Poll: Do games create socially awkward people, or just attract them?

[Brawndo]

Let me preface this by saying that the majority of gamers are normally adjusted individuals, especially considering that there is a console in 75% of American households today. But you cannot deny that a sizable minority of gamers are socially stumped: some are reclusive and spend most waking hours online, some have trouble making IRL friends, and some are ostracized by classmates and the opposite sex. Putting aside actual psychological conditions like Aspergers' or autism, do you feel more that:

a) gaming has the potential to stunt an otherwise healthy young gamer's social development

or

b) young people who are not well adjusted socially are simply more prone to seek out gaming as an outlet

Oh, and before you talk about friends you've made playing WoW and all that, consider that most types of gaming, even online multiplayer, are predominantly solitary activities. A lot of the social contact that goes on in online gaming operates on different rules from the real world and doesn't have the same challenges and consequences that in-person social contact does.

 

[Marter]

I think it's just that pretty much everyone plays games at this point, so both the socially awkward and the ones who are just fine with social situations play them.

They attract both groups, it's just the socially awkward ones who, let's say, overdo it a bit.

That's my guess anyway. I could easily be wrong.

 

[Brawndo]

Apparently my poll was not posted because it was reset when I messed up the captcha

 

[Drakmeire]

Everyone can be socially awkward. I played games all my life and the only reason I was awkward was because I was too mature for my age and didn't take little things seriously. I'm fine now since I'm in college but I think that most gamers are awkward is a stereotype. Gamers just tend to get along with other gamers. like jocks get along with jocks.

 

[RaphaelsRedemption]

I have a social anxiety disorder. But I started gaming after the social anxiety was diagnosed, so I know I started to game to get some relief from my already present social anxiety.

I wouldn't know about everyone else, but I can say gaming has been helpful, rather than harmful for my social problems, in that I have a safe way to occupy my time and mind, instead of brewing over my problems.

 

[RatRace123]

B) The problem isn't with the games, it's with the people.
The disturbed people use gaming as an excuse, and their parents don't step in and actually do their job.
Trying not to generalize, but this really seems to be the problem more often than not.
I also mentioned something similar in another thread, why can't can't crazy people just be crazy? Why does something have to be the cause of it?

 

[Lord Devius]

Being socially awkward myself, and thinking about how I edged into my social ineptitude...

I would have been a bookworm if I hadn't been a gamer. I would still be awkward, just with a different hobby.

 

[Brawndo]

Everyone can be socially awkward. I played games all my life and the only reason I was awkward was because I was too mature for my age and didn't take little things seriously. I'm fine now since I'm in college but I think that most gamers are awkward is a stereotype. Gamers just tend to get along with other gamers. like jocks get along with jocks.

Jocks? What is this, a bad 1980s high school movie? I'm pretty sure the nerd-jock-stoner archetypes of yesteryear no longer apply as rigidly as you might think. I played varsity soccer in high school, but I also played Diablo II, Starcraft, and SNES RPGs like a fiend during the same period. Most of these "jocks" you speak of most likely have an Xbox 360 and play CoD and Halo. XBL competitions are very popular at my university, they even have a competition between fraternities for it

 

[Johnwesleyharding]

OP: Most likely to be a combination of the two. There are many notable exceptions, but people with social anxiety disorders aren't exactly helping their condition by playing games, which although fun, are mainly a non-social thing.

 

[FalloutJack]

In my opinion, my answer to the overall question is "Yes".

To explain, I believe that since people are not uniform, the results of any study cannot yield only one answer to this. And even if such a study were to give us a majority of one or the other, that truth could change as easily as the direction of the wind. In the end, it is down to the person and their own personal everything to determine how it will be. Maybe they will become awkward and maybe they won't. Equally, maybe awkward people will become LESS so and maybe they won't. Life is funny that way. Funnily enough, I know that some cases of autism and aspergers people WILL open up more around a game. All depends on how severe and how they handle it.

 

[Caligulust]

B)

Before video games it had been comic books and D&D.
Same kind of people, different interests.

Though I mean, a person could really turn to anything else.

 

[Drakmeire]

Everyone can be socially awkward. I played games all my life and the only reason I was awkward was because I was too mature for my age and didn't take little things seriously. I'm fine now since I'm in college but I think that most gamers are awkward is a stereotype. Gamers just tend to get along with other gamers. like jocks get along with jocks.

Jocks? What is this, a bad 1980s high school movie? I'm pretty sure the nerd-jock-stoner archetypes of yesteryear no longer apply as rigidly as you might think. I played varsity soccer in high school, but I also played Diablo II, Starcraft, and SNES RPGs like a fiend during the same period. Most of these "jocks" you speak of most likely have an Xbox 360 and play CoD and Halo. XBL competitions are very popular at my university, they even have a competition between fraternities for it

Sadly all those archetypes were alive and well in my school. I only knew one athlete who liked video games and he was on the swim team. everyone kinda stuck to their own little cliques... my school was a bad 80's movie.

 

[Drummie666]

B. Definitely B. Gaming really is an escape from reality, so people who have trouble in reality are very easily drawn to it, because in the online community, there is much less of a person presented to other people than in reality.

 

[default]

I'm a closet gamer. I've got tons of friends, I'm going on a date later next week, and I'm fit and healthy. I just enjoy interactive media as opposed to watching TV or movies

Having said that, I can understand how gaming, due to its incredibly addictive and time consuming nature, could definitely stunt social and psychological development, and perhaps even perception of reality in younger gamers.

Also, I can see how it could attract socially incompetent people to get lost within their worlds, to use the time they should be using spending time with friends to work towards rewards. Escapism, or just filling the hole, if you will.

So it's a big mixture of both.

 

[DarkShadow144]

i would say they attract them. im just speaking from my own experience but ive been what you would call "socially awkward" for all my life. ive had a hard time making friends and talking infront of people, ive even burst into tears a few times over the years in front of my class because the teacher forced me to speak in front of them. This kind of thing is the reason that i play online games. its much easier to talk to people when its just over the internet and not face to face, also video games allow a certin level of stress reduction from days where its just too much. Can video games make it worse? of course, thats why they are one of those things that require moderation

 

[Ham_authority95]

Fantasy, the escape from daily life, is what games give to people with little social skills.

It isn't like games make people have far better social skills, anyhow...

 

[tharglet]

Funnily enough, I know that some cases of autism and aspergers people WILL open up more around a game.

Can vouch for this one ¬¬