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I tend to disagree heavily with that. Social online games are fostering a toxic "win it or die" mentality that is making children anti-social physically and int

I tend to disagree heavily with that. Social online games are fostering a toxic "win it or die" mentality that is making children anti-social physically and introvert. Bullying practices just got to the next level with games such as Fortnite, Free Fire, etc. And the industry profits with that by applying psychological gimmicks in their games, the same ones applied by Vegas' casinos. The problem here is that they are applied on children that are unable to fully fathom the mid-long term consequences of their decisions and that keeps them playing and forgetting the external world. Their mental health is better until the day their parents take away their devices and send them to play outside. Suicide rates doubled over the years. Antidepressants use doubled over the years. Social media by itself is not the problem. How big techs use them to profit (The Social Dilemma) is the problem.

simonh 6y ago
Online bullying does happen, for sure, and all those are concerns. But bullying and safety are an issue in any playground or arena in which kids hang out. This study is actual evidence of the positive overall effect on most kids. Do you have any counter evidence that shows the problems actually outweigh the benefits?
- victordmor 6y ago
  The problems are shown only on mid-long term. We are seeing children more introvert and more "scared" of the external world. Children that will grow into adults that are not able to deal with unforeseen negative events. I agree with you that this is an issue in any kids physical external activity. But the difference is that these activities are often supervised by an adult and in an event of a bullying the participants are removed and also often punished, and also the victim is helped and assisted. Note that I use the word "often" because I know that there are parents that encourage bullying behavior as ~self-defense~, which I also disagree heavily. We don't have adults supervising every Fortnite lobby. Most children do not know how to use reporting tools to report improper behavior by another player. And while they suffer from bad words, psychological threats and such, they can't just turn off their devices, because the game always offer them a reward, a new skin, virtual coins, lootboxes, etc, so they keep playing, and therefore we have a loop. Just yesterday I reported a player who cheated on FIFA, by exploiting a glitch that enabled him to play with a team full of superplayers and legends. The whole process took me almost 30 minutes. Sometimes I think that they don't want us to report bad behavior because the process itself is tiring.

simonh 6y ago

Online bullying does happen, for sure, and all those are concerns. But bullying and safety are an issue in any playground or arena in which kids hang out. This study is actual evidence of the positive overall effect on most kids. Do you have any counter evidence that shows the problems actually outweigh the benefits?

victordmor 6y ago
The problems are shown only on mid-long term. We are seeing children more introvert and more "scared" of the external world. Children that will grow into adults that are not able to deal with unforeseen negative events. I agree with you that this is an issue in any kids physical external activity. But the difference is that these activities are often supervised by an adult and in an event of a bullying the participants are removed and also often punished, and also the victim is helped and assisted. Note that I use the word "often" because I know that there are parents that encourage bullying behavior as ~self-defense~, which I also disagree heavily. We don't have adults supervising every Fortnite lobby. Most children do not know how to use reporting tools to report improper behavior by another player. And while they suffer from bad words, psychological threats and such, they can't just turn off their devices, because the game always offer them a reward, a new skin, virtual coins, lootboxes, etc, so they keep playing, and therefore we have a loop. Just yesterday I reported a player who cheated on FIFA, by exploiting a glitch that enabled him to play with a team full of superplayers and legends. The whole process took me almost 30 minutes. Sometimes I think that they don't want us to report bad behavior because the process itself is tiring.