Video Game Subdiction : The Causes To Addiction To Video Games

The twenty-first century has made massive improvements regarding technology. The internet plays a vital role for schools, businesses, and humans. With the improvement of the internet, thousands of video games have arouse and gaming addiction has grew tremendously. These video games are at the tip of one's fingers. Video games are indisputably harmful to adolescents because they harm an adolescents' intellectual and social development.

Video games are a enormous part in the world today. “More than 150 million people in the United States play video games regularly or for at least three hours per week. The number of sales has increased and in 2016, 24.5 billion games were sold, up from 23.2 billion in 2015.” “This Type of Video Game May Actually Harm Your Brain.” written by Mahita Gajanan is my positive article and “How Video Games Affect the Brain.” written by Hannah Nichols is my negative article. In this essay I am going to talk about video games and their impact on the brain (Nichols).

The videogame addiction may seem funny or ridiculous, but in reality it is a dangerous obsession that truly exposes several needs that have yet to be addressed within the afflicted. Addiction is a damaging problem, and the impact of varying sorts of addictions, such as illegal and

In 1981, the iconic video game character, Mario, flashed on television screens made possible by the Nintendo Entertainment System, marking the beginning of video games taking over the globe. The retro, pixel interfaces of video games quickly strides to advance its graphics, gameplay and quality, becoming an ambitious industry as the years continue on. In the early 1900s, this was an unreal thought by society from the technology at the time, including a man named Aldous Huxley. The author of the novel Brave New World, published in 1932, Huxley creates a dystopian science fiction novel in which a futuristic society must be stabilized, kept together by conditioning the individual. The novel bares a resemblance to advancing technology in the modern day world, particularly the video game industry.

Video game addiction is not yet recognized by the American Medical Association as a diagnosable disorder, but addiction has become a very real problem for many video game players. An addiction is when the person needs more and more of a substance or behavior to keep them going, and if the person does not get more, they can become irritable and miserable. Compulsive gaming meets these criteria, and there have been many studied instances where severe withdrawal symptoms in game addicts are seen when parents take away the child’s electronic gaming system. According to chapter three of the book, a study in Singapore of 3,000 middle schoolers found that the

International studies have shown that between seven and eleven per cent of gamers show some symptoms associated with addiction. Some teens are heavy users of online role-playing games (RPGs) such as World of Warcraft and multiplayer games such as Call of Duty in which they interact with other players in real time. These teens will often neglect schoolwork and other aspects of their daily lives when they become immersed in these games. The American Medical Association has identified “video game overuse” as ‘behaviour’.

Video games or online games are played everyday by a vast majority of teens in the United States. It is estimated that in 2008 approximately 70-90% of teens reportedly play these games. Many individuals believe that video games offer a learning experience like no other. However, video games distract from learning and actually negatively affect the minds of teen players, therefore, playing video or online games is indisputably harmful to adolescents’ intellectual and social development.

From the past till now, video game never loses its popularity, from Gameboy to Wii, and from NDS to LOL, millions and billions of people are obsessed with this imaginary world. Some of the video games are created for educational purpose, however, most are created for the people who wants to escape from reality. “In a national Harris Poll survey of 1,178 American youths (ages 8-18), ISU Assistant Professor of Psychology Douglas Gentile found nearly one in 10 of the gamers (8.5 percent) to be pathological players.” ("Figure 2f from: Irimia R, Gottschling M (2016) ") Not only the statistic shows the high rate of addiction towards video games, terrible consequences of the addictions are more than enough to be served. For example, an extreme case of an Chinese kid called Xioyi suicide because he lose in one of his game on December 27, 2004; where he left a note that said he wanted “to join the heroes of the game he worshiped.” Video game has the potential to ruin a person’s life, as well as their family, or even the

Advances in technology have forever changed the way that children play, communicate, and view the world. Have you ever told your child that it was time to turn the video game off, or to put away the cell phone? Of course you have. Did they become upset, aggressive, or even depressed? These are warning signs indicating a potentially dangerous addiction. Addiction is characterized by the intense need for a substance and the experience of withdrawal symptoms when that substance is taken away (Rauh). Video games fill the player with strong feelings of pleasure and fulfillment. When considering the effects that video games have on your social, academic, and financial life; when do these fun technologies morph into a dangerous addiction?

CNN, Samantha Bresnahan and Will Worley in their article, “When Video Games Become an Addiction”, argue about how and why video games become an addiction. They support their claim by first talking about video game addiction in the US, then about who mostly get addicted and in what age it is more popular, and finally why video games are addictive. Bresnahan’s purpose is to explain video game addiction in order to find a solution for it. They establish a hopeful tone for the readers.

The controversial topic of video game addiction is what I have decided to focus my multi-genre research project on. Although a multitude of people do not even know of the existence of such a problem in today's society, I can assure you that this is becoming an increasingly greater problem effecting people around the world of all ages. Through my multi-genre project, I intend on proving the uselessness and detrimental qualities of playing video games, and I am going to explore some healthy alternatives to such a problematic habit.

“Teenagers today often spend a great deal of time playing video games. These games are fun and engaging and young people often feel like playing games is a great thing to do in their spare time. However, you shouldn’t spend too much time gaming and there are a number of reasons for this: it’s unhealthy, you should spend more time studying, and you need to socialize more.”

Many young children and teenagers have heard their mother’s incessant plead to get away from the screen and to go outside or pick up a book for once instead. The urge to play “just one more level” before starting that homework or doing those chores can be quite distracting. But are video games really as awful as Mom exclaims or as brutal as those TV ads depict? It turns out that video games can have a strong impact on participants’ lives in both positive as well as negative ways.

The first reason why violent video games are bad is because it can become addicted. Addictions involve unhealthy attractions that keep up with regular daily responsibilities such as forgetting to do school work, homework, and chores around the house. Another bad thing that addiction causes is that children and young teens interact less with others. They rather be antisocial and hang out less with friends, in order to play a video game on the Xbox, PS3, or computer. Teens who are obsessed with video games and play for long periods of time can often go an entire day without leaving their room to eat, use the restroom or to bathe. The study found that “88 percent of the nation 's children ages 8 to 18 play video games. With 45 million children of that age in the country, the study would suggest that more than 3 million are addicted "or at least have problems of the magnitude" that call for help, Gentile said” (George). The effects of this behavior can be serious danger to their overall health.

To answer the question “Are video games beneficial or it’s an addiction?” two areas of video game research are looked at. First, research about benefits of playing video games. Second, research supporting the idea of video game addiction, followed by research challenging the idea and advising against the addiction label. Overall research is going to be based on mostly scholarly sources, and I will try to prove that video games are more beneficial than a form of sickness or an addiction. Following the exploration of research, there are some recommendations taken from other scholarly articles in the case of individual concern and the possibility of negative effects of video game play.