Video Game Addiction (Term Paper Sample)

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Video Game Addiction
Whether your best friends live in Atlanta, Cairo, Yerevan or just a few kilometers away, get ready for a less expensive face-to-face chat, from the comfort of your living room. With few clicks, you and tour international friends might choose to converse, about the English premier league, a blockbuster movie, or a favorite TV show. Nonetheless, this online chat is happening in video games right now. Friends not only play online games, but also share information. Instead of the usual leisure, gamers and their best friends are busy slaying dragons, playing FIFA online, and battling aliens. According to Clark and Scott (2009), hundreds of thousands of people are playing video game inside the digital living rooms every second. With a click of a remote, friend or strangers can play and connect with friends globally, in ways that seem like science fiction to the general public.
Since 1970s and 1980s, video games have transformed from the arcades to family living rooms. This has led the video game industry to stand on its own, just like banking industry. University of Pittsburg 2002 report concluded that the video game industry generates over 10.3 million U.S. dollars annually, surpassing the revenues earned by the film industry. As a result, both young and adult alike have been caught up in what appears to be the next certified global catastrophic diagnosis: Video game addiction. Currently, ongoing technological advancements have made televisions, desktops, iPads, iPhones, and mobile phones video-playing centers whenever one feels like playing. Whereas adults have fallen into the bottomless pit of video gaming, children and teenagers are naturally gravitating towards the same endemic. Video games have developed in an alarming rate over the last decade whereas video game addiction statistics appear to be gradually increasing yearly. Video game developers continue to make games that are complex, less direct, and participative for everyone. Video games are for everyone; new gadgets developed are not for people with the unfathomable knowledge of technological mysticism CITATION Nei09 \p 7 \l 1033 (Clark and Scott 7).
Is Video Game an Addiction?
Addiction applies to behaviors beyond drugs and alcohol; for example, sex, buying, gambling, eating, and the Internet. Currently, there is no single, universally accepted definition of addiction, a comprehensive theory of addiction is yet to be developed. It is inaccurate to define addiction as a habit, since it limits the scope. However, Colonna (2000) reached an acceptable conclusion and defined addition as a chronic disorder, continuous conditions where an individual has no complete control to obsessive thinking and manifests itself via compulsive behavior towards any activity and/or mood-changing substance. This definition encompasses all forms of addiction, substance and activity related, and presents a clear indication in the field of addiction process.
Video game overuse commonly referred to as video game addiction, represents a proposed type of psychological addition made up of a compulsive overuse of computers and video games. Mcllwraith (1998) developed four theoretical models to explain addition to video games: First, video game addiction is a result of video games’ impacts on imagination and fantasy life, where individuals participate in playing these games greatly having poor degree of imagination. Secondly, video games addiction affects the arousal level, in that people playing these games tend play in order to arouse or calm themselves. Thirdly, video game addiction represents a manifestation of verbal, reliant, or addictive personality of an individual. As a result, excessive playing is caused by inner personality factors and not the external stimulation derived from this games. Lastly, video game addiction is a connection to different pattern of applying gratifications related to video games, where people enjoy the physical act of playing to alleviate boredom CITATION Bar98 \p 54-55 \l 1033 (Gunter 54-55).
In his 2008 publication, Internet and Video-Game Addiction, Mark Griffiths came up with six criterions, employed to describe video games as an addiction: salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, conflicts, and relapse. Salience occurs when video-game play becomes a crucial activity in a person’s life, hence dominating his thinking, feelings, and behavior. Mood modification represents the subjective experiences that players report because of engaging in video-game play. Tolerance is the process of increasing the use of video game play to achieve the previous mood-modifying effects. This implies that players gradually develop the amount of the time spent playing video games. Withdrawal symptoms refer to the unpleasant feeling states or physical effects that springs when video gaming is disconnected or reduced. Conflict occurs between players and the outside community, those around them, when they are disconnected from playing video games. Conflict takes different forms, it includes conflicts with other activities-schoolwork and hobbies-, or from within the players themselves, loss of control, since they spend too much time video gaming. Lastly, relapse refers to the tendency for continuous reversions to previous patterns of video-game play, and sometimes the most severe patterns, excessive video game play, to be promptly restored after periods of self-denial or control. Having defined addiction and trying to linking video game to addiction it is clear that video game can be addictive and affects a number of users and players CITATION Cec08 \p 232-233 \l 1033 (Griffiths 232-233).
Current Statistical Data: Video Game Addiction
High rates of video game have drastically gone up over a decade CITATION Add13 \l 1033 (Addiction.com). Recent studies on global video game addition reveal alarming degrees of addiction. Douglas A. Gentile, a research scientist, conducted a study, in medical journal Pediatrics, to examine how and to what extent video game usage rates are affecting the children and teenagers. Gentile’s study population comprised of 3,034 children and teenagers. From the study, Gentile concluded that both children and teenagers spend an average time of 20 hours weekly, playing video games. The research also estimated 72% of American house play video games. About 9% of the 3,034-study population displayed signed of video game addiction while 4% of the study participants were classified as extreme video game users and players, using 50 hours weekly on average. CITATION Gen08 \p 600 \l 1033 (Gentile 600).
How many people are affected, young and old? No one knows, however, two statistics stick out: Worldwide, video game industry is a $66 billion industry. A 2007study suggested that about 12% of the video game players in a 7,000 study were diagnosed as extreme addicts. Video game players are generally in trouble if this trend even, to some extent, reflects numbers in universal population. Video game addiction exists in the contemporary world. A 2009 study conducted by Iowa State University, revealed that one in every 10 people to be a pathological gamer with respect to the standards established for pathological gambling. Their video gaming behaviors has caused family, social, and psychological damage. This study was based on the nationwide survey of 1,178 American teenagers and children aged between 8 to 18 years. The study found out that 8.5% of American youth shows different signs of addictive behavior. Other participants displayed more than half of 11 symptoms of pathological gambling as outlined by the American Psychiatric Association CITATION Meg13 \l 1033 (Vivo).
General Symptoms of Video Game Addiction
A classical sign of video game addiction arise where children or teenagers spend more hours in front of the television, computers, and mobile phones. When teenagers spend most of their leisure time indoors, glued to the computer and only taking short breaks for snacks and bathroom then addiction is crippling. Such behaviors are referred to as grinding or farming and generally last for several hours to the whole afternoon. Extreme cases arise where teenagers spend the entire day playing video games. This out-of-control 24 hours video gaming spree cause the players to exhibit an unusual preoccupation when they are away from the game or computer CITATION Meg13 \l 1033 (Vivo).
Video gamers, who are addicted or at the risk of video game addiction, lack the ability to control their personal time. They are unable to control the amount of time spent when they start playing. When they go online, they extend their scheduled time and cannot realize that they have spent 4-7 hours instead of the schedules 10-30 minutes. Addicts completely lose track of time. This is not usual for people with no video game addiction. There are instances where video games addicts trans-night, only to realize that its morning when they see rays of sun striking their windows CITATION Ill14 \l 1033 (Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery ).
Addicted video gamers post decline grades or fail in classes. In some circumstances, they pass mathematics and typing classes while posting poor grades in English, Science, Social Studies, and Physical education. This is related to preoccupation, loss of time, and lack of control effects of addiction brought forward by addiction. As a result, they tend to fall asleep during school hours due to fatigue. This makes them not to complete their assignments on time and do not participate or drop out of several school activities, clubs, or sports.
Addicted video gamers tend to isolate themselves from the rest of the family. When playing, they lock themselves inside their rooms, away from friends and family. Just like any other addiction, video gaming addic...