Mainstream Media Tries Blaming Video Games for Poor Diet

The mainstream media continues to have allergies to critical thinking after saying that video games causes poor diet.

When I was going to university, one of my professors during one of my courses had a fun thing to say about research before assigning paperwork. He wanted to encourage good research, so he talked about different studies and how different studies vary in quality. So, he used a fictional example.

In the example, he said that research has shown that as consumption of ice cream rises, so to does drowning deaths. Therefore, the government should move quickly to ban the sale of ice cream to reduce the amount of drowning deaths across the country. It was, without a doubt, a silly conclusion, but the silly conclusion was the point. The point being that correlation does not mean causation.

Indeed, taking a step back, he said that there are obviously other factors at play. When ice cream consumption increases, this can also be associated with the seasons changing and weather becoming warmer. The same could be said for drowning deaths. As temperatures increase, people are probably more likely to try doing some outdoor swimming. That increase in interest in outdoor swimming could also be attributed to an increase in drownings.

It was a great lesson and one that, at least for me, reinforces the point to always think critically about the facts being presented.

Sadly, as the years have progressed since then, critical thinking seems to be in increasing short supply for mainstream media outlets in general. Articles get published that have people like me asking, “what were they thinking when they published this?”

Well, that’s exactly what I saw recently with an Australian report arguing that video games are unhealthy in general. Obviously, video games are not inherently unhealthy, but that has been the long (and debunked) myth that mainstream media has run with for over 30 years, hoping that one year, people will believe their ridiculous lies. Whether that is the fabrication that video games are highly addicting, that video games turn people into murdering psychopaths, or a host of other societal ills, there’s been a lot of tall tales published by mainstream media trying to pawn those stories off as fact.

The only exception that I am aware of was loot boxes and game publishers skirting gambling laws to try and get children to form gambling habits. That seriously needed to stop and loot boxes are not as big as when that scandal first cropped up, thank goodness.

Still, the long running demonization of video games has never really stopped with mainstream media. It just goes in waves because once the latest version of lies are exposed, the media falls silent on the issue and tries to pretend that nothing happened. Then, when the heat dies down, they ramp up their propaganda against games once again and the cycle repeats.

An article published in Australia by 9News is making the argument that video games are unhealthy and they used a study to argue that there is a limit to how much time you can spend playing games before the activity can be unhealthy. On the surface, this sounds somewhat convincing. From 9News:

Video games might not rot your brain – but new evidence suggests they can have a marked effect on your health.

A new study led by Curtin University surveyed 317 students from at Australian universities, with a median age of 20.

The participants were split into three groups classes as “low gamers” (zero to five hours playing video games per week), “moderate gamers” (five to 10 hours), and “high gamers” (over 10 hours).

I mean, it’s a survey, so there is going to be inherent flaws. Some might also question the sample size as well given that it’s 317 people. What’s more, why specifically university students and not, say, a wider sample of the population? There’s reasons to question the methodology when trying to say that there is proof of some sort of broad causation, but that alone isn’t especially egregious. Moving on, the article tries pushing the conclusions to try and sell you on the idea that video games are unhealthy.

The research team found while low and moderate gamers reported similar health outcomes, results worsened dramatically once gaming exceeded 10 hours a week.

Professor Mario Siervo, from the Curtin School of Population Health, said the findings suggested excessive gaming was the key issue, rather than gaming itself.

“What stood out was students gaming up to 10 hours a week all looked very similar in terms of diet, sleep and body weight,” Siervo said.

“The real differences emerged in those gaming more than 10 hours a week, who showed clear divergence from the rest of the sample.”

The conclusions are weird, but the question remains, how did the researchers come to that conclusion?

The study found a decline in diet quality once gaming exceeded 10 hours per week, with a greater prevalence of obesity in the high gamers group, compared to the low and moderate gamers.

So… did anyone at this mainstream media outlet, you know, raise any concerns about these findings? Like, anything at all? Not even a simple question of “are we sure that this is accurate”? I ask because anyone with anything resembling critical thinking skills will look at that and go, “wait a minute.”

You really don’t need to be a psychologist or a medical professional to question this, either. I mean, does the mainstream media really believe people are storming into their local McDonalds shouting, “I summoned the Scorchbeast Queen in Fallout 76 by dropping a nuke in the Cranberry Bog. As dictated by Bethesda, upon defeating the Scorchbeast Queen with 7 other players, I must down three cheeseburgers and some fries!” Like, that is not something that is happening on a massive scale and anyone who says otherwise is obviously trolling you.

As with the ice cream example, there can very easily be other factors at play. Are there other activities that increase a sedentary lifestyle? What about people who spend hours on end watching TV from a couch? Are there histories involved? Are there reasons like psychology or behaviour learned from parents that are playing a role in this? Is this an education thing? What about affordability of healthier food options? If a salad costs $5 and a candy bar costs $3, that would offer a financial incentive to take the less healthy option. Would genetics play a role in things?

I would have serious questions about anyone who argues that video games are the sole cause of poor diet because poor diet has been a thing long before video games became a thing. I find it extremely unlikely that if you removed video games from someone’s life, then that person is magically going to start eating healthy. If anything, I’m willing to bet that they would substitute video games for other forms of entertainment instead. Whether that is through online streaming, traditional broadcast TV (i.e. live sports), watching movies, social media, or a host of other forms of entertainment that involves sitting in one spot and consuming said entertainment. That alone should tell you how questionable it is that video games are somehow the sole cause of poor diet.

In fact, buried at the end of the article where no one would actually read shows that even the researchers pulled back from the findings presented in the article:

All groups reported generally poor sleep quality, but moderate and high gamers scored worse than low gamers, with gaming hours showing a significant link to sleep disruption.

“This study doesn’t prove gaming causes these issues, but it shows a clear pattern that excessive gaming may be linked to an increase in health risk factors,” Professor Siervo said.

I think a more logical response would be that excess video games may be a symptom of other issues, rather than a cause. Either way, that alone should have been a clue to the author of the article that maybe the entire article needs to be re-written because it is wildly different from what the leading headline and first few paragraphs would have you believe. What’s more, the researchers, while seemingly trying to push the narrative that games are at fault, even say themselves that maybe making better eating choices might be an idea.

“Our data suggests low and moderate gaming is generally fine, but excessive gaming may crowd out healthy habits such as eating a balanced diet, sleeping properly and staying active.

“Because university habits often follow people into adulthood, healthier routines such as taking breaks from gaming, avoiding playing games late at night and choosing healthier snacks may help improve their overall wellbeing.”

The article, at least in its current form, should never have been published. Both the author and, based on what the article chose to publish, the researchers, were trying to push a moral panic and it backfired. Rather than admit that there was something flawed, they ran with the moral panic anyway.

I feel like a broken record at this point, but stupid stunts like this absolutely destroys trust in the mainstream media. It’s not a one off incident, but rather, part of a trend of passing off garbage moral panic as “BREAKING NEWS!!!ELEVENTY ONE one one”.

Drew Wilson on Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook.