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Comment by sb057 | Hacker News Reader

>According to Steam I played over 2.000 hours during 2020 and 2021.

Less than three hours a day for passive recreation is hardly out of line with modern western lifestyles. The average American spends more than that watching television.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2021-07-22/...

I obviously wouldn't want to deter anybody from productive work in favor of entertainment, but physical and mental rest is a biological necessity. Don't feel bad for kicking back if it's just a couple of hours a day.

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I don't think its healthy because he changed his lifestyle around it. He said he would wake up early, go to sleep late and put off work.

Americans watch a lot of TV, but no one is setting an alarm to binge watch Jeopardy.

Yes. Spot on comment. You are absolutely right

No one is setting an alarm to binge watch Jeopardy - they just put off all the things they should be doing instead.

It’s a much more passive involvement but still just as problematic as described above.

There's that "looking back" approach which justifies it, then there's the looking forward approach which makes you wince: "Tomorrow and every-day after, I will commit to spending 3 hours a day of my 17 available waking hours... playing games".

The thing is games usually don't get anywhere. If I watch the Marvel movies for 100 hours, or most series, I'd be done with the whole thing. I've been playing Xenonauts for almost 100 hours and I'm only halfway through the campaign.

There's little satisfaction. Not as much growth as say, playing a sport, and not as much rest as just sleeping or lying down with a book/TV. I think games have evolved to be more competitive than fun, in both design and marketing.

I'd like to play again if I could go down to 3 hours per week.

3 hours per day including weekends is too much in my opinion. Take into account I work full time, we went to trips and did stuff together with my wife in those 2 years. So if I was away for a weekend I would play 6 hours for 2 days to compensate.

I basically was playing that game at every slice of free time that I had available.

A lot of that TV watching is TV on background. That is not the same as compulsive TV watching where you can't stop despite feeling affected.

Video games are hardly passive! The brain is extremely active while playing!

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