It’s not them, it’s us: the real reason teens are

‘addicted’ to video games

This article is more than 6 months old
Keith Stuart and Keza MacDonald
We criticise children for not going outside – while curtailing their freedoms and closing their spaces
Tue 9 Jul 2024 11.30 CEST

On Sunday the Observer magazine published a sensitive piece about video game addiction, speaking
to therapists working in the sector and one affected family. Genuine, compulsive, life-altering
addiction, whether to video games or anything else, is of course devastating for those affected by it.
Since the WHO classified gaming addiction as a specific disorder in 2018 (distinct from technology
addiction), the specialist National Centre for Gaming Disorders set up in the UK has treated just over
1,000 patients. Thankfully, the numbers suggest it is 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 at the amount of time their children spend in front of
computers and consoles. Speaking as the video games editor and correspondent at the Guardian,
however, we think that most of us who are worried about how long our teenagers are spending with
games are not dealing with an addiction problem, nor with compulsive behaviour. If we want to know
why many teens choose of their own free will to spend 10 or 20 hours a week playing games, rather
than pathologising them, we ought to look around us.

Gen Z are the most closely monitored generation ever to be born. We criticise children and teenagers
for not going outside – but at the same time we’re curtailing their freedoms and closing their spaces.
Parents will reminisce about how they spent whole days outside, cycling the neighbourhood, but at the
same time they’re treating their children’s smartphones like tracking devices, demanding regular
check-ins, infiltrating their social media feeds and databasing their activities and friend groups. The
pandemic may have abated, but it wasn’t just lockdowns that were keeping kids indoors.

And even without parental anxiety hemming them in: where are teens to go? In the last decade, YMCA
data shows that more than 4,500 youth work jobs have been cut and 750 youth centres shut down.
According to the Music Venue Trust, two grassroots music venues are closing every week. The
nightclub industry is in freefall. Teenagers can’t hang around in parks without arousing the suspicion
of overprotective adults who have decided these rare recreational spaces belong to their toddlers
alone; city squares and skate parks and pedestrian zones that were once public are now being
insidiously privatised, monitored via CCTV and policed by private security guards.

No wonder then, that teens withdraw to online video game worlds, the last spaces they have left that
remain unmediated by their parents or other authority figures – 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 being moved on or complained about, or
having to spend £5 on a latte every 30 minutes. If you can’t access therapy, at least you can relax with
comforting games such as Stardew Valley, Unpacking or Coffee Talk, or chat things through with your
friends in-game. You can travel freely, and for free, in Elden Ring or Legend of Zelda; no elderly
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. There is massive despair and disillusionment at a world in which home
ownership is a fantasy, where steady careers for life are increasingly rare and where young people are
accused of being lazy and complacent. The minimum wage for an 18-year-old in this country is £8.60,
meaning that an hour’s work might just about buy them a pint in a London pub; that’s if they can find
work at all.

Other than games, the media landscape is dominated by news sources that mock and vilify young
people as woke softies while also criminalising them. The Tories’ last ditch attempt to garner support
before the election was to bring back national service for 18-year-olds – to teach them respect and
public mindedness. 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 they want to escape
to virtual worlds. We should be surprised they ever want to come back to the one we’ve built for them.

Meanwhile, genuine action on the climate emergency is being hamstrung by ineffective politicians
snuggling up to polluting corporations, and by rightwing conspiracists who deny there’s a problem at
all. Pundits wring their hands over the extent to which we should allow protesters to close roads, while
water companies fill the sea with human excrement. These people will all be dead when the time
comes to reap what we’ve sown, but Gen Z won’t be – it’s the one lifelong job they’re sure to get.

Today’s teenagers play games more than any previous generation. They’re also suffering a mental
health crisis, with one in three reporting mental health issues, from anxiety and depression to, yes,
addiction. If there is a relationship between these things, it is not a causative one. We are keen to
blame anything from smartphones to social media to video games for the problems that our kids are
experiencing – anything, that is, except ourselves.
1. Vocabulary Exercise: Understanding Key Terms

Instructions:​
Below are several words from the article. Read each sentence carefully and choose the
word that best fits the blank. After selecting the correct answer, use the word in a sentence
of your own to demonstrate your understanding.

○​ The constant surveillance of children has led to ___________ their freedom

to explore the outside world.
■​ a) extending
■​ b) curtailing
■​ c) igniting

○​ Jake’s actions seemed ___________, as he could not stop playing games

even when it started affecting his health.
■​ a) calm
■​ b) compulsive
■​ c) restrained

○​ The online gaming world is one of the last places where teens can escape
from being ___________ by authority figures like their parents.
■​ a) ignored
■​ b) mediated
■​ c) neglected

○​ Many parks and public spaces have been ___________ in recent years,
making it harder for teens to hang out freely.
■​ a) privatised
■​ b) expanded
■​ c) protected​

○​ Instead of offering support or solutions, the media tends to ___________

young people, blaming them for societal problems.
■​ a) vilify
■​ b) celebrate
■​ c) ignore
 ​

○​ The constant struggles of trying to find stable employment or affordable

housing have led to widespread feelings of ___________ among the youth.
■​ a) joy
■​ b) despair
■​ c) excitement​

○​ During the pandemic, teens were ___________ in their homes, unable to

interact with their peers as freely as before.
■​ a) imprisoned
■​ b) liberated
■​ c) celebrated​

○​ Spending all day in a bedroom, isolated from family and friends, can feel
___________ for many teenagers.
■​ a) comforting
■​ b) alienating
■​ c) fulfilling​

○​ There is a debate on whether the rise in gaming addiction is a ___________

factor for mental health problems in teens.
■​ a) neutral
■​ b) causative
■​ c) resolving

Choose five words from the list above and use them in your own sentences to further
practice their meanings.

2. Go to this link to answer some questions on the article:

https://app.questionwell.org/play/M3MHFV

3. Discussion questions:
1.​ How do teenagers' reasons for playing video games relate to their social and
emotional needs?
2.​ How do parents and society affect Gen Z's gaming habits?
3.​ How do the closures of youth centers and public spaces change how teens
interact with each other?
4.​ How did the pandemic change teens' online activities, and what might this
mean for their future social habits?
5.​ How do video games provide freedom and control for teens, and how does this
affect their growth?
6.​ How can we tell the difference between real video game addiction and normal
gaming habits in teenagers?