Internet gaming, embodied distress, and psychosocial well-being: A syndemic-syndaimonic continuum. (February 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Snodgrass, Jeffrey G.; Lacy, Michael G.; Cole, Steven W.
• Is Part Of: Social science & medicine. Volume 295(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-02
• Subjects: Online games -- Behavioral addictions -- Eudaimonia -- Social genomics -- Immunity -- Stress -- Biocultural anthropology -- Statistical interactions; Social medicine -- Periodicals; Medical anthropology -- Periodicals; Public health -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Médecine sociale -- Périodiques; Anthropologie médicale -- Périodiques; Santé publique -- Périodiques; Psychologie -- Périodiques; Médecine -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 362.105
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112728
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0277-9536

Abstract

Abstract: We examine internet gaming-related suffering as a novel syndemic most prevalent among contemporary emerging adults. Synthetic analysis of our prior research on internet gaming and health affirms how social factors and mental and physical wellness mutually condition each other in this online play context. Employing biocultural anthropological mixed methods, we focus on statistical interactions between intensive gaming and social well-being in relation to genomic markers of immune function. We show that among gamers with low social well-being, intensive game play is associated with compromised immunity markers, but among those with robust social connection, that same play correlates with decreased activation of stress-related immunity activation. The apparently beneficial interaction of higher social well-being and intensive game play resonates with an emerging body of research showing how positive practices—in this case, engaged and pleasurable videogame play—can increase resilience to the negative linked psychological and genomic responses to precarity. Based on these findings, we argue, in relation to gaming behaviors, a syndemics analysis could usefully be expanded by attending to both sides of the synergistic interaction between two social conditions: not just exacerbation of dysfunction in relation to their combined effect, but also non-additive enhancement of health that may stem from such combinations. We draw on literature emphasizing the relevance to health of "eudaimonic" well-being—psychosocial processes that transcend immediate self-gratification and involve the pursuit of meaningful and pro-social goals. On that basis, we propose the term "syndaimonics" to capture synergies between social context and mental flourishing, which, in this context and presumably others, can illuminate sources of health resilience and overall improved psychosocial wellbeing. Highlights: We describe a new internet gaming-related syndemic. Biomedicine is less useful here given the deeply social character of this syndemic. Biocultural anthropological mixed methods can play key roles in syndemics research. Psychosocial states interact with immune biology in this gaming context. Positive mental states show synergistic relations with healthier immune biology.