Why Are So Many Young Men Addicted to Video Games?

It’s something that causes many members of the older generations to shake their heads, and it’s still a relatively new phenomenon: video games. 

The younger generations in particular are absolutely enamored with them, especially young men. It isn’t just a passing phase, either. Video games are a mainstay not just in geek culture, but in pop culture as well. 

If you haven’t bothered with video gaming since you were feeding quarters into the slot of an arcade machine so you could chomp pellets as Pac-Man or jump over some barrels in Donkey Kong, then it may come as a surprise to you just how seismically games have impacted the world today. 

The Academy of Animated Art has put together a compilation of fascinating statistics regarding this subject. In 2020, 214 million Americans said they play video games for one hour or more per day, and a staggering eighty-three percent of people who have internet use it to play online games. According to a 2023 article from Forbes, the gaming industry generates more revenue than the music and film industry combined. 

The immense growth of the gaming industry has always interested me, particularly as it pertains to young men. Why do so many young men spend hours a week immersed in these virtual worlds? Are there any spiritual implications that come with this? That’s what we’re going to be exploring today. 

I’ll preface this discussion by making it clear that I am not “against” video games, and this is not a hit piece directed at gamers. I quite like video games, and they are among the regular topics of discussion I have with some of the men in my church. My best friend Josh and I largely built our initial friendship off of playing Minecraft together on the computer. If Nintendo releases an interesting new title on the Switch, I have been known to fork over sixty dollars so I can experience it. 

I’ve got no problem with gaming in and of itself. The issue arises when it consumes the lives of young men to such a degree that they would rather devote their time to gaming instead of working, developing a relationship with a woman, getting married, raising a family, and pursuing God’s calling for their life. And I can only speak anecdotally on this, but I believe a significant portion of young men would rather play video games than do any of that. 

With that said, condemning them or making fun of their gaming habit is stupid and unproductive. Instead, we must focus on what video games are offering them that they feel like they can’t get anywhere else. Once we understand this, we will be better equipped to disciple the young men in our congregations as we raise up the next generation .

#1: Video Games are Surrogates for Purpose

Many young men derive a sense of meaning from the video games they play–I know I did. This may sound silly, but think on this for a moment. 

Imagine growing up in a world that tells you purpose is simply what you make of it–a world that tells you there is no general blueprint for living a productive, abundant life and every lifestyle choice is equally valid. This world says it’s not better to strive for one thing, such as providing for and discipling a family, than it is to strive for another thing, such as meeting a personal goal to travel a lot. 

That is the message Gen Z men grew up hearing, and it ironically does not lead to more freedom and happiness because it opens up an infinite number of choices to them. It leads instead to paralysis–if there is no longer a scripturally based, societally prescribed standard regarding what constitutes as a purposeful, worthwhile life for a man to live, this leads to aimlessness. Atrophy. A lack of direction and conviction to actually be a man. 

Consequently, young men will desperately drink up a sense of purpose anywhere they can get it, even if it’s only simulated purpose in a virtual world. And make no mistake: video games offer a powerful sense of purpose that is intrinsically alluring to someone who feels no direction.

Video games typically offer set rules and metrics for success. They offer a sense of progression and improvement and competency, which are usually manifested by an increasing score, or upgraded gear for your avatar to wear, or by leveling your character up in strength. 

In video games, young men have a defined goal, guidelines and boundaries in which said goal must be attained, a task that requires competency and skill on their part in order to complete, and an obvious reward for their hard work upon fulfillment of the goal. When real life offers them nothing of the sort, this is incredibly appealing. 

#2: Video Games are Surrogates for Masculine Aggression 

The Halo video game series sees the heroic Master Chief battling hordes of aliens in order to save humanity from certain doom. 

Minecraft has you gathering resources, building a house, killing dangerous creatures for better gear, and then traveling to another dimension in order to slay the ferocious Enderdragon. 

In God of War, Kratos mentors his son Atreus as they journey through a land of fantastical mythology, slaughtering a pantheon of Norse gods so that they can honor his dead wife’s final request and scatter her ashes at the highest peak in all of the realms. 

