Boredom is an occurrence that has most definitely hit everyone by now. The nation wide stay-at-home orders have left people with virtually nothing except the comfort of their own home to keep themselves occupied. Due to this the general population has resorted to the one thing left to occupy our time. Video Games.

  The irony of this is that for the most part younger generations are typically told by older generations to “spend more time outside” and that “video games rot your brain”, and the most common consensus that younger generations rely too much on technology to keep themselves occupied. This makes the sky-rocket in video game sales among all ages even more humorous. Something that older generations frowned upon for years is what is helping keep everyone sane.

  Recently nintendo released a new installment of a beloved video game series titled “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”. So far sales of this game alone have broken numerous records, in March over 5 million copies were sold making it the highest-selling title for any console in a single month, and within the first three days available Nintendo sold over 2 million copies of the game in Japan alone. 

  In other franchise news, Activations wildly popular first person shooter franchise “Call of Duty”, released a battle royale type, free to download, cross-platform game titled “Call of Duty: Warzone”, and within the first 10 days saw over 30 million new players. 

  So it’s no secret that the majority of the world is relying on video games to keep themselves occupied. But, what is the potential harm in staying inside all day and playing video games?

  It goes without saying that it’s unhealthy for anyone to be in front of a screen all day. But I think societal standards and influence of the current situation has pushed that belief out of the way. Within the past few months it’s become more of an acceptable practice to play video games all day, and people are definitely not mad about it.

  On a more positive note, many people specifically members of Gen. Z have stated that feel good games like animal crossing and just video games in general have helped their mood significantly improve, and have given them something to do instead of doing nothing and being sad about it.

“Animal Crossing has definitely helped my overall mood because I really enjoy video games, and with all the free time I have it feels like I have something productive to do” said junior Rory Svetich.

Just the same as animal crossing, “Call of Duty: Warzone” has had a positive impact as well, “Over the course of the quarantine video games like ‘Warzone’ have significantly boosted my mood” said senior Connor White.

  Overall video games have become an outlet for people to forget the current state of the world. Major McConal, a senior from Arroyo Grande High School stated “Animal Crossing gives me a world where things are great in an environment I can control. It’s like a little getaway”. 

   Teenagers everywhere are simply feeling happier because of video games. In a way, the surge of video game popularity has been a blessing among students and people of any age to momentarily unplug from the world.