Why Do Older People Waste Their Time Playing Dumb Phone Games?

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/why-do-older-people-waste-their-time-playing-dumb-phone-games-d3bdd2ea

by impish9208 • 2 years ago

17 18 2 years ago

wsj.com

davydm• 2 years ago

what a stupid title (forget even the article)

who cares how people have fun? can't people just have fun without a frikkin wsj op-ed?

VyseofArcadia• 2 years ago

who cares how people have fun?

The author's mother, who declared 40+ years ago that Atari games are a waste of time.

This is an article about hypocrisy and asymmetry of importance. The author views his mother's gaming habit as hypocritical given her attitude towards video games when he was young. His mother may not even remember telling at him to get off the video game and go outside because it was just another of innumerable occasions during which she had to scold her child.

I've had this conversation with my own now-elderly mother, and her response was, "well, it was 30 years ago, and you were a child. It doesn't matter now, just let me play sudoku on my phone". Which is frustrating to hear after the decade or so I spent listening to her describe my video game hobby as a waste of time every opportunity she had.

ranger_danger• 2 years ago

It just makes me want to do the same thing when I'm that age... definitely not helpful.

hindsightbias• 2 years ago

Well sudoku at least requires some brain power.

Candy-crush... maybe if we need to keep the hand/eye coordination high to operate laser cannons against alien invaders.

trey-jones• 2 years ago

Well, I do agree with the sentiment that people can do what they want, but I think the title AND the picture of the granny with the casino numbers reflected in her glasses both describe a real phenomenon, which I might even venture to label a "problem", the above shared sentiment not withstanding.

All evidence anecdotal and all opinion my own:

First - have you seen the phone games (some of) these old people are playing? "Dumb" is not an objective label of course but.... have you seen them?

Second - I think it's definitely possible that there are seniors out there blowing their social security on gambling games. I think there are a lot of things wrong with that.

Third - Even ignoring "dumb phone games" I'm seeing people that I would have always said have no use for a computer (my father, age 74) compulsively getting their phones out and staring at them in contexts that a lot of people his age (including him, I wager) would have definitely considered rude just a few short years ago.

I catch myself doing this, even though there is literally nothing for me to look at on my phone as I deliberately don't have social media or games (other than Chess, ok) so that I don't do this. For example, I might pull my phone out at 10PM on a Saturday and open ThinkOrSwim before realizing it's not changed since Friday, obviously, and won't til Monday morning. Yes, this is my own personal problem, but I doubt I'm alone, and most people have a lot more distracting shit on their phones than I do.

Yes, it's my opinion and you don't have to agree, but I do think this broader phone addiction thing is a problem and I will qualify that as: something that is making our species less capable of survival in the long term.

swatche• 2 years ago

https://archive.md/S5s8O

dist-epoch• 2 years ago

As if 20yo don't waste their time playing dumb phone games....

twelve402• 2 years ago

Yours is a boring topic that has been beaten to death. The article is about a more interesting case when someone presumably previously intellectually active and living a healthy life regresses to stupid activities like that. A glimpse of what's ahead.

drewcoo• 2 years ago

Not playing a new game on a smartphone and clinging to older ways may be an early sign of dementia.

Seeing dementia slowly crawl over a personality is much scarier than elders with phone game addictions.

vletal• 2 years ago

My mum (65+) is addicted to Duolingo. She has been practicing English for a year. They gamified the app well. She did not learn much though.

pachouli-please• 2 years ago

I'm not sure this is an age-specific issue.

Though I do find it entertaining that the older crowds are so sucked into phones when they spent the entire Millenial/beyond generation's time complaining of kids being too 'into their screens.'

twelve402• 2 years ago

the way he described it, it is age-specific because presumably she didn't behave like that at all, in earlier years

somethoughts• 2 years ago

I'd have to say I find the most interesting part of this article is that it is in the WSJ.

This feels more like it belongs as a fun musing in the New York Times or Atlantic that has a slight twinge of "I'm a bit more intellectual than tho" smugness to it.

Is it the sign of a post Murdoch WSJ or an attempt to broaden the readership base? Or is it just me and the WSJ Lifestyle section has always had such essays.

catlikesshrimp• 2 years ago

"I will treasure the time I have left—reading the Great Books, visiting lands I had read about in the Great Books and sitting with friends in cafes, subtly slipping into our conversation facts about the Great Books I’m reading."

What a boring cliché. Why would old people talk about old stuff nobody cares about? Other's kids, grandkids and grandgrand kids are definitely more interesting and real in comparison.

An old aunt spends all her hours in facebook, which is much less wasteful than her previous gambling addiction.

Before dieing, my grandmother spent all the time she was allowed to watch tv. She didn't even space out, she was really watching the programs all that time. The next day She wouldn't remember what she had or hadn't seen previously. She didn't the content, she could watch soap operas and UFC all the same, and discuss about it along.

As I see it, reduced mental capacities means reduced activity scope.

JSDevOps• 2 years ago

What a stupid title.

strict9• 2 years ago

Many or most older people spend their days watching television for very long stretches of time.

I would much prefer my older relatives to play dumb phone games to watching TV all day. In this case they engage their mind more than melting it via 24 hour news or other programming.

mikewarot• 2 years ago

As someone 60 years old, yeeted out of the workforce with long covid back in 2020... I'm basically stuck without the ability to focus on things for more than brief periods, and I get exhausted at the drop of a hat.

I've watched all of the interesting things on YouTube, NetFlix, and Amazon Prime.

I played Universal Paperclips through 100 times!

I've spent 7000+ hours playing factorio.

Recently, I'm doing slightly better... so I'm starting to make small bits of progress on my BitGrid project... I hope to see it through before either of the two singularities... the AI thing, or my demise.

Games on phones are a great diversion.

Why Do Older People Waste Their Time Playing Dumb Phone Games?

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