Recently I FaceTimed with my younger sister to catch up on life. We have a 13-year-old brother and I asked her what he’s been up to. She responded she rarely sees him because all the free time he has, he spends locked in his room playing video games. I found this interesting because lately I’ve been noticing almost all of my good guy friends at school LOVE, and spend way too much of their time, playing video games.
I told her this, then asked, “Why does it seem like a vast majority of boys love playing video games, while not even close to as many girls have the same interest?”
I thought back to a class I took last semester where we studied some of the psychology of violence. Many psychologists argue that innate within much of the male species is a need to exert violent tendencies in competition. This is why you’d see historical wars being fought by males, “the hunter” typically represented by men, the pistol showdown in the Wild West, and the classic fist fight to resolve conflict. In our modern era, physical violence is looked down upon and is illegal in most cases, and as a result many psychologists believe that men had to find a new way to exert this negative energy. The solution: video games.
I have never been able to sit for hours in front of a television playing video games and it’s hard for me to conceptualize wanting to do that. I also can’t think of a single male I know that doesn’t seriously enjoy at least some form of video game; be that Mario Kart, World of Warcraft, or Call of Duty, so this theory makes a lot of sense to me. Whether it be true or false, I think it’s definitely interesting and helpful in understanding our male counterparts.
Good luck out there gamers!