Effects of video games on social development

Multiplayer Racing Games become virtual social communities, where decisions need to be made quickly about whom to trust or reject and how to lead a group, the authors said.

Social consequences are a very real part of video games addiction. Addicted gamers spend so much time playing that their personal relationships get neglected and sometimes disappear altogether. Among addicted gamers who are married, up to 50 percent report a strain in their marriage as a result of their addiction.

Many gamers are now not playing alone, infect, only 24% of gamers only play games alone, which means 76% plays games with other people at least some of the time. This study also found that gamers are now the majority of teenagers, with 97% of all teens playing video Racing Games of one sort or another. From the Pew Study:

65% of game-playing teens play with other people who are in the room with them. 27% play games with people who they connect with through the internet. 82% play games alone, although 71% of this group also plays with others

Since video games can now be connected to the internet, more people can connect with users of the same game and create a social atmosphere. This can occur in video games where you must work with a team to achieve your goals, or in games where the game play is more one-on-one, like playing Madden or FIFA. However, this social atmosphere does not end with the console. The Pew Study found that gamers were more civically active than their non-gaming counterparts (2008). Gamers that played with other people in the room were more likely to take part in larger experiences outside the game. This includes commenting on internet message boards and acting civically and politically.

The present research provides a meta-analytical test of the idea that depending on their content, video games do affect social outcomes. Data from 98 independent studies with 36,965 participants revealed that for both Racing Games and pro social video games, there was a significant association with social outcomes. Whereas violent video games increase aggression and aggression-related variables and decrease pro social outcomes, pro social video games have the opposite effects. These effects were reliable across experimental, correlation, and longitudinal studies, indicating that video game exposure causally affects social outcomes and that there are both short- and long-term effects.