How youth culture changes: An investigation into video games From pathology to a search for meaning for new subjectivities

Abstract

The research on video gaming, an increasingly widespread practice in today’s society, continues to engage teachers, students, and SPS specialists in exploring the cultural changes that characterize contemporary coexistence. In our interventions across various settings – studios, schools, and socio-health services – we have captured the socialization potential of video games, beyond their seemingly anomic components, which are often stigmatized in social contexts. Through our research we have given gamers a voice to produce knowledge about their cultures and, in doing so, build guiding criteria for psychoanalytic intervention. Our study has shown that video gaming has represented, since the late 1970, the market’s playful offering for new generations, used not only for entertainment but also to foster a sense of belonging. Furthermore, the research reveals, contrary to common belief, that through video games young people engage in a wealth of forms of aggregation – even when these assume a conflictual stance toward the adult world – and express complex emotions through play, thereby processing the ambivalence toward ongoing changes.