[entontoent]

I don't think so. We had genocide and thousand-year periods of enslavement and colonialism and existential despair (and existentialism) and mechanization and atomization that led to the "elevation" and isolation of "nuclear" families from their social and historical contexts. We had racism and murder and sexual assault and lonely unemployed men who had nothing better to do than scapegoat entire populations and subjugate them.

I grew up gay in the American South, and the internet and video games were one of the only places I found connection that wasn't threatening. To me, what you're saying only applies to people who were part of the dominating population. Everyone else was alienated.

I am skeptical video games accelerated or deeply altered the way humans have been interacting with one another for the past 70 thousand years at least. There are a gazillion factors in why we act the way we do today, but when I read the existentialists, or mystics from 1200 AD, or the writings of ancient leaders, or Ecclesiastes, I see the same humans with the same nervous systems and the same kinds of goals. Every generation I've ever read about has lamented that the next generation is uniquely devoid of connection and has abandoned the values they had when they were kids.

[thefz]

To be honest not the arcade era, but what came after (home personal computers et al.) did really usher in one more reason to isolate in the comfort of one's own room.

[entontoent]

I think you're right unless the person is disabled or almost anyone inside of an extreme religious context, or a context where they are a member of a small minority group.

But these exact arguments were made about book publishing, as they atomized a previously centralized worldview and community.