Are Video Games a Waste of Time?

Video games are a huge industry, bigger than Hollywood, and billions of people around the world play them for fun.

However, recent research by Professor Erik Hurst from the University of Chicago research revealed, that young men are working less and playing video games more. Suggesting they are not building the skills for the future due to video game playing.

Kathrine Isbista, Phillip Zimbardo, Zeran Popovic and Tom Brock where invited to discuss this research in a four part podcast, and asked the question, are video games a waste of time?

Dr Tom Brock from Manchester Metropolitan University's sociology department, joins the conversation in part 4 'worlds apart together' (17:11) and speaks of the positives that gaming can have.

Tom believes there are beneficial skills required by gaming and that we should be “moving beyond this binary sense of play and work.... moving beyond work is a productive space and gaming is an escape from that productive space.”

Click here to listen to the full discussion