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So, what are your thoughts on the subject of video game addiction? DO you think that it exist or not? Or is video game addiction just another moral panic.
IMO: I honestly don't think you can be addicted to video games. In my mind, video game addiction was just a disorder created by concerned parents and society because the child or the adult would rather spend his time playing video games than do something constructive. For example, if I were reading for 5 hours a day, or watching football games, or playing an instrument, or socializing. Those things would be considered normal and a better use for your time. Yet, if I go home and I played World of Warcraft for 5 hours or so many people would think I have a problem. What are your though on the topic?
I think it comes down to what people find are their entertainment, some people like tv, some like video games. Like you said, if you go home watch tv, read a book, or do something else that you consider fun, people think you are fine. If you go home and play video games to pass your time, you're addicted. The sad part of this all is, I think its just part of the current stigma that is related to video games. Given enough time, I think this should slowly fade with the rest of it.
No doubt it exist but how many hours is too many hours of video gaming. Heck in the colder months I can spends upwards of 60 hrs a week playing games and in the summer months maybe 5. I think it all depends if you let video games get in the way of "real life" obligations like maintaining a job, taking care of your children, and washing your ass ....If you neglect those things it's probably an addiction.
No doubt it exist but how many hours is too many hours of video gaming. Heck in the colder months I can spends upwards of 60 hrs a week playing games and in the summer months maybe 5. I think it all depends if you let video games get in the way of "real life" obligations like maintaining a job, taking care of your children, and washing your ass ....If you neglect those things it's probably an addiction.
Yep addiction has a very specific medical definition...
The American Society for Addiction Medicine defines it as
"the continued repetition of a behavior despite adverse consequences, or a neurological impairment leading to such behaviors"
So there has to be two specific conditions met,
1) There are adverse consequences
2) That there is continued repetition
The key issue is that there are adverse consequences. We all play games, mostly repetitively, some a few times a month, some several times a week. It's only when it intrudes into other areas of your life and causes harm in those areas that it is an issue.
Yes you can be addicted to pretty much anything, it's a neurological reward dysfunction, brain chemistry alters on the act of pursuing an addiction, either directly through substances taken, or indirectly through neurological and endocrine responses to a behavioral stimulus (i.e. sex, games, hand washing [no I'm not kidding], etc.).
I agree with the other posters. If gaming gets in the way of you handling your business via, work, school, and choirs then you need to enroll in VGA (video game anonymous)
If you have two people.... one carries a book in their bag and reads it every time they have a spare moment, and another person has a device to play some game, and both of them spend equal time indulging their interest--the person who is playing a game on their portable might be thought to be addicted. Same scoring works if you go to the homes and find one playing games, collecting games, and the other has a massive shelf of books and lots of reading available all over the house.
That said, there are people that sometimes take certain escapes from routine to the point of interfering with their lives, jobs, people they love and so on. That's when it really is using up personal resources like an addiction.
I agree that game playing is deliberately not given the same casual acceptance by some people who would see the reader with books in their bag as being 'totally normal'.
That said, I tend to read a lot of nonfiction, and don't usually understand my friends who tend to consume a dozen or more fictional works including best sellers every month--but who think people that watch TV or play games, are 'wasting their time'.
One last thing (for now) is that I usually see gamers as being the ones that get their ('nonaddicted') book reading, tv watching friends out of trouble when the latter folk have computer problems. I believe that gaming's interactive nature is more conducive to preserving sharper mental acuity and better skills with the abstract--as we age. (ED for typos)
I was married to a guy who was (still is) addicted to video games. He is in his 30's now.
We got up, he played. He came from work, he played.
I went to gym, walked the dog, got groceries, called some friends, sent off some emails - he played. From morning until night. He forgot to do chores. When we went somewhere, he was restless, always wanted to go home with no apparent reason other than being "bored". We went home, he played.
I dropped the playstation several times until it finally broke. He then got a playstation AND Xbox AND played battlefield on the internet.
Sounds like an addiction? Yes, it is an addiction!
I was married to a guy who was (still is) addicted to video games. He is in his 30's now.
We got up, he played. He came from work, he played.
I went to gym, walked the dog, got groceries, called some friends, sent off some emails - he played. From morning until night. He forgot to do chores. When we went somewhere, he was restless, always wanted to go home with no apparent reason other than being "bored". We went home, he played.
I dropped the playstation several times until it finally broke. He then got a playstation AND Xbox AND played battlefield on the internet.
Sounds like an addiction? Yes, it is an addiction!
I think it's more of an obsessed hobbyist than an addiction. People watch movies and sports all day, video games are just another medium still in its infancy though it is far more mainstream now than it is in the 90s.
I agree with crackpot that is more of a obsessed hobbyist than addiction.
Sure he forgot chores but addiction has REALLY impact your life. Like all out avoiding work, business, school and other interactions. That description was more of a clash of interest than an addiction.
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....If you neglect those things it's probably an addiction.
