but I didn't hear much about people becoming really addicted to games in the 80s or even most of the 90s
Well, there were some discussions around this, just not very many. A lot of arcade games in particular are designed to attract players who will keep putting money into them over and over and over again, and at the time... during what is often referred to as the Golden Age of arcade games... there were various articles and news stories that talked about the perceived addiction factor of all of it.
However, unlike now, the internet wasnt a thing back then, so these articles and videos couldnt "spread", so to speak.
On top of that though, the industry as a whole had not mastered the art of exploitation. Nowadays, it's gone far beyond the whole "attract repeated plays" aspect. Major companies spend millions of dollars trying to work out ways to create genuinely dangerous levels of addiction, even going so far as to directly target the neurodiverse or those with already existing addiction issues. If you know what a lootbox is, that's the most famous example of this in action, but far from the only one. All of this for the purpose of endless monetization. The issue of addiction is now a very contentious topic in the gaming community, so you hear about it a whole lot more nowadays.
I don't get it, people will-binge watch an entire series on Netflix or whatever or sit through a movie that's three hours long and that's perfectly fine and okay fro them to brag about doing, but if you play video games that's a total waste of time even if you enjoy it, you're a gigantic loser, and you have an unhealthy obsession or addiction. Why can't we win?
As far as I can tell, this is sort of a relic of a magical old tradition known as "old people being scared of new things they arent used to". That's what drove the initial berserk pushback against games during the arcade era... indeed, basically ALL of those articles and such I mentioned from that era were not only purely negative, but also very paranoid. It wasnt just about addiction. They often talked about how kids were getting brainwashed or hypnotized or brain damage, even. And of course, most of the older crowd did basically nothing to, you know, actually try the things out for themselves and get better understanding. And that grew into a general societal trend. Gaming = bad.
It's far less prevalent today, as now the older crowd IS those original kids who were teens at arcades during the golden age, but still, it's a societal trend nonetheless, and those dont fade easily.
Of course, all of this can vary depending on the individual, much like the idea of the younger crowd being good with technology, and the older crowd being bad with it. Like, in my family, I'm generally the center of all the tech in the house, but with two exceptions: I'm the only one who doesnt really use phones, and I also dont (cant) use the labyrinthine disaster that is the main TV installation... only my father knows how to use that mess. And my parents and stepparents are all perfectly adept with the phones and such that I myself dont use. So, none of any of this is exactly universal, just general trends (which are slowly fading).
But gaming is an active process, often involving spacial awareness, problem solving skills and quick reflexes etc.
Yeah, this is the bit that's hardest to explain to anyone who doesnt already play games. They often think it's just mindless shooty shooty bang bang, but if you try to actually show what many games are REALLY like, and the elements often found within (that often include very heavy math and logic elements) their eyes glaze over. And then that info is immediately discarded, and a comment is made about how lazy I am or something. Seen it a million times. Despite it being very easy for me to demonstrate the benefits I've gained from the hobby. And it sure aint just me.
The hilarious part to me is that often those same people will then sit down and spend hours staring blankly at trashy reality shows on TV, and that's fine... but hey, to each their own, yeah?
