Sex ratios, education and the effect of gaming...

[RedToothBrush]

quillette.com/2020/01/16/all-the-single-ladies/
All the Single Ladies

This article is lengthy but fascinating.

It talks about how women prefer educated men and how culture changes in areas where the ratio of educated men to women is different.

Where there are more men to women it supports relationships but where its more women to men it supports more casual sex.

It talks about a few more variables on this theme and then talks about why there are now more women than men who are being educated.

This is where I think it starts to get really interesting. It speculates that this change can be attributed directly related to gaming.

The economist Michael Ward looked at a dataset of more than 6,000 high school and college students. He found that when video game sales increase, students spend less time attending class and doing homework and more time playing games. Furthermore, this “crowding out” effect was stronger for males and lower income students. He also found that the average amount of time spent playing video games was three times larger for males compared to females.

The economist Erik Hurst has suggested that leisure time has become so valuable to men that they are less willing to exchange that time for other pursuits.

These being education and work.

Furthermore, Hurst and his colleagues found that from 2000 to 2015, labor hours fell by 12 percent for those aged 21–30. What has filled this free time for men? The researchers found that young men increased the number of hours dedicated to leisure by about the same number of labor hours they lost. And what kind of leisure? An article in The Economist reports, “For each hour less the group spent in work, time spent at leisure activities rose about an hour, and 75% of the increased leisure time was accounted for by gaming.”

The article suggests that this doesn't make young men unhappy, but this hasn't been followed through into later life and these feelings might change in middle age.

Given that many early adopters would now be hitting middle age this might well be a significant point.

I'm not sure what to make of parts of the article - i don't like the implication and tone of parts of it - but it's fascinating to consider the possibility of significant different behaviour between sexes and how much sociectial imbalance and change might be being caused by gaming. We know that the Internet has a massive impact, but its interesting to reflect on gaming separately in this way too.

If you consider it in a certain light, you might start to consider gaming an addiction which affects males negatively in a way far more akin to we might view drink or alcohol in limiting our economic or educational prospects and this having in turn a detrimental social effect on woman in an indirect fashion (although it simultaneously means women are more independent economically and socially as a result of more education).

I find it particularly interesting that this also comes at a time where culture is being heavily influenced in other ways by gaming culture having a wider effect in society (and online) via new found echo chambers that aren't really being fully noticed or understood.

It makes you wonder how this will be viewed retrospectively and whether there is an element of toxicity through addiction that isn't truly being considered in the present.

Women on the other hand seem to not prioritise leisure over education and work, possibly precisely because their economic prospects have traditionally always been more restricted and more precarious if dependent on men. It also seems to suggest women seem to have less time / priority for leisure than men, way before the end of education and the start of marriage subsequently having children.

There is a lot to unpack here. The rest of the article about sex ratios in education is interesting in its own right even if the angle about gaming being the cause, is one that you don't buy into.

I think we have to look at gaming in this group not just in terms of choices the men are making, but more in terms of addiction. Gaming for boys seems to be extremely addictive, in part because it is designed to be addictive, but this does affect their life choices. Normal activities stop being rewarding to people with addictions of this type, the satisfaction of doing well at school, or scoring a goal, etc, no longer has much effect on a brain that's being flooded with dopamine at very carefully chosen intervals.

That being said, girls seem to be much more affected by compulsive use of social media compared to boys, and there have been studies on its effect on people studying at university, and it's fairly discouraging.

I would also say though that my own observation has been that boys are being ill served educationally even before this stuff is a factor. Girls and boys, on average, do not mature at the same rate as young children, girls are often a few years ahead in terms of reading readiness and attention span as well. As expectations in early years have increased it has been negative for many children who are later developers but this has affected boys more as a cohort. The results tend to follow them through their whole school career and affect their attitude to education.

As expectations in early years have increased it has been negative for many children who are later developers but this has affected boys more as a cohort

This has surprised me much more as an issue than I thought it would. My son is one of the oldest in the year and its massively noticeable. He can sit still now, which is definitely a maturity thing, especially when I compare him with the youngest boy in the class. He's been encouraged to be much more outdoorsy and run around whereas the girls were encouraged to be indoors and pick up pens much earlier, even if it was just to do colouring. These are all things which lead to a completely different path of expectation and subsequent reinforcement of behaviour (either positive or negative) of which gaming probably would be a part of later on I guess.

I hugely worry about my sons and their complete addiction to gaming. They are still in primary school and I control it strictly. But what happens when they have to make these choices for themselves? Will they game away their future?

He's been encouraged to be much more outdoorsy and run around whereas the girls were encouraged to be indoors and pick up pens much earlier, even if it was just to do colouring. These are all things which lead to a completely different path of expectation and subsequent reinforcement of behaviour (either positive or negative) of which gaming probably would be a part of later on I guess.

A lot of it is probably inherent differences. It's not going to change just because we encourage girls to be outside more (though that would be a good thing too.)
It's one reason to consider sex segregated education for young students, but really we've developed inappropriate expectations for any kids that are a little younger or slower developers.And in fact it's probably not especially good for even the ones who manage to do well.
It would go a long way to improving things if they followed models that start children reading at six or seven rather than four or five.

For anyone concerned it's well worth doing some research on gaming addictions. Once people are affected, it remains a risk for them even if they stop - which often means stopping completely, not just moderating. It can become a problem because it is difficult to avoid computers in day to day life.

