Entertainment

Entertainment occupies a substantial portion of Americans’ leisure time and thus shapes behaviors for hours of every day. For this industry, we examined products and services in three categories: 1) social media platforms; 2) video game platforms and publishing; and 3) video streaming services.

Overall Ratings

Highlights

The results across all three categories were almost uniformly negative. With one exception (Niantic Labs), entertainment products and services scored poorly on their influences on eating, physical activity, sleeping and getting outdoors. Scores for engaging socially varied, but, where they were positive, were only modestly so. The poor results stem largely from the nature of the dominant forms of entertainment, which are typically consumed indoors, in a sedentary fashion and are essentially available 24/7.

Social Media Platforms

Highlights and Opportunities

We reviewed five social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube (which mixes elements of social media with video streaming). All scored in net negative territory, although, generally speaking, they were rated higher than the video game platforms and publishers and video streaming services. The influence of the social media platforms on health is complex, with evidence pointing to both positive and negative influences for most behaviors and contradictions between user reports of behaviors and perceptions of influences on those behaviors. (For example, many users of social media reported unhealthy eating habits like higher consumption of fast food, yet also reported neutral or positive influences of social media on their diets). The platforms scored worst on sleep, despite several of them offering bedtime reminders or other time controls, which our research found to be of limited value.  

Due to the complexity of the influences, it is important for the platforms to research their influences on users’ health habits, particularly with respect to diet, sleep and social engagement to understand where they need to adapt. Other opportunities lie in establishing a robust bedtime mode and giving users more agency by helping them define their preferences for how much they wish to spend on those platforms and then supporting their choices.  

Methodology

In addition to reviewing the scientific literature for studies that linked social media (either generally or the specific platforms individually), we relied heavily on the results of our original consumer survey that asked 3,000+ US adults about their social media use (including platform-specific data), their health habits and the links between them.(1) We also examined the features, designs and user experiences of each platform to understand how those designs contributed to overall time on the platforms and potentially influenced the different health behaviors.

Product Profiles

Video Game Platforms and Publishers

Highlights and Opportunities

We looked at the leading video game platform (or console) providers – Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox – along with the online platform Steam and the virtual reality (VR) console Meta Quest. In addition, we reviewed the most popular games from two leading publishers – Activision Blizzard, known for its Call of Duty franchiser and Electronic Arts, which publishes popular sports titles FIFA, Madden NFL and adventure games like Apex Legends and the Star Wars franchise. We included Niantic Labs, the developer and publisher of mobile, augmented reality (AR) games like Pokémon GO, for contrast.

Niantic, whose approach, which draws players into outdoor, physical activity that is often very social, is markedly different from the more traditional console-based games, was in a league by itself. It scored highly on three behaviors, with only a concern about sleep. The leading platforms were all quite similar, scoring poorly on their influences on eating, physical activity, sleep and getting outdoors. The exception was Meta Quest, whose VR games were reported by users to be more likely to include physical activity. Poor scores relating to eating habits were largely driven by user reports of high fast food and energy drink consumption, along with greater use of food delivery services. Users of all platforms reported frequent deferring of sleep to continue game play.

A key driver of the poor ratings for most platforms and publishers is the impact that long (and frequent) gaming sessions have on crowding out healthy behaviors – with snacking, fast food and deferred sleep resulting. Key opportunities lie in working with users to moderate the amount of time spent on games, establishing robust bedtime modes and emphasizing multiplayer modes over single-player options. AR presents a significant opportunity to build games that draw people outside of their homes and entertain them in more physical, more social ways.

Methodology

As with social media, we supplemented a review of the scientific literature and examination of how the products function with data from our 2023 survey that delved into game play and related health habits.(2)

Product Profiles