Twenty-six percent of teenagers report using social media while engaging in other tasks, with “media multitasking” redefining the pastimes of the modern teen.

Video games may be an alternative medium for young people to find similar but more meaningful engagement.

Social media platforms like Tiktok and Instagram (reels) employ an algorithm that uses short videos on its user interface that keeps society engaged. Stuck in a loop of constant “doom scrolling,” users experience an altered perception of the time spent, a phenomenon explained in a study published by the National Institute of Health (NIH). Their data proved how the algorithm most social media utilize has a significant influence on its users’ awareness of time and consequently, creates growing dependence on platforms.

However, there is a clear, often overlooked solution to this problem: video games. More specifically, artistic games often categorized as “games for impact.”

While often regarded by parents as a waste of time, cause of cognitive degradation or promoter of violence, video games can be a valuable alternative offering more substance and depth than monotonous, short video clips. Video games tell longer, profound stories that force players to appreciate the artistic side of the medium and think critically about strategies to win the game, unlike the passive act of scrolling.

Take Nier: Automata for example, a critically acclaimed 2017 Japanese video game about a war between two different kinds of robots that desperately try to become more human and justify their existence. Players are forced to tackle moral and psychological dilemmas, the biggest one being whether it is better to forget trauma and live blissfully or accept trauma and the depression that comes with it. 

All components considered, games like Nier: Automata offer the constant interaction that social media users crave just in a unique format; by blending decision-making scenarios that stimulate critical contemplation skills with uniquely creative game design features, video games serve as a similar counterpart that can curb social media addictions. Similar to a piece of literature in the sense that games for impact oftentimes contain messages, art and writing, these games allow a player’s brain to release dopamine from a more substantial outlet.

Pali Junior Marcos Diaz-Schmillen said that the profound messages and artistry in games like Nier: Automata have inspired him to pursue his own mode of a creative outlet through photography, sparking more thought than his time spent on social media.

“[Video games] can tell a whole story that nothing else can by creating moments people can play,” Diaz-Schmillen said. “In the same way, I want to take photos that tell stories that only a camera can capture at that time.” 

Unlike short clips, video games also challenge its users’ firsthand abilities, building on past strengths into something more. This is done so mostly through problem solving skills, with reaction time and dexterity also playing a big role in the success of players. Outer Wilds is the quintessential example of a video game challenging its’ players, forcing them to build upon their skillsets and memory.

Outer Wilds is a 2019 sci-fi puzzle game where players assume the role of an astronaut tasked with piecing together the disappearance of an ancient alien race. Simultaneously, players must also solve the mystery of a time loop that resets the game’s world every 22 minutes. Alone, navigating two goals at once is an arduous battle. The game offers the additional challenge of wiping a player’s progress after each loop, leaving only the knowledge they acquired before the reset.

The game does not feed its story and world to the player; instead it forces the user to learn about it like a true scientist, and since the world is full of puzzles and fascinating knowledge to learn, people who crave a constant dopamine feed can still find it while solving thoughtful problems. 

Today, video games have not only proved to build on users’ prior skills but allows for the growth of knowledge. In a 2012 peer-reviewed study on the effect video games have on the learning and focus of users, researchers found that ​​video game players outperformed non-video game players in many areas, especially in the domain of attentional control.

While video games encompass their own addictive qualities, a meta-analysis published through the NIH offers many possible solutions to such issues, making video games a viable replacement to the growing epidemic of social media dependency.

Diaz-Schmillen has experienced such reliance firsthand, explaining that he has started leaving his phone at home when he walks around his neighborhood taking photos to avoid distractions. He said that social media feels like a “constant barrier to [his] productivity.”

Social media has taken Gen-Z by storm and the short form content contained in these apps are a great threat to the development of teenagers. The videos reduce cognitive ability by providing passive content with little meaning. As a result of these apps’ popularity and ubiquity, teenagers have become accustomed to their stimulating feeds. Video games have the potential to replace this unfortunate habit. 

Diaz-Schmillen concluded, “Video games have changed my life. Instagram has wasted it.”