A New Form of Social Withdrawal in Japan: A Review of ‘Hikikomori’ (2009)

Re:A New Form of Social Withdrawal in Japan: A Review of ‘Hi... by codezero on Sunday April 30, 2017 @05:13PM (#14233886)

But didn't you actually have a lot of social interactions if you played WoW?

I played a lot of online games, and they were my primary source of social interaction. To someone who doesn't understand how one can be social on the internet, it could have appeared that I was socially withdrawn, but I wasn't.

Like any condition though, the negative consequences have their own merit: playing video games most of the day doesn't usually lead to long term skills one can apply. If anything, I'm less social now that I have marketable skills :P

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A New Form of Social Withdrawal in Japan: A Review of ‘Hi... by DougN7 on Sunday April 30, 2017 @05:27PM (#14233939)

I always question that. I've played online too, and ever got to "know" some people (as much as you can know an anonymous nickname). But in face to face situations, the online interactions really weren't very useful. Did you find face-to-face easier because of online experiences?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A New Form of Social Withdrawal in Japan: A Review of ‘Hi... by codezero on Sunday April 30, 2017 @05:39PM (#14233992)

Yeah, I got better at face to face interactions after having a semi-large consistent group of online friends. After a few years we met up once in a while as a group (maybe once a year), and that helped a lot too.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A New Form of Social Withdrawal in Japan: A Review of ‘Hi... by taneq on Sunday April 30, 2017 @10:31PM (#14235221)

Learning to lead dungeon groups (and later raids) was critical training for me later being able to take control of projects, manage subcontractors etc. So yeah, some skills learned in an MMO absolutely do carry over into real life.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A New Form of Social Withdrawal in Japan: A Review of ‘Hi... by codezero on Monday May 01, 2017 @11:44AM (#14238475)

Let's say they _can_ be carried over, but the vast majority of people playing MMOs are not developing serious leadership skills that they can put on their resume at least :)

[ Parent | on HN ]