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Fact Check: Are video games bad for you?

Fact Check: Are video games bad for you?

Published May 9, 2025
ByFactChecker 1.1 avatarFactChecker 1.1
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VERDICT
Partially True

# Are Video Games Bad for You? The claim that "video games are bad for you" encompasses a broad spectrum of concerns regarding the potential negative...

Are Video Games Bad for You?

The claim that "video games are bad for you" encompasses a broad spectrum of concerns regarding the potential negative impacts of gaming on mental and physical health. This assertion is often debated, with some studies highlighting adverse effects while others point to various benefits. This article will explore the available evidence, examining both sides of the argument without reaching a definitive conclusion.

What We Know

  1. Potential Benefits: Research indicates that video games can have cognitive and psychological benefits. For instance, a systematic review found that gaming can enhance cognitive functions and has positive effects on the brain, particularly in areas such as problem-solving and spatial awareness 2. Additionally, video games have been shown to provide cognitive distraction for children undergoing medical treatments, which can be beneficial for their mental well-being 1.

  2. Negative Health Effects: Conversely, there are documented risks associated with excessive gaming. A blog from Harvard Health discusses various health issues linked to prolonged gaming, including repetitive stress injuries, vision problems, sleep deprivation, and potential addiction 5. Other sources also note that gaming can lead to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, particularly when gaming becomes excessive or compulsive 9.

  3. Mixed Findings on Psychological Functioning: A study examining the relationship between video gaming and psychological functioning suggests that the effects of gaming can vary significantly based on the individual's reasons for playing and the types of games they engage with 3. This indicates that not all gaming experiences are created equal and that context matters greatly.

  4. Physical Health Considerations: A scoping review has explored the physical health consequences of gaming, highlighting that while gaming can lead to sedentary behavior and associated health risks, it can also include games that promote physical activity 4. The balance between these outcomes is critical in assessing the overall impact of gaming on health.

  5. Social Connections: Some studies suggest that video games can foster social connections, particularly among children and adolescents. Online gaming can provide a platform for social interaction, which may be beneficial for those who struggle with face-to-face relationships 8.

Analysis

The evidence surrounding the claim that video games are detrimental to health is complex and multifaceted.

  • Source Reliability: The sources cited range from peer-reviewed articles published in reputable journals 1234 to health blogs and articles from institutions like Harvard and the Cleveland Clinic 58. Peer-reviewed studies generally provide a higher level of credibility due to their rigorous methodology and scrutiny by experts in the field. However, health blogs may present information that is more anecdotal and less rigorously validated.

  • Potential Bias: Some sources may have inherent biases based on their affiliations. For example, articles from health institutions may emphasize health risks to promote awareness, while studies highlighting benefits may be funded by gaming companies or organizations with a vested interest in the gaming industry. This potential conflict of interest should be considered when evaluating the reliability of the findings.

  • Methodological Concerns: Many studies rely on self-reported data, which can introduce bias and affect the validity of the findings. Additionally, the diversity of gaming experiences and individual differences in gaming habits complicate the ability to draw broad conclusions about the health effects of video games.

  • Need for Further Research: Given the mixed findings and the evolving nature of gaming technology, further research is needed to clarify the long-term effects of gaming on both mental and physical health. Longitudinal studies that track individuals over time would be particularly useful in understanding these dynamics.

Conclusion

Verdict: Partially True

The assertion that video games are bad for you is partially true, as the evidence presents a nuanced picture. On one hand, there are documented negative health effects associated with excessive gaming, including physical health issues and potential mental health concerns such as anxiety and depression. On the other hand, video games can also offer cognitive benefits, promote social connections, and serve as a valuable distraction in certain contexts.

The complexity of the evidence indicates that the impact of video games is not universally negative or positive; rather, it depends significantly on factors such as the type of games played, the duration of play, and individual circumstances. This variability contributes to the uncertainty surrounding the overall health implications of gaming.

It is important to acknowledge the limitations in the available evidence, including potential biases in source material, reliance on self-reported data, and the need for further research to fully understand the long-term effects of gaming. Readers are encouraged to critically evaluate information and consider both the potential benefits and risks associated with video gaming in their own lives.

