I was reading this article, Detox for Video Game Addiction, and it was explaining to me the actual effects of gaming and the way these individuals get addicted. I quote from the article "an intelligent child who is unpopular in school can become dominate in the game". That sounds to me like bad parenting.
I will admit that pretty much all of middle school and high school I had a gaming system, I started with a Playstation One and have moved up to the Playstation 3. Now I have played sports my whole life, I have not gained a pound in 5 years (thats almost half my gaming life), I socialize and have more friends than I really care about.
The reason for that being my parents. Now at 21 I do whatever the hell I want, and thankfully I have a very active job so that prevents me from becoming a fat slob. But like I was saying, my parents would not let me sit on my ass all day and play games. I am reading these articles on so called "video-game addiction" and it keeps repeating to me that kids sit for 4, 5, or 6 hours a day on a video game system. Who's fault is that???
According to wikipedia :Video game addiction, or more broadly video game overuse, is excessive or compulsive use of computer and video games that interferes with daily life. Instances have been reported in which users play compulsively, isolating themselves from, or from other forms of, social contact and focusing almost entirely on in-game achievements rather than broader life events.
To me that sounnd like a pathetic human being. I love video games and many games I have owned are multiplayer games. Most my friends enjoy playing video games and therefore we can all socially play a game. The online experiance has only enhanced that ability. To "isolate" yourself from other human contact is just plain stupid.
Now this clinic is Amersterdam has been doing studies since it opened in 2006 and realized that 90% of avid gamers are not addicted, they just need some social contact. Well, duh, who doesn't.
From this article, Game Rehab Clinic Says 90% of Patients Aren't Addicts, I have learned that 80% of young people have been bullied and feel isolated. That to me is another ignorant statistic. Who does not know going into high school that things happen. While school is a place of learning, lets be honest, as a teen it is your number one source of socializing. I was not Mr. Popular but I was not isolated. There were cliques of friends everywhere. No matter what category you fell under there were always others like you.
The whole point of this blog is to say that to label someone a video game addict is in all ways wrong. Addiction is defined by Webster's Dictionay as "a compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal ; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful"
Withdrawal is defined by webster as the syndrome of often painful physical and psychological symptoms that follows discontinuance of an addicting drug. When I go days without gaming I do not get sick and I do get violent or psychologically impaired. I will admit that I can go hours with out a video game but I can't go hours without a cigarette. I do like to call nicotine(and this will probably be a future topic) an addiction but for the sake of this argument we will. Without a cigarette I can feel myself get aggravated quickly and I "need" a smoke. However, I may crave to play a video game, I can go without it.
Anyone who claims to be a video game addict is doing an injustice to all of us other gamers. To call something an addiction is almost like black listing it. Now we will have reasons to dump more money into "video games habit studies." I do not want that, I would like money dumped into finding out how to make my gaming experience more exciting and realistic.
Video gaming is not an addiction, it is a passion. Anyone who can not control their habits have problems far away from just being a gamer. If you want to call yourself a video game addict, please first call your self a loser and a nobody. That will save me the pains of being called an addict in the future.
