negative opinion, I don't mean that I judge those with such obsessions poorly; merely that I consider them unhealthy.)

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#92

Post by gurkendoktor » Tue, May 22, 2012, 1:51 AM UTC

humbledrone wrote: post #54

dekz wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this compare with what can be considered a 'gym' addiction. Is it ok when it is exercise? What is too much? What about work, startups? I rock climb at least 6 hours a week, it's not bizarre to hear someone dying from rock climbing though.

Someone recently tried to convince me, a frequent climber, that the health effects of getting exercise from climbing were outweighed by the risks involved. I did a bunch of research on the subject, and it is very clear that the benefits of exercise massively outweigh the risks of even a dangerous activity like climbing. It's hard to find statistics for indoor climbing, but for outdoor climbing there is a death for ev…

When I look at my more active friends, dying is the least of problems really. I had four friends who had their legs broken in terrible ways from skating or horse riding, while I haven't even had to go to the hospital since childhood.

Things like that could easily make you more sedentary for the rest of your life.

I'm not sure about climbing, I just don't think the math is as easy as that :)

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#93

Post by jmduke » Tue, May 22, 2012, 1:54 AM UTC

mquander wrote: post #81

humbledrone wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a gamer myself, please understand that I don't have anything against gaming in general. However, I can think of an objective way in which producing "useful things to society" is better than gaming, which is that if everyone chose to spend all their time gaming, we would die from lack of basic necessities such as food, water, sanitation, etc. This would, of course, cut short the amount of gaming we could all do. So…

So, obviously, we have no choice but for some people contribute to society. Is there a fair way to decide who has to contribute, and who is allowed to opt out and play video games all day? Not really, but we have a way anyway, and it's called money. It's the same way we use to determine who is allowed to opt out and read all day, who is allowed to opt out and go on lots of vacations, and who is allowed to opt out and…

> who is allowed to opt out and study something abstruse in college for four years.

College is one of the last bastions of learning for the sake of learning. As programmers who often exalt creation for the sake of curation -- and discovery for the sake of discovery -- I think its better we commend that, rather than condemn it.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#94

Post by dredmorbius » Tue, May 22, 2012, 1:55 AM UTC

dekz wrote: post #40

boredguy8 wrote: post #8

There are more subtle ways of gaming ruining your life, as well: slowly losing the drive to do anything more than what's necessary to pay the cable bill, rent, and the gaming subscription. Slowly the only friends you have are people you know from your guild. When the only source & output of creativity and energy are all wrapped up in playing a video game. I've also seen people similarly consumed by pornography, alcoh…

How does this compare with what can be considered a 'gym' addiction. Is it ok when it is exercise? What is too much? What about work, startups? I rock climb at least 6 hours a week, it's not bizarre to hear someone dying from rock climbing though.

Exercise tends to be pretty self-limiting.

Depends on the activity level and all that, but in general, even a few hours a few days a week is the most a person's likely to do.

And I know some ... reasonably well balanced people who do markedly more than that.

One thing about dying during exercise: you're going out doing something you enjoy. And which I suspect puts you in a good place.

You could probably make the first argument in favor of, say, gaming binges, drugs, etc., but not the second.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#95

Post by reledi » Tue, May 22, 2012, 2:17 AM UTC

jonursenbach wrote: post #41

Buildstarted wrote: post #5

Server died...here's a repost: Over this past weekend a good friend and coworker passed away. He always had a good heart and would do anything he could to help you out. It was certainly a shock. Monday morning he didn't show up to work. He always calls or sends an email if he won't be in but nobody could get a hold of him. I got a bit worried since I knew he was playing Diablo 3 since it came out on Tuesday and I've…

How is him having a heart attack in any way related to him playing video games all weekend?

It's indirectly related. Binge gaming can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle, which in turn can lead to complications such as heart attacks.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#96

Post by k-mcgrady » Tue, May 22, 2012, 2:18 AM UTC

mbell697 wrote: post #76

kika wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> consumed by pornography, alcohol, gambling, day trading, and I'm sure other things other things being startups?

Or how about work in general? If doing something 6 hours a week is borderline what is doing something 40-60 hours a week? Assuming most people work for money, isn't this just an extreme cultural addition to money?