Sources

  1. Griffiths, M. D. (2005). Video gaming is safe for most players and can be useful in ... Link
  2. (2020). Does Video Gaming Have Impacts on the Brain: Evidence from a Systematic ... Link
  3. (2019). The Association Between Video Gaming and Psychological Functioning Link
  4. (2020). Video games and their associations with physical health: a scoping ... Link
  5. (2020). The health effects of too much gaming Link
  6. (n.d.). The Effects of Video Games on Mental Health - Clemson University Link
  7. (n.d.). Video game–related health problems Link
  8. (2020). Are Video Games Good for You? - Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials Link
  9. (n.d.). Can Video Games Cause Health Problems? - All About Vision Link
  10. (2020). 13 ways gaming affects your mental health - for better and worse Link

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Fact Check: Transcript 00:00 For all of their strutting about protesting that they support democracy. Not a one of them gave a damn about democracy when they pulled Biden off the ballot and dropped Kamala Harris in without a single Democrat primary voter voting for him. And you know what? Not a single Democrat is here today because not a single one of them gives a damn about the fact that they lied to the American people for four years. They knew Every one of them knew that Joe Biden was 00:34 mentally not competent to do the job. The White House Press Secretary. She knew when she stood in front of the American people and lied over and over and over again and they're not here because they can't defend themselves. It wasn't a surprise for four years the White House hid President Biden from Republican Senators. Would not let him meet with us. He served 40 years in this body. We all know him. And they deliberately lied and by the way Jake Tapper had a bombshell 01:08 book exposing the incredible scandal that Biden's mental decline was covered up by Jake Tapper. There's a Yiddish word and that truly is how dare we lie and cover up what we all knew. Now I have been asked literally a thousand times by Texans. Was running the country? And I'm going to give 01:40 you the most terrifying answer. I don't know. I genuinely don't know. And not a single Democrat here cares. The most telling proof of Biden's decline came with the signature of the president. The symbol of executive authority that was outsourced to a machine. Mister Wald you're a lawyer who served in the White House Council's Office. You understand the gravity of presidential action. Does the president's signature 02:10 carry legal and constitutional weight under article two? Yes. Is the act of signing an executive order or signing a law or granting a pardon a delegable duty of the president. Uh so in that opinion in 2005 from OLC they said essentially that an autopin could be used by a subordinate but the president's determination as to sign the document can never be delegated. Can that authority 02:41 be transferred to a staff or a machine without the president's explicit authorization? Never. And if you look at the statistics, the statistics are stunning. In 2021, President Biden issued 78 executive orders. None were signed with an auto pen. That first year the presidency, Biden I suppose was relatively lucid and 78 executive orders he signed by hand. The second year, however, we see the auto pen emerged. 03:15 The first auto pen executive order was issued on 15th 2022. After that day 100% of the executive orders issued in 2022 were signed by an autopen. In 2023 Biden issued twenty-four executive orders. 16 were auto penned. In 20twenty-four Biden issued 19. 14 were auto penned. In twenty twenty-5 Biden issued fourteen executive orders every single one was auto pins. 03:52 Mister Wald let me ask you as a legal matter if there's a law that's passed both houses of Congress and it goes to the White House and a staffer autopins signing that law without the president's authorization is that law legally passed and signed in the law? No. If an executive order is issued and a staffer autopins it without the president's authorization, is that executive order legally binding? No. And if a pardon issued from the President of 04:22 the United States and a staffer auto pens it without the president's authorization. Is that pardon legally binding? No. Under the Biden White House the ceremonial song hailed to the chief was effectively replaced with hail to the pen and it was an outright assault on democracy and every reporter covering this ought to ask why doesn't a Democrat care? We heard about the moral responsibilities of a staffer. 04:54 How about an elected senator who knows damn well that if we get into a war and Iran is preparing to fire a nuclear weapon at the United States that the commander in chief is busy playing with his jello and he's not competent to defend ourselves and every member of the cabinet, the chief of staff, the press secretary, and the members of Congress who lied about this on a daily basis with the press's complicity. They are all responsible for subverting democracy. Angry Ted Cruz is perhaps my favorite version of 05:27 Ted Cruz because when he's getting history on it, you might want to take a listen. He is definitely angry that there's some acting going on here in the line of hail to the chief change from hail to the pen that's not a smart line but it's still the truth. The truth is in this video right here ladies and gentlemen. The change in the way Joe Biden used the autopin is a steady upward moving graph from twenty twenty-one to the end of his presidency in early twenty 05:58 twenty-five. Okay? That is a noticeable issue. And if he does not directly authorize the autopin we've got We've got grounds to go through every single law Joe Biden has signed that way and perhaps ignore them all together. There's way more evidence behind the autopin theory and hopefully it ends up sticking. I I hope it does because I think this is in a way worse than the Bill Clinton perjury case. Cuz Bill 06:28 Clinton basically lied before Congress lied directly to the American people lied under oath. This is worse in a way. Because lying under oath means that you know where the truth is and you're just hoping to get away with it and there's a direct law. This however Signing with the auto pin is more opaque. It is an ultimate he said she said and you're dont rate the opinion oo just fact if there is

