Associated with. So it's probably just that, a correlation.

I used to pull 12hour sessions on everquest and suffered none of that

To me it depends on how hard you work and game, and by that I just mean how you posture yourself over a keyboard and how actively/frantically you interface with a computer.

My posture is shit despite spending up to 14 hours a day in front of a computer. It's still ways better than that of someone who hunches over their keyboard staring dead at their big ass monitor with their fingers locked in over the QE+WASD button group as they zone in to get that "flick" response time.

Meanwhile, my shitty posture is just lounging or reclining in my ergo chair as I swivel my neck to look at any of my three eye-level monitors. I shift around a lot and my hands aren't near the keyboard unless I'm actively typing. I crack my neck and roll my shoulders often, sometimes stretch or go take a 15-minute walk. I only use dark themes and always have proper ambient lighting to prevent concentrated light exposure fucking up my eyesight.

I have been keeping this technophiliac routine going for about 5 years now. Depression, Severe General Anxiety/Paranoia, Alcoholism, Substance Abuse (weed), Over-eating, Serial Dating and unexplained bouts of mania were all problems I had to deal with during those five years. Some of them may have been amplified by this routine computer use but certainly not caused by it, I've identified the true causes for almost all of them and, aside from depression, they have nothing to do with sitting in front of screens all day.

There are much bigger issues associated with computer use and the media's failure to report on them speaks volumes. Stop attacking the video games that aren't predatory (keep going after the ones that are) and start really really taking a look at the effects of social media. Social media will destroy society long before video games get a chance to.

I stand by this statement, to the grave: Death to Social Media.

Let me air out two unrelated but similar things that annoyed the shit out of me back in the day.

Your parents then: "That floor mat thingy (referring to the Power Pad) doesn't count as exercise because it's still Nintendo. You need to go outside!!!!!"

Adults now: Middle school phys-ed classes consisting of playing Dance Dance Revolution apparently somehow now "counts" as real exercise.

And,

Your parents then: "The problem with you kids is you spend all day in front of that tube, watching those stupid movies and playing video games all day instead of reading books. It's stunting your ability to differentiate fantasy from reality!!!!!"

Your parents now: Instantly believe every damn fool thing they see on Facebook, even and especially when it is clearly horseshit.

So yeah. I can totally believe that some moron would unironically believe that staring at a screen containing an office application is somehow automatically more "wholesome" than staring at a screen displaying any other content for the same amount of time.

To be fair, lots of companies specifically point out ergonomics and give out onboarding materials with suggestions on exercises to do and office setup best practices.

Awareness is important, and most office jobs already raise awareness about it. I think the only time I've seen it in video games were those take a break reminders I've seen in some Nintendo games.

Someone who points out excel has clearly never played Starcraft in any capacity. There is a caster, who has a shirt with an x-ray of a hand that's bolted to some sort of frame, with "APM" written on top of it (actions per minute, a measure of how fast a player plays the game).

Mobas, RTS are hell on wrists. FPS too, with all the flicking. You can do excel in a shitty position for years and you'll not end up with screws in your hand or nerve pinching.

Both can be true

It depends... If you've got good posture (and I don't mean sitting up straight, you have to shift around), a good chair, and you get up every hour or two to at least walk around? It's still probably not healthy, but at least you don't get too many aches and pains

On the other hand, it's a lot harder with gaming. You've got your hands on the keyboard or clutching the controller constantly, you (or at least I) will tense up and put strength in my wrist at a weak angle, sometimes I'll find myself leaning forward and tensing up

I feel it if I'm on a gaming kick, but day in and day out it's usually not too bad. It helps that I need to walk to refocus anyways, so even gaming I usually take a lot of breaks

Tbf the combination can be worst. During COVID lockdowns I'd spend all waking hours either coding or hand writing for uni, hand writing to teach online, or gaming. Sometimes I'd crochet. I have chronic painful tendinitis now.

No no, you see. Its okay and normal to destroy your body for other peoples profit.

The problem here is you enjoying yourself and experience happiness. Personal happiness is a sin in capitalism, because it might lead to thoughts of improving your situation, and thats the last thing anyone wants. Just think of what it could do to the shareholders!

/s because I know some dim bulb will take this seriously otherwise.

I'm more likely to take a break with work. Unfortunately that break often entails sitting in the same chair, watching YouTube on the same screen.

Add two+ hours a day sitting in your car and the aging process is actually reversed!

To avoid wrist pains don't keep your wrist midair, most of the time keep your wrist lying on something and relaxed, no wrist pains, coming from personal experience, about posture, sit slightly tilted back like in the chair you can sleep in and relax your spine while slightly lying on the chair with straight spine, and back pains gone too, same with neck, find something to rest your neck on comfortably and keep it relaxed, as for eyes, use yellow tinted glasses they help to transform sharp blue white light of the screen to greenish one which is comfortable for your eyes in long term, every advice coming from personal experience, also use this to not waste your hearing https://github.com/Digitalone1/EasyEffects-Presets