Gamers Are Fitter (and Sadder) Than You Think

missb writes "According to NewScientist.com, online gamers are no 'couch potatoes'. US researchers quizzed players of the role-playing game EverQuest II, and found adult gamers to be in better physical condition than the average American. The downside, however, was the gamers reported more cases of depression and substance abuse than their compatriots."

Comments

huh?

[circletimessquare]

society takes a firm stance against child abuse

therefore, according to your logic on drugs, this makes people abuse children

uh... dude, you fail at logic here, hard

"I'm not trying to paint some sort of counterculture mystique here, just say it is possible to use some of these things without being or becoming an addict or an "abuser", and that if you do you probably don't fully buy into the values of the society you find yourself in as you are going directly against them."

this is two competely UNRELATED issues

1. addiction: marijuana should be legal. it isn't addictive, biochemically. end of story. but the legality of every drug should be considered on a case-by-case basis. something like heroin or methamphetamine: taking these drugs and not becoming an addict is like speeding 100 mph on the highway and not getting in an accident. theoretically possible, but just a matter of time until you are an addict. its biochemistry at work here, nothing about counterculture at all. the legal status of every drug must be considered separately, according to pharamacological fact. marijuana, according to pharmacological fact, clearly needs to be legalized. something like methamphetamine, meanwhile, examining nothing but pharmacological fact, should be completely illegal

2. countercultural values: HAVE NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH THE BIOCHEMISTRY OF ADDICTION. completely unrelated issue. stop trying to mix these issues together, you are simply failing hard

an analogy, perhaps:

[circletimessquare]

Fred observes some kids playing with fireworks. The fireworks set fire to some dry grass, and the fire begins to grow towards some parkland. Fred goes over to the kids and admonishes them, telling them they are wrong for playing with fireworks when it is not New Years or the Fourth of July, then Fred storms off.

What is the point of this analogy?

The children violated social norms, BUT ITS NOT THE POINT, NOR AN EVEN VAGUELY IMPORTANT ISSUE

and yet you continue to conflate counterculture and drug use in your thinking

why?

my advice to you is to stop, think, and understand that one is an entirely different subject matter than the other

because comments of yours like "I'm saying that by taking illegal drugs a person does not fall in line with the particular subset of prevalent societal rules values concerned with use of illegal substances" is 100% accurate

but COMPLETELY POINTLESS