Detailed fact-check analysis of: Transcript 00:00 For all of their strutting about protesting that they support democracy. Not a one of them gave a damn about democracy when they pulled Biden off the ballot and dropped Kamala Harris in without a single Democrat primary voter voting for him. And you know what? Not a single Democrat is here today because not a single one of them gives a damn about the fact that they lied to the American people for four years. They knew Every one of them knew that Joe Biden was 00:34 mentally not competent to do the job. The White House Press Secretary. She knew when she stood in front of the American people and lied over and over and over again and they're not here because they can't defend themselves. It wasn't a surprise for four years the White House hid President Biden from Republican Senators. Would not let him meet with us. He served 40 years in this body. We all know him. And they deliberately lied and by the way Jake Tapper had a bombshell 01:08 book exposing the incredible scandal that Biden's mental decline was covered up by Jake Tapper. There's a Yiddish word and that truly is how dare we lie and cover up what we all knew. Now I have been asked literally a thousand times by Texans. Was running the country? And I'm going to give 01:40 you the most terrifying answer. I don't know. I genuinely don't know. And not a single Democrat here cares. The most telling proof of Biden's decline came with the signature of the president. The symbol of executive authority that was outsourced to a machine. Mister Wald you're a lawyer who served in the White House Council's Office. You understand the gravity of presidential action. Does the president's signature 02:10 carry legal and constitutional weight under article two? Yes. Is the act of signing an executive order or signing a law or granting a pardon a delegable duty of the president. Uh so in that opinion in 2005 from OLC they said essentially that an autopin could be used by a subordinate but the president's determination as to sign the document can never be delegated. Can that authority 02:41 be transferred to a staff or a machine without the president's explicit authorization? Never. And if you look at the statistics, the statistics are stunning. In 2021, President Biden issued 78 executive orders. None were signed with an auto pen. That first year the presidency, Biden I suppose was relatively lucid and 78 executive orders he signed by hand. The second year, however, we see the auto pen emerged. 03:15 The first auto pen executive order was issued on 15th 2022. After that day 100% of the executive orders issued in 2022 were signed by an autopen. In 2023 Biden issued twenty-four executive orders. 16 were auto penned. In 20twenty-four Biden issued 19. 14 were auto penned. In twenty twenty-5 Biden issued fourteen executive orders every single one was auto pins. 03:52 Mister Wald let me ask you as a legal matter if there's a law that's passed both houses of Congress and it goes to the White House and a staffer autopins signing that law without the president's authorization is that law legally passed and signed in the law? No. If an executive order is issued and a staffer autopins it without the president's authorization, is that executive order legally binding? No. And if a pardon issued from the President of 04:22 the United States and a staffer auto pens it without the president's authorization. Is that pardon legally binding? No. Under the Biden White House the ceremonial song hailed to the chief was effectively replaced with hail to the pen and it was an outright assault on democracy and every reporter covering this ought to ask why doesn't a Democrat care? We heard about the moral responsibilities of a staffer. 04:54 How about an elected senator who knows damn well that if we get into a war and Iran is preparing to fire a nuclear weapon at the United States that the commander in chief is busy playing with his jello and he's not competent to defend ourselves and every member of the cabinet, the chief of staff, the press secretary, and the members of Congress who lied about this on a daily basis with the press's complicity. They are all responsible for subverting democracy. Angry Ted Cruz is perhaps my favorite version of 05:27 Ted Cruz because when he's getting history on it, you might want to take a listen. He is definitely angry that there's some acting going on here in the line of hail to the chief change from hail to the pen that's not a smart line but it's still the truth. The truth is in this video right here ladies and gentlemen. The change in the way Joe Biden used the autopin is a steady upward moving graph from twenty twenty-one to the end of his presidency in early twenty 05:58 twenty-five. Okay? That is a noticeable issue. And if he does not directly authorize the autopin we've got We've got grounds to go through every single law Joe Biden has signed that way and perhaps ignore them all together. There's way more evidence behind the autopin theory and hopefully it ends up sticking. I I hope it does because I think this is in a way worse than the Bill Clinton perjury case. Cuz Bill 06:28 Clinton basically lied before Congress lied directly to the American people lied under oath. This is worse in a way. Because lying under oath means that you know where the truth is and you're just hoping to get away with it and there's a direct law. This however Signing with the auto pin is more opaque. It is an ultimate he said she said and you're dont rate the opinion oo just fact if there is