I don't think it's fair to say it's an addiction to money. That may apply to some professions but a lot of people working 40 hours a week are just making enough money to get by.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#97

Post by k-mcgrady » Tue, May 22, 2012, 2:27 AM UTC

bcrescimanno wrote: post #21

I'm sorry for the loss of a friend; I don't pretend to know how you currently feel. That said, I think there's a pretty big leap you're taking from "playing a lot of games" and "had a heart attack at 32." Obviously, I don't know this person; but I do know a lot of folks who have gone on binge gaming sessions who have never had heart attacks. I'm not saying there isn't any connection or that it didn't contribute in an…

I don't think the connection the OP is making is that binge gaming session == heart attack. I think it's that the person spent a lot of their time playing games. They spent too much time sedentary and this was the unfortunate result. It's something that can happen easily with games - some people find them very addictive (I don't have the attention span for gaming but I know people who have days where they wake up, play games, and go to sleep). The same result could happen if you sat and watched several movies every day and didn't exercise or eat well.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#98

Post by surement » Tue, May 22, 2012, 2:27 AM UTC

cletus wrote: post #71

I've had conversations on similar aspects to this many times. There are many psychological issues involved but the highlights are: 1. People eat for many reasons, sustenance being only one. People eat for enjoyment, because they're happy, because they're sad, to deal with stress, as a substitute for something else arguably more destructive and so on. The sooner you can adjust your mental view to treating food as noth…

"The sooner you can adjust your mental view to treating food as nothing more than fuel, the better off you'll be"

Better off how? Eating for enjoyment is one of the best pleasures in life. To quote someone else, if you spend your life eating no butter, no lard, no salt; you're gonna feel like a damn fool lying on your hospital bed, dying from nothing.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#99

Post by daeken » Tue, May 22, 2012, 2:28 AM UTC

First things first, I'm very sorry for your loss; it's never easy to lose a friend, let alone one so young. With that said...

This hit so close to home that it's scary. I'm 24, and my weight hovers between 350 and 385lbs. I've always been fat and otherwise unhealthy. While I don't eat a lot (I definitely eat more than I should, but I don't think that I eat to excess by any means), what I do eat is terrible; that's gotten worse since I moved to NYC and had money to get delivery effectively every night, meaning I eat at my computer and pay no attention to what I'm eating. In my case, it's not gaming but programming that's killing me; I don't get away from the computer and exercise effectively at all, and even if I ate perfectly I'd still be screwed for that reason.

But with that said, blaming programming/gaming/whatever for my health problems is like blaming the manufacturer of my chair for making it so damn comfortable. At the end of the day, it's an excuse to take the attention away from the real issue: sedentary lifestyles are unhealthy and will kill you.

I don't want to get too far off-topic here because this is about your friend, not me or anyone else here, but the focus really needs to be put on a healthy lifestyle, not on isolating one specific component as the failure point. A serious change in my life (and I imagine Russell's) wouldn't involve removing the object of obsession, but changing a million factors, and it's definitely easier said than done; that said, it's something I'm working hard on myself if only because... I want to live.

Edit: Something that I missed while writing this initially, as I got caught up in it.

> We should have tried harder.

I know you say that with the best of intentions, and I know that you're beating yourself up over this, but you shouldn't be. Speaking as someone who's been on the receiving end of that many times, I can't describe how deeply embarrassing it is to be in this position and how much shame is involved. I know you can't exactly hide being this fat, but you damn sure try to put it out of mind and keep it from being a topic of conversation. That absolutely makes it harder to get help. Think of it like someone being a closet alcoholic, but they always reek of beer regardless.

Re: Please don't let gaming consume your life

#100

Post by aliston » Tue, May 22, 2012, 2:37 AM UTC

cletus wrote: post #71

I've had conversations on similar aspects to this many times. There are many psychological issues involved but the highlights are: 1. People eat for many reasons, sustenance being only one. People eat for enjoyment, because they're happy, because they're sad, to deal with stress, as a substitute for something else arguably more destructive and so on. The sooner you can adjust your mental view to treating food as noth…

Point #2 really hit home for me. I recently switched jobs and my new job affords significantly less opportunity to get up and walk around. It is essentially in a business park and the city I live in is much more of a commuter city than I'm used to. Any suggestions on how to maintain a non-sedentary life?

I usually go running or hit the gym after work, but a lot of the new research is indicating that sitting all day and then working out for an hour is quite a bit worse for you then staying mobile all day, even if the net amount of exercise is equivalent. Thinking about how much time I spend sitting at a desk is pretty depressing for me.