Is playing Video games really bad for your health?

Eddy S asked:


Is it really as bad as it is said i play video games for around 1 and a half hours week days and 2 - 3 hours on Saturday and Sunday is that really bad for my health???
Is it really bad for my eyesight to be playing games for this length of time?

5 Responses to “Is playing Video games really bad for your health?”

  1. No… it’s not like smoking a cigarette or anything like that. hehe

    However, if you’re doing any exercise during the day and eating loads of calories, then just playing games or watching TV won’t help you out. :)

  2. I don’t think it is unhealthy cause your exercising your thumbs, but as long as you do other exercise and eat healthy you should be fine, but it might also affect your eyesight.

  3. One doomed space marine on January 4th, 2008 at 9:50 pm

    Ok it can be, but usually isn’t, the health repercussions usually come from lack of sunlight, improper diet and other offshoot health problems
    with neglecting ones self. Possible mental illness can be a problem,
    but it usually people who were hereditary affliceted with it too, akin to cannabis and schizophrenia, e.g the dope don’t cause schizophrenia
    it just triggers it in people with a genetic family history of it, e.g a
    video game won’t drive a sane man nuts.

    There was a case of a Korean man that can be quite easily found
    on the net, and was featured in quite a lot of print media who, died after a 3 day binge at I beleive an internet cafe, selling everquest
    items on ebay, the cause of death was in the 3 days he didn’t stop, sleep, eat, drink or use the toilet. That’s an extreme case, I have had
    3 day binges online no sleep, but I’m an Insomniac and always make
    sure I eat drink and take care of my personal hygiene and here I am.

    So it comes down to certain factors, be aware of time, any anti social
    tendencies you may be developing, e.g Game time becomes more
    important than hanging out with mates.
    Like a computer, takes breaks from time to time, for no less than 15
    minutes and go stare out the window, let your eyes refocus on
    something with real depth (eyes strain cos they are trying to look off into the distance of a game world that is in reality flat and only a few inches away) Try using a Mondern TV, lke HDTV with a high refresh rate. Most older TV’s have a very low refresh rate compared to monitors and modernt tellies, the lower the refresh, the more chance
    that as the longer you play the longer your eyes swell up in your head.
    Yes that’s what your puter is doing to you right now, just people only
    notice the sore eyes and headaches it causes.

    So yeah even on your puter, right now, raise you’re refresh rate to the
    highest your monitor supports and feel your eyes not hurt as much.

    At the end of the day, commonsense is what keeps video gamers
    safe, like all good things, in moderation it’s fun and safe, too much of it
    is when it gets deadly.

  4. no, but too much of anything is bad

  5. 90 minutes a week is normal. what is unhealthy is if you played 8 hours a day without a break.

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