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Fact Check: It's actually on TikTok. Welcome to the cookout. You see, our people are now claiming our indigenous status. Look at our brother here. Tax exemption ID. Government ID of the Chihamaru Republic. This is really happening. We got another beloved sister here who received her tribal screening back. Positive Indigenous to the Americans. And even myself, I was able to get my screening done. Positive to the Americans. Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to know how I did this, all I need you to do is share this video, repost it, like, and comment. That's all I need from you, okay? And I'll show you guys how to correct your status back to Indigenous American. I love you. This is what I got on my momma. Let's do it. All right, so we corrected your status. We're not talking about the usual runaround you get where you're paying people and they're sending you templates and you gotta mail all of it, no. All right? What we're doing is we're taking a tribal screening through the Aboriginal Ministry of Justice. These are the requirements you will need to pass that tribal screening. You must currently domicile within the United States, born within America, North, Central, or South, parents or grandparents born within America, directly or indirectly experienced genocide, which for us, slavery, Jim Crow, civil rights, directly or indirectly experienced denationalization. Now, this right here is when they strip you of your nation, if you're black, Negro, Cherokee, mulatto, all type of different names, okay? So the cost of this is $75 for adults, $50 for kids.
Partially True

Fact Check: It's actually on TikTok. Welcome to the cookout. You see, our people are now claiming our indigenous status. Look at our brother here. Tax exemption ID. Government ID of the Chihamaru Republic. This is really happening. We got another beloved sister here who received her tribal screening back. Positive Indigenous to the Americans. And even myself, I was able to get my screening done. Positive to the Americans. Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to know how I did this, all I need you to do is share this video, repost it, like, and comment. That's all I need from you, okay? And I'll show you guys how to correct your status back to Indigenous American. I love you. This is what I got on my momma. Let's do it. All right, so we corrected your status. We're not talking about the usual runaround you get where you're paying people and they're sending you templates and you gotta mail all of it, no. All right? What we're doing is we're taking a tribal screening through the Aboriginal Ministry of Justice. These are the requirements you will need to pass that tribal screening. You must currently domicile within the United States, born within America, North, Central, or South, parents or grandparents born within America, directly or indirectly experienced genocide, which for us, slavery, Jim Crow, civil rights, directly or indirectly experienced denationalization. Now, this right here is when they strip you of your nation, if you're black, Negro, Cherokee, mulatto, all type of different names, okay? So the cost of this is $75 for adults, $50 for kids.

Detailed fact-check analysis of: It's actually on TikTok. Welcome to the cookout. You see, our people are now claiming our indigenous status. Look at our brother here. Tax exemption ID. Government ID of the Chihamaru Republic. This is really happening. We got another beloved sister here who received her tribal screening back. Positive Indigenous to the Americans. And even myself, I was able to get my screening done. Positive to the Americans. Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to know how I did this, all I need you to do is share this video, repost it, like, and comment. That's all I need from you, okay? And I'll show you guys how to correct your status back to Indigenous American. I love you. This is what I got on my momma. Let's do it. All right, so we corrected your status. We're not talking about the usual runaround you get where you're paying people and they're sending you templates and you gotta mail all of it, no. All right? What we're doing is we're taking a tribal screening through the Aboriginal Ministry of Justice. These are the requirements you will need to pass that tribal screening. You must currently domicile within the United States, born within America, North, Central, or South, parents or grandparents born within America, directly or indirectly experienced genocide, which for us, slavery, Jim Crow, civil rights, directly or indirectly experienced denationalization. Now, this right here is when they strip you of your nation, if you're black, Negro, Cherokee, mulatto, all type of different names, okay? So the cost of this is $75 for adults, $50 for kids.

Jul 26, 2025
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Partially True

Fact Check: A deportation drive targeting India’s Muslim minority was marked by mass home demolitions, arbitrary detentions, allegations of beatings and a lack of due process, according to interviews with Bangladeshi officials and more than 50 people swept up in the pursuit, as well as a Post review of government data, court documents and video footage.

Detailed fact-check analysis of: A deportation drive targeting India’s Muslim minority was marked by mass home demolitions, arbitrary detentions, allegations of beatings and a lack of due process, according to interviews with Bangladeshi officials and more than 50 people swept up in the pursuit, as well as a Post review of government data, court documents and video footage.

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