I really think in the next 20 years, provided the world isn't so screwed it becomes irrelevant, that we will see gaming as it's done now become an adult only activity. The effects on developing brains are too serious.

I'm curious to know what type of gaming is being referred to. As a gamer myself, I don't ever play online or on a console. I am strictly a PC gamer.
There are many many different types of games and not all of them are played online. Do they mean games without a definitive end? First person shooters (which I hate) , Minecraft, and things like that? Also, offline or online?
Because for me, I think games without a definitive end are the main problem.

it struck me that the author was male and the majority of the sources cited seemed to be male. just an aside

it would be interesting to see more analysis of why men seem to show a preference for hook up culture. the initial conclusions (they don't need/want to stick around and look after any kids for e.g.) are rather depressing and don't say much for men if we accept this is an inherent preference for them

That's a really fascinating article! Thanks for sharing.

So many different strands to contemplate. A lot of what is described in the article isn't really new to me, but it was nice to see it pulled together into a more coherent structure.

Women in general do enforce sexual selection by being picky in their choice of partners, and irrespective of attempts to engineer more egalitarian behaviour in recent times, women on average still prefer to select a mate equal to or above their status - whether that is education or wealth.
And men do feel competitive with one another and prone to chasing things that will raise their status in response to such a selection pressure.

Like many things in life, supply and demand can influence human behaviour. It is interesting to see evidence of men being more willing to forge long-term relationships when there's increased competition for women, and similarly women feeling pressure to compete with other women when there's a smaller pool of desirable men, which means it's easier for such men to start calling the shots and casual sexual encounters to become prevalent.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the loosening of gender roles works for both sexes. When women were more constrained by their gender roles such as no easy access to education or raising children which constrained their earnings, then the onus was on men to follow their gender roles too i.e. to be the main provider, pursue a stable and prosperous career for his family etc.
As gender roles have become more flexible with women moving into higher education and careers, being financially independent, choosing to have children later or none at all.... Then men realise that they don't have to follow their gender roles either..... Pursuing a high flying career is quite stressful and time consuming. Some men enjoy it, but others will be happy to shrug off the pressure to settle into the serious family man role and the responsibilities that come with it. Children can always come in later years as men's fertility lasts longer.

Clearly the younger men are happy with a relatively carefree life and sufficient leisure time for their gaming. It will be interesting to see how it plays out as men get older and some may then desire a family and companionship.

From a different angle, I think as a society we need to rethink the usefulness of degrees. There are far too many young people being churned out of the university machine because they seem to think it's something everyone must do, yet there aren't enough jobs that would make use of all those degrees.
There can be good jobs in the trades and apprenticeship schemes were a great way for those less academically inclined to find well paid, stable work.

There are a lot of degrees that are barely worth the paper they are written on and are unnecessary for the work they are meant to fit people for. Or which could be delivered in another way.

I saw a discussion related to an article where someone mentioned this, and I think it showed part of the reason people don't talk about this - many no longer remember how people used to be educated for work. Someone had mentioned that they did not think nursing required a university degree, and there was a rather indignant response that people dispensing medication etc needed to be educated. Clearly what the second person did not realise was that nurses were very well educated before they had to go to university to get a degree. (Some older nurses claim better educated.) And the cost was less as well.

I am interested in the idea that women strongly prefer men with more education/salary. This is something MRAs talk about a lot, and while some of their conclusions are nasty it is factually true at least in our society. I am really curious about what lies behind that, social conditioning, some sort of evolutionary pressure, or something else?

With regard to why men might prefer to have multiple relationships but women would tend to prefer more stable ones - it seems like we aren't really supposed to say this any more, but I don't think it can be chance that women being left to care for offspring is a big factor in this preference, probably at a deep lizard-brain level. It also makes sense that these are somewhat flexible tendencies, after all reproduction needs to go on, from a species perspective, whatever the conditions happen to be.

I'm curious to know what type of gaming is being referred to.

I think this sort of research mainly applies especially to online gaming. The models for this mean that it wants players to stay engaged as long as possible, and this is where a lot of the push to use the techniques that create addiction comes from.

That being said the trends in online gaming can cross-over to other types of games so I don't think you could necessarily draw a hard line.

I am interested in the idea that women strongly prefer men with more education/salary.

My very amateur opinion is that it is predominantly formed through evolutionary pressure.
For most of human history, life could be fairly harsh and unpredictable. As a woman, you would want a male partner who showed intelligence and resourcefulness, was a good hunter or warrior or proved to be a capable leader or a skilled craftsman and so on.
This would give yourself and your children a better chance of survival and protection, as well as probably respect and admiration from the tribal unit or community.

Even today, most women would like to have one or more children and this involves taking extended time out from work. There aren't that many countries with decent maternity pay and childcare support. Most countries don't have an affordable national healthcare system.
If women, on average, prefer long-term, stable relationships, then they will seek a partner who can demonstrate that he has the skills and earning capability to keep her and the children well provided for in the years to come.

I can't imagine the deep seated need for security and stability would disappear easily since, as you say, women are almost always left holding the baby and are therefore required by necessity to be more cautious and strategic in their relationships.

Nonnymouse

I'm inclined to agree, really. It perhaps doesn't even matter from this perspective if many women want to have a few kids, up until the 20th century almost any woman who wasn't celibate would have pregnancies, perhaps quite a few of them, and perhaps with significant medical and physical effects. 100 years of technological control over pregnancy isn't going to change 200,000 years of being human.

As a mother of a 35 year old, I can attest that gaming reduces chances of having sex by 100%