Social Issues- Gaming Addiction

 Gaming Addiction

Video game addiction is thought to be a serious problem in today's society. Video game addiction seams to affect a wide range of gamers, but research studies have shown that only 10 % - 15% of gamers fall under addiction.

What is Gaming Addiction?

Gaming Addiction is considered to be a form of internet or computer addiction. It has been brought upon over the years with positive and negative feed back.

 

Types of Addictions.

  •   Computer Games
  •   Console Games 
  •   Arcade Games
  •   Cell Phone Games

 

Negatives of Gaming Addiction

  • Social Issues: People who do become addicted forget about real life and turn their online gaming into their own life.
  • Aggression Issues: Playing violent videos may cause aggressive behaviour.
  • Health Issues: Emotional Disorders, Behaviour Disorders, Bad Verbal memory performance... the list can go on and on.

 

Positives of playing Games

  • Educational Games: Can improve a child's performance in writing, spelling and mathematics
  • Interactive Games: Can improve problem solving skills
  • Challenging Games : Can be beneficial to make one curious and make them think.
  • Simulation Games : Can help one to drive learn how to defend themselves etc.

 

Summary 

All in all, video games can really take over someone's life and can ruin a sense of belonging in the world. On the other hand the benefits of playing video games are excellent. Not all people in the world are addicted to playing games but the smaller percentage of people who are absorbed in this addiction. Gaming Addiction has not been listed as a Disorder but in the future it may be more likely because of newer technologies being made. There fore, video games can be be beneficial, and non beneficial depending on how people choose to cope with the way they play in today's gaming world.

 

 

Personal Experience & Knowledge

One experience I had with my real life friends and a stranger in a multiplayer game increased aggression. It started of with 2 of my friends and I in a sedan cruising around new york city in grand theft auto multiplayer session. Suddenly a stranger in the game lobby wants us to take a ride in his helicopter. We thought he was friendly and decided to hop in. He had taken us to a deserted area and our players were armed with weaker weapons. The stranger was armed with heavy projectiles and had killed us with his weapons. After that, we had a very harsh rage towards that stranger. He sent us hate messages and we retaliated. We had found automatic machine guns and now were heavily armed. We had chased the guy all around New York city for a good 30 mins by helicopter/ boat and finally had made him pull over on the beach. We had wiped him out with our machine guns and had a sense of power, but when we look back at it, it was just a game not something in real life. Sometimes I feel as if I am actually in the video game world my self. But the stereotypical thoughts that gamers who play violent video games are prone to commit violent actions I don't  agree with. This is not true because I play video games that include violence and explicit material, but I do not act all crazy with the people around me. There fore, I do not agree to these assumptions that people who don't play video games choose to make about all people who play violent video games.

 

 Times that I have been addicted to video games don't occur very often. The only few occasions that I have been glued to a screen are usually when an anticipated and long awaited game is about to release. Reasons for this temporary addiction come from many ways. For example, game designers and top marketers will release a Teaser trailer for a game that gamers are looking forward to and they wont show much. The reason they do this is because they know they have a heavy fan base that is highly anxious to see more of the game. Information of a game is usually released a year or so before the release date to make people go crazy in most cases. As many month pass on, they release more sneak peaks making the gamers go much more insane each and every time. When the game is released some addicts act as they have all of they money in the world and have the power to do anything.

 

Work Cited

https://addictions.about.com/od/lesserknownaddictions/a/videogameadd.htm

https://www.evilcontrollers.com/blog/tag/gaming-addiction/

https://addictionblog.org/top-10/top-10-negative-effects-of-video-games-on-children/

https://neuroanthropology.net/2009/06/02/can-videogames-actually-be-good-for-you/