Yes because this is why there is a massive body of leftist academic, philosophical and political writing on the topic… yes because this is why organizing is a skill and unions can be good or bad. It is hard and you are gonna need all the help and tactics you can get.
No because there is or at least was a prevalent belief in US tech culture circles that being an expert in programming by extension made you an expert or a soon to be expert on everthing else. An expert on education, an expert on health care… just the damage from those two categories alone to the wellbeing of US citizens…
Far from me to say there isn’t a basic beauty to aspects to programming that speak to logic and math… but no… the world is full of a million different kinds of craftspeople because every form of genius has its own peculiarities. Unfortunately however this delusion reached a degree of popularity that I think undermined the ability of tech work culture in the US to establish a fertile substrate for effective organizing and unionizing to grow from.
I am not saying that this is unique to tech workers, simply that the demographic reached a critical point of naivety that corporations were able to solidfy their power.
It could have happened to Plumbers or Electricians (I mean they tend to be decent jobs in the US I think), the only thing unique to US programmers/tech workers is that for a brief moment they were existentially valuable to the empire and thus it had to suffer decent working conditions for programmers/tech workers. Though, in this respect programmers/tech workers aren’t that unique in the story of the US empire, the obvious reference here being New Bedford and the way the whaling industry briefly centered the nexus of power there to abandon it just as abruptly for another city… Silicon Valley for awhile but how much longer?.
Many tenants in New Bedford have been forced to spend more of their income on housing, Census data shows. In 2021, nearly half of New Bedford’s renter households were considered “cost-burdened,” which means they spent more than 30% of their income on rent.
The amazing scifi TV show Severance can be seen as a sort of Tech Culture Gothic that attempts to reconcile with the futility of experiencing late stage capitalism as a tech worker in 2020s US. Severance can be seen as a gothic work that is grappling with the growing realization that the fall of tech workers from the bourgeoise petit class or whatever you want to call it has been cemented by the torpor of US tech culture towards organizing to protect the future of their careers from the ruling class. Scifi and fiction like Severance will be interpreted by future academic analysis as a touchstone to begin an analysis of why US culture in general was so blind to the obvious systematic violence of tech corporations that reached an unsustainable peak in the 2020s.
An echo of a decrepit shuttered massive brick mill building in New Bedford Massachusetts, a strange monolithic monument to a power long gone. Towering mill window aclove after alcove filled with cinderblocks for want of unshattered glass echoed by empty floors of office cubicles and an insect like ghostly parking lot extending radially around The Holmdel Complex like a carapace.
Good thing programmers were smart and organized into unions inspired by other industries instead of naively thinking they were too valuable to the ruling class in the US to be betrayed.
A youtuber/streamer I really like who plays a lot of Vintage Story and has created themselves and shown off a lot of other Vintage Story builders work is Ashantin.
What I like about Ashantin is the vibe, they really understand the game but are super relaxed and chill in their playstyle. As in… Ashantin gives off the moment to moment vibes of a very casual player but they understand the game really well at the same time and it is a really pleasant combination that makes good background watching.
If you are curious about Vintage Story it is also a great way to get an idea of what the gameplay is like (I HIGHLY recommend Vintage Story!!!).
Halo 3 is hands down one of the best games ever made.
Unquestionably the best console shooter ever made, indisputably the best splitcreen co-op and multiplayer game ever made.
I understand pc gamers or people who didn’t grow up with an xbox might find those statements in their expansiveness hard to accept, no halo 3 was fun but it wasn’t that good though… to which the only correct answer is yes it is.
People are too stressed and exhausted to live at a basic level, that tends to impact their ability to game although sometimes it makes them even more competitive with the small amount of time they have… but no I don’t agree at all.
I am far better at video games than I used to be, admittedly I play a lot of them but that only makes my hand eye coordination locked in, the actually “being good” at games has little to do with that most of the time.
I also realise I’m giving a lot of time to games that, if only I could manage my time better I could give to much more worthwhile things, like helping people out in the world. So a month ago a few life circumstances came together, and I’ve signed up for a new education course. Rather than cope with all the new stresses of that at the same time as possible gaming withdrawal symptoms, I figured I’d give up the games completely, a month early. (And doomscrolling too, but that’s proving harder… proving it’s also addictive to me more than I wanted to admit!)
This doesn’t strike me as a healthy perspective on yourself
My point isn’t to refute your concern for your addictive tendencies with regards to video games but rather to gravely warn you that your fear and self doubt (which are valid) will be preyed on by a whole cottage industry of shitty people selling you fake solutions until you learn the actual science with regards to humans and games (digital or not) from people like Dr. Rachel Kowert.