Research indicates that many studies concerning video games depend heavily on self-reported data regarding time played. Recent findings highlight that individuals are often inaccurate in estimating their screen time. For example, a study demonstrated that adolescents underestimated their daily phone use by over thirty minutes, while some misestimated by more than two hours. This issue appears even more pronounced in gaming, raising serious concerns about the reliability of studies that draw on self-reported data to assess the impacts of gaming.
A group of scientists explored this idea with a simple test. They installed an app on 137 adolescents' phones, which tracked how many times they checked their phone and the total screen time. Every evening for two weeks, participants reported their perceived time spent on their phones. On average, adolescents underestimated their screen time by more than half an hour each day; some underestimated by more than two hours. This significant inaccuracy presents a major problem for research relying on self-reports about gaming.
This inaccuracy calls into question all studies which use self-report to study gaming's effects on people. Many studies about the effects of video games on gamers often rely on self-reported time spent playing, which has now been challenged by new research findings.
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