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Comment by theptip | Hacker News Reader

I think the idea is 30 mins watching scratches the itch, 30 mins playing and you are going to play for hours more.

(At least, this is how it is for me, can’t speak for the GP.)

Sure. Impulse control plays a major part in both though, which is mostly why I find it funny. My ex-boyfriend had ADHD and swore off video games for the same reason, but he'd end up watching YouTube for hours if I left him unchecked. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but I feel like the difference between both addictions is smaller than it seems.

I'd argue passive consumption of content is worse then playing video games. I have no horses in this race, I admittedly spend way too much time streaming content. But at least with games you're doing something. Actively using your brain. There are studies showing games can improve dexterity and problem solving abilities. I doubt watching stuff does the same.

Depends who you're talking about. Those of us who've literally skipped work to play video games definitely find it easier to watch others play rather than dip our toes in ourselves.

I'm sure people will also have skipped work to spend all day scrolling or streaming...

Yeah it's all down to the individual. I used to play all the time when younger but now I play in pretty short bursts and it works fine. I just avoid any games as a service type games.

The PS5 is really nice at this because you don't even have to exit the game. Just send it into rest mode and when you come back your game is still running ready to pick up where you left off.

For me it's a lot more satisfying than watching a YouTube video, but YMMV.

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