"A US study has found that people who play games regularly are more likely to take drugs and drink alcohol than normal people. They could have saved a lot of time and money by just asking us though.
Professor Laura Walker, who led the study from Brigham Young University in Utah, said: "The most striking part is that everything we found clustered around video game use is negative." Makes you wonder if they actually tried to find anything positive.
Games are usually pinned with making idiotic (sorry... easily influenced) teens violent, but according Walker: "It appears video games are related to a host of other negative outcomes."
800 university students were questioned, and it found that students who played games regularly were 10 percent more likely to have a tipple or take drugs than their non-gaming friends.
Those who play daily are said to be three times more likely to smoke cannabis, stop talking to friends and family and, female gamers in particular, have low self esteem, according to the report published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence (via the Telegraph).
"It may be that young adults remove themselves from important social settings to play video games, or that people who already struggle with relationships are trying to find other ways to spend their time," said Walker. "My guess is that it's some of both and becomes circular."
Universities - the best place to ask a bunch of guys if they drink..."
I'm 36, married for 8 years witha young daughter and play about 2 hours of PC/Console games a day. I rarely drink, don't smoke and can't remember the last time I went near canabis let alone anything harder - guess they never asked me though did they? Oh and my wife she plays games with me as well.
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