Profiling the average gamer

The CDC looks at who’s spending the most time playing video games. Hint: he’s not a teenager.

If you think of the typical gamer as a teenager battling his friends in World of Warcraft, “think again,” said Sharon Gaudin in ComputerWorld. According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average gamer “is actually a 35-year-old man who is overweight, aggressive, introverted—and often depressed.”

I was starting to suspect the CDC “had cameras in my bedroom,” said Chris Greenhough in The Inquisitr, but “ha,” I’m only 29—“in your face, science.” Actually, the CDC report raises serious concerns about obesity and depression among gamers, though the researchers see the gaming as a symptom—a form of digital self-medication—rather than a cause of the depression.

Despite the profile, only 56 percent of the gamers in the study were male, said Michael Barkoviak in DailyTech, and the women were more likely to show signs of depression, while the men were more likely to be overweight. Critics say the sample size, 552 adults, is too small, and the Seattle-Tacoma area too specific a region, but the results are in line with other gaming research. Small wonder mental health experts are getting worried.