Northern New Hampshire: What are we going to do tonite? Nothing. Absolutely nothing going on.
Lets do some heroin.
Cool. It's all we got.
WTF.
There's a sale on Steam.
(I haven't checked, but there's always a sale on Steam).
I wouldn't even care if that chain of businesses made much money, I'd consider it a public service.
I hope it has a positive impact; I don't see how it couldn't.
That being said, I do see some issues with our youth habitually living in gaming ecosystems rather than in the real world. For instance, a couple studies lately have noted empathetic behavior sharply dropping among millennials, [1] which I would think comes from spending far less time interacting face-to-face with anyone during their formative years -- their emotional attachments are probably not as strongly imprinted when staring at a screen all the time.
Internet and VR are still a huge net win imo. Real-life, positive social outlets are crucial as well though.
[1] http://www.ipearlab.org/media/publications/Changes_in_Dispos...
The study you linked does mention other causes which seem more likely than device use:
>As discussed previously, narcissism, which is negatively correlated with empathy, has been rising in American college students over a similar time period (Twenge et al., 2008).
The current college generation are extreme narcissists. To a disgusting degree. Even terrible tragedies (such as the terrorist attacks in France) are met with "how can I make this about me?" attitudes. A brief browse through Twitter shows this isn't an uncommon thing.
I have no data on whether or not narcissism may or may not be correlated with internet/electronic devices. (I haven't bothered to search this statement, so if a study shows up on the first page of Google results - didn't bother looking! :) )
Either way - I look forward to habitually living in a gaming ecosystem rather than the real world.
Cue the Village People singing: "Y.M.C.A...." :-)
Nowadays we live in a less Christian society that's also less accepting of even nominal gender segregation, but I think the old YMCAs and YWCAs still provide some evidence in favor of your idea.
So I hope to see the Young People's Rational Associations moving into small towns. :-)
Maybe some YMRAs can even cooperate with other educational and religious organizations that favor healthy exercise and the study of logic. :-)
There are a lot of factors on this one, but at this point it's mostly a cyclical cultural problem.