The cardinal sin of a pop-culture commentator

I’ve said elsewhere that “the cardinal sin of the cultural commentator is to take one’s private loves and preferences and try to read some sort of deeper cultural significance into them.” Well, I’m about to give further proof that I’m not above committing that sin:

So, more than half of American adults are gamers, says Pew Research. If I were a by-the-book cultural conservative, I would probably say something about how this is proof of the problem of extended adolescence. But to do so would be more than a bit hypocritical, given my obvious interests.

And besides, it’s probably not true. I recall a couple of years ago that Brian Anderson made the case (and perhaps overstated it a bit) that well-designed games—albeit not linear, “twitch”-based first-person shooters—require skills in problem solving, organization, and long-term planning. One of the more interesting findings of the Pew Report seems to offer some…well, not evidence, exactly, but data that is consistent with that theory.

A person’s education level is another predictor of video game play. Some 57% of respondents with at least some college education play games, significantly more than high school graduates (51%) and those who have less than a high school education (40%).

The link between education level and gaming is, of course, tied up with many other factors. Students generally have more time than non-students to devote to a gaming habit, not to mention the fact that they’re more likely to come from a strata of society with greater means to splurge on high-end PCs, Wiis and Xbox 360s. But I’d wager that at least part of it has something to do with the benefits of gaming.