DS, PSP and mobile gaming is making us lonely
Particularly on trains
In an article published in Japan’s Mainichi Daily News, and reported by family video game site What They Play, psychiatrist Rika Kayama has claimed that the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP are partly responsible for creating a generation of lonely souls.
“Today’s youth immerse themselves in worlds of their own right before our eyes,” Kayama writes, “where they can live secluded from the rest of us. Feeding into these one person worlds, personal devices such as mobile phones and handheld game systems like the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS come on to the market one after another.”
Taking the spotlight away from handheld gaming devices for a moment, Kayama goes on to make a more general point about peoples’ solitary behaviour on trains and the wider implications this has.
“The ‘make your own world anywhere’ idea has gone too far, to the point that even on the train one sees people shamelessly putting on makeup or eating cups of instant noodles as though the train carriage was their own room…”
“I feel that an increasing number of people are coming to my office saying, ‘Even when I’m in a crowd I’m lonely.’ Even when they are at a popular singer’s concert or when reading a best-selling novel, these patients can’t feel any solidarity for those next to them or those reading the same book.”
Kayama isn’t singling out handheld games consoles so much as suggesting that activities which don’t require the participant to socialise in public areas are contributing to widespread misery.
Possibly true, but woe betide the person who tries to talk to me while I’m playing games or reading on a train.
What about you? Are you a loner or a frustrated socialiser?
