[att-throw]

At first read, this article says something like: non-top-tier men lack access to social belonging, partly because social media creates a status signaling arms race unattainable by many, therefore they play video games instead of working to achieve status, therefore we should tax their video games.

This seemed like dealing with the effects rather than the causes of the problem. But if you include social media like Instagram in the tax, and not just Xbox FPSes, you could disincentivize the status broadcasting that, according to the authors, leads the men to say "f it" and stop working in the first place.

I think you would have to tax a lot more than is obvious to discourage use of digital media -- like at least $3 or $4 an hour. Taxing status signaling is harder; you'd probably have to factor in the number of followers. I would welcome the chance to read more books, but this thought experiment is never going to happen.