Tatsuhiro Satou (Welcome to the N.H.K.) checking his dwindling chequing account
This is a freakonomics-type post. I stumbled upon a news article of an economics student’s research who found that for every minute of playing video games corresponded to a 0.4% decrease in personal income.
The nature of his data is from Statistics Canada’s general social survey. So we can’t make a lot of inferences or get any more details about the nature of video game playing, as MacLeod was cited: “The effect is a lot more complicated than this and it’s probably not always negative depending on if you’re playing Halo or a shooter game versus a puzzle or educational game designed for the classroom.” Apparently demonstrating a paradoxical finding: “My work confirms that, in general, the more income a person has, the more time they spent playing video games, But that playing video games could also have a negative effect on a person’s income.”
Some thoughts about the causes could be that most video game players are students, which may explain the general decrease in income, the type of job they have don’t require much work or responsibilities leading them to have more spare time, or the more hardcore a gamer is, the less motivated in achieving a lot in real life, or certain type of gamers may lead them into unhealthy lifestyle which can influence their job choice. There are many possible explanations, so let’s not give up our video games right away because it decreases our personal income. There is still much work to be done for Ryan MacLeod.
Source: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/843485
University press release: http://www.mta.ca/news/index.php?id=2187#2187
http://www.mta.ca/faculty/socsci/economic/student_research.html
http://herenb.canadaeast.com/news/article/869453