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Credit: Anton Porsche on Pexels
Adults who play video games every day are far more likely to be working class than middle class, a new study has found.
Although the proportion of daily gaming remained the same during their teenage years, by the age of 20, middle-class people began to spend more time on their careers, the study found.
Loughborough University's Xiaobin Zhou, Dr Adrian Leguina and Professor Paula Saukko interviewed 37 gamers and analyzed data from a survey of 3,357 British adults aged 16 to 34.
According to the survey, 8.7% of people aged 20 to 24 in higher-level managerial or professional jobs play video games every day, compared to 8.7% of people in daily jobs or manual labor. It was found that 20% of people are The figures for those aged 25 to 34 were 8.7% and 13%, respectively.
At the British Sociological Society's online annual conference held today (Friday 5 April 2024), Zhou Xiaobin said that after the age of 20, “the proportion of people who play games every day declines dramatically among the middle class. “This is in contrast to the everyday manual class, where this decline has been remarkable.” It's become much less noticeable. ”
In interviews with 37 gamers, he found that “game time for most middle-class and above mobile participants has declined over time due to educational and professional responsibilities. He emphasized that he considers self-discipline as a valuable achievement and finds a balance between gaming “as a hobby and in everyday life.'' ”
Their self-discipline habits are likely to have been inculcated in higher education institutions or professional workplaces. It not only affects the participants' game, but also improves their career and economic status. There are also things.”
As middle-class people move away from home to study or work, they play games less together or alone, allowing them to incorporate gaming into their busy lives. Ta.
Working-class people's gaming habits didn't change much into adulthood. Because their living situation hasn't changed.
“Working-class participants, especially those with higher education or those who are not fully employed, often continue to play more frequently and for longer periods of time each session as they transition into young adulthood. there was.
“Some people had negative opinions about the game and thought they were spending too much time on it. It might not be healthy, but they still rarely try to control the game. If they don't adopt such controlled gaming habits, they can become highly self-conscious or ashamed of their game.”
The study found that working-class participants, who often remain in the same social circle throughout their lives, emphasized the bonds they experience when playing video games with the same friends. This encouraged them to play more video games.
One working-class interviewee told Zhou Xiaobin that he spends about eight hours a day playing video games. enjoy it. “
One middle-class participant told him, “I would like to play more and spend more time on it, but I know it's not the most important thing in my life at the moment, so I always end up putting it off” to something else. ”
Xiaobin Zhou said this study is the first to study the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. “While video game research has flourished over the past two decades, the influence of social class on video games has often been overlooked.”
The study records data on the careers of young people aged 16 to 19, some of whom are in management positions and some run their own businesses. Of these, 33% played video games every day, compared to 38% who had a daily or physical job.
Half of 16- to 19-year-olds in higher-level management jobs have never played a video game, compared to one-third of those in day-to-day jobs or manual labor. At later ages, this figure was between 50% and 60% for both classes.
The study analyzed data from the Participant Survey, an annual survey of British people conducted by the DCMS. In this study, we analyzed a subsample of young respondents divided into her three age categories: 16–19 years, 20–24 years, and 25–34 years.
Secondary analyzes included two waves of TPS (1,771 of 8,156 individuals in 2018-2019 TPS and 1,586 of 7,483 individuals in 2019-2020 TPS who matched the selected ages). data from 2019 to 2020). range. The interviews, conducted by three researchers, were conducted with people between the ages of 18 and 35 who frequently play games, primarily recruited online from Facebook groups and subreddits in the UK Midlands. .
