Being antisocial & playing video games was the correct answer
(media.kotakuinaction2.win)
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The difference between social media and gaming is the same difference between how women interact to how men interact:
Social media: put up a fake persona, pretend to be nice or virtuous when behind the facade you are cursing everyone and in your own pit of narcissism
Gaming: "can you get one kill you fucking idiot!?"
"Fuck you, you're aim is worse than Michael J Fox!"
"Screw you harder than I did your mom earlier!"
Hour later
"So, wanna help me farm for this new item?"
"Sure mate let me put a good music track to grind to"
I think it's more than that. The dynamics of social gaming might be particularly worse than other forms of gaming.
Eve and WoW players are effectively totally dysfunctional because of the obsession of which some of them approach the game. League of Legends players are almost exclusively known for being awful people.
However, none of that can really be said about players of single player games, or games without strong social mechanisms. Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Zelda, Tropico, Factorio, Stardew Valley, Pokemon, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Minecraft, etc, the audiences for these games are never seen as socially pathological. Some of the twitch shooters like Counter Strike and CoD can get bad, but the biggest problem there is the immaturity of a younger audience; or the grizzled bitterness of an old one.
I think the social component of some games can become pathological because the interactions are not incentivized for amicability (LoL); or are otherwise taken to seriously (Eve). Games without social pressures might be a time sink, but don't make you pathological. Pokemon, despite being around for 2 fucking decades, doesn't seem to generate a lot of pathological behaviors.
I think there does need to be a lot more thought given to how game mechanics cultivate negative or positive social behaviors within a gaming community, and how to build a game around avoiding the negative ones.
Meanwhile, the game mechanics of Social Media are probably the single most addictive and pathological mechanisms that you are going to find. The 2nd worst is Twitter, but the absolute worst is OnlyFans.
Zelda, Elder Scrolls, Pokemon, Street Fighter and Minecraft audiences "are never seen as socially pathological"? Even the average WoW player is less deranged than many of these, especially Pokemon and Zelda whose core fanbase consists of fat manchildren who send you death threats if you dare criticize their latest reskinned Nintendo garbage for kids.
I have not seen or heard that. Pokemon & Zelda's core fanbase are below the age of 20. Pokemon is particularly younger.
Being useless soycucks makes them less pathological that WoW addicts and LoL players.