Noticing a theme yet? These and most other video games offer a way to channel masculine drive and aggression towards something positive, at least, positive insofar as it accomplishes something instead of unleashing chaos and destruction, which is what masculine aggression does when left unchecked. 

In contemporary society, video games are one of the only socially acceptable ways for men to satisfy their urge to fight for something bigger than themselves. This is especially the case in a culture that so often denigrates masculinity, frequently associating it with the word “toxic.” This is also the culture that exalts the “girlboss” while at the same time trivializing and attempting to phase out the traits of traditional manhood.

As a result, the drive that once led men to be confidently ambitious, to protect women, and to channel the restlessness within them towards the creation and sustainment of a nuclear family is now leading them to video games. 

#3: Video Games Provide Community 

My last two points have involved video games being “surrogates” for something. I’ve not included this word in my final point because I believe that fostering a sense of community is one of the few tangible benefits video games offer. 

We live in a lonely world. It is often said that when the internet came along and offered us connection to nearly everyone on the planet, the world somehow became more lonely. 

Simple texts of “hey, how are you doing?” now suffice when before, you would have knocked on your neighbor’s door to check in with them (or at the very least, you would have spoken verbally on the phone). People have become increasingly insular, and when you sit next to the stranger on the park bench or across from one in the waiting room, you’re both too consumed with the electronic rectangle in your hands to bother with acknowledging one another. People post the best parts of their lives on social media, while also never posting about their insecurities or struggles. This causes everyone to operate under the false notion that they’re the only ones who feel sad, or discouraged, or overwhelmed–few things feel more lonely than that. 

Add on top of all this the fact that men are less comfortable making new friends and sharing their feelings with others than women are, and you get an epidemic of lonely young men. 

That’s where video games come in. Multiplayer games, namely of the online variety, open young men up to a community of like-minded individuals to play with and talk to. And the best part? These like-minded individuals are not there to simply chat, or go out for lunch, or have coffee together. Rather, they are there to do something together, which is primarily how men bond. Video games provide the avenue through which young men can spend hours working towards a common goal with their comrades, whether they’re adventuring together in Minecraft, performing raids in World of Warcraft, or having Pac-Man and Zelda duke it out in Super Smash Bros. 

The communal aspect of gaming is by no means a negative, though there are better ways to satisfy men’s desire for friendship. 

So What Do We Do with This? 

If there are any young men in your local church setting, then there is a good chance this article at least partially described their current plight. In other words, it is likely that they yearn for purpose, desiring to work for something larger than themselves. It is likely they feel a restless aggression pent-up inside of them, and they desperately want to put it toward something productive. It is likely they crave companionship with other men. 

This is why we need to be intentional about the way we disciple young men. Sitting down to have weekly Bible studies is great, but are we showing them what living purposefully on mission for Jesus Christ looks like? Are we taking them out to their community, rolling our sleeves up with them, and working to share the Gospel with others?

Are we helping them spot their talents, the unique ways God has gifted them so that they can advance the Kingdom, and then encouraging them to grow in these so that they can carry out an abundant and fulfilling ministry courageously doing what God has called them to do? 

What about modeling what leadership within the family structure looks like? In our discipleship, our we unconsciously submitting to the cultural notion that every path one takes in life is equally valid? Or are we making the case through our own living example that most men ought to raise families to spiritually lead and nurture? Are we showing them how to build a life with their bride, or are we simply leaving them to build a virtual life in Animal Crossing? 

Doing all of this will also fill that void longing for friendship as well. I love playing video games with my buddies, but the sense of community I feel with my brothers in Christ as we work towards the goal of expanding God’s kingdom as a church is much greater and far more satisfying. 

The young men in our lives need to be told that their lives can amount to so much more than what they have been told. They need to be told that their masculinity is a good and valuable thing, given to them by God. 

We have failed them if they think a purposeful life looks like anxiously counting down to the end of the work day so that they can return to their dorm room or apartment and log on to the computer.