Video Game Addition: Can Adolescents Become Addicted?

Stephen A. McCallum, B00210956

University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Scotland
Stephenmcc_2012@hotmail.co.uk

Abstract: This paper argues that the recent media and society concerns about video
game addiction are based less on scientific fact and more on media hysteria. Any
studies based on video game addition have always been biased and never fully
understood, even using a poor testing range. Firstly researchers should note the
definition of addiction. An addiction is a continued use of a substance or continued
behaviour, despite any negative consequences on their life or health. Gamers are
being diagnosed as addicted to games rather than anyone attempting to find the
underlining problem with gamers spending all of their time in a virtual world. Parents
and partners are so concerned for their loved ones that they label them as addicted
even if they have no underlining problems with their game playing behaviour. It can
concluded that the most likely reasons behind gamers spending most of their time
playing games, may either be due to poor time management skills, or if someone is
facing regular problems in their real life they may turn to games as they can provide
a very acceptable form to escape from their life, only to be submerged into the
games easy and rewarding life.

Keywords/Key Phrases: Video games, Video game addiction, Addiction definitions.

Introduction: It is very important to note that there is no evidence to support that
adolescents can become addicted to video games, although there is also no
evidence to prove adolescents will not become addicted to video games. They are
just two different views of the same argument with no one being able to prove which
side is right. Any gamer that talks about video game addiction will have some form of
life experience to support the argument for or against game addiction. Long time
gamers may be the best for researching game addiction, as testing against
adolescents who have never before played any type of video game may enjoy it to a
stage that seems like they are addicted giving a false report. Questioning long term
gamers on their gaming habits can lead to a better understanding of their problems,
whether it is an inability to control their time management giving their loved ones the
impression that they prefer games to their real life when the real problem is just
failing to prioritise. Some gamers spend most of their time stuck in games as part of
their immersion and simply lose track of time only to look to a clock to realise its
later than they thought. It could also be an underlining external problem that the
gamer deals with in their everyday life in which they are trying to escape from. These
problems can range from an unsatisfying relationship, to an abusive everyday
environment. People use games as a means of escape from an otherwise difficult
life, most games give the player a satisfying feeling anytime they are able to
complete one of the games goals and are rewarded, even in the most insignificant
way, it is still a better reward than any real life reward they usually get.

Literature Review: There are many papers that deal with addiction in games but
most deal with the other side of the argument, there are few papers that attempt to
disprove addiction in games. Although the paper Problems with the Concept of Video
Game Addiction: Some Case Study Examples gives several examples as to why
addiction is not the best word to use in order to describe the gamers problem. In this
paper the author describes events in which he analyses several peoples stories
giving another possible reason as to their constant gaming activity. He uses four
case studies, Martin, an 11 year old male, thought to be addicted to gaming as he
spent most of his time playing the MMORPG world of warcraft, although his mother
never asked him why he spent his time playing the game or even why it affected his
school life. Martin was actually being bullied while at school and therefore used the
game as a means of escape from this reality. Helena, a 32 year old female, was
thought to be addicted to an online Final Fantasy game, her own mother believed it
so much that she attempted to stop her from playing. Helenas mother later found out
that she only played the game so she did not have to deal with her current
relationship and job, both of which she did not enjoy. This shows that not only
children can be seen as addicted but also adults. Bruce a 42 year old male believed
himself to be addicted to gaming he approached the author of the paper in attempts
to help himself. The author however told Bruce that his problem was not addiction
but simply poor time management skills. After Bruce sat down with his wife they
arranged a better way for them to both get what they want. The final example is Alex,
a 10 year old male. His mother thought he was addicted when he changed his
personality after his father gave him a PS2 before he left for Iraq. The author
suggests that Alex may only have changed due to his father leaving, as once he had
returned Alex also returned to normal, but the events also coincided with Alex getting
the gaming console and Alex losing the gaming console. The author has suggested
that they are not just addicted to games there may be other reasons for their
excessive game playing. (Wood, 2007) These are just four examples of how
addiction can be perceived but there are cases like these all over the world. There
are however many papers which attempt to prove the opposite side of the argument.
The paper Internet Addiction: the Emergence of a New Clinical Disorder studies the
Internets effect on both long term users as well as people who have never used the
internet before. This paper attempts to prove that people who have already been
using the internet for a while can become addicted to online chat and Mulit user
dungeons. (Young, 1996) These acquisitions though cannot be confirmed true as to
be fully addicted to something would mean that there must be some form of negative
consequence to their actions, and being too social doesnt really fit this criteria.
Spending their time chatting with people online seems like it is just a new form of
social interaction. In the paper Network Parent Guide to Video Game Addiction they
claim that the research proves people are addicted to video games, but their
research only shows 8.5% of the youth gamers demonstrate pathological play, this
is very flimsy research to back an entire paper on. (Mediawise, 2007) The paper
attempts to tell parents how to raise their child properly in order to avoid any gaming
addiction symptoms, although with only 8.5% of the subjects displaying signs of
pathological behaviour it doesnt seem like the major society problem the media
makes it out to be the paper almost disproves itself with the minimal evidence. The
paper Effective Time Management in Organization Panacea or Placebo attempts to
help organizations with their employees time management skills, this shows that
several people deal with time management troubles but these skills would be easily
transferrable for gamers. (Olaniyan, 2008) If gamers were to read this paper, or one
like it, it could help them organise their time better and therefore the game addiction
argument would have a substantial decrease in subjects. The paper Understanding
Online Gaming Addiction and Treatment Issues for Adolescents attempts to assist
the family and friends of an addicted gamer with ideas on how to help them break
their addiction and free themselves from video games. (Young, 2009) This paper
looks at gaming addiction as an almost proven fact and therefore attempts to free
gamers from their addiction. Gaming addiction has never been proven though so this
paper just further advances the media hype over gaming addiction. The papers
Online Computing Gaming: Advice for Parent and Teachers, Online Video Game
Addiction, Online Video Game Addiction: Identification of Addicted Adolescent,
Emotional and Behavioural Effects of Video Games and Internet and Review of
Computer Game Studies attempt to raise awareness of the various problems they
believe come with game addiction. (Khan, 2007) (Wei Pend, n.d.) As well as
discovering the signs of an addicted gamer. (Antonius J. Van Rooij, 2010) (Rooij,
2011) (Griffiths, 2009) The papers also seem to look at addiction as a proven fact
rather than an ongoing discussion.


Discussion: There is no proof of a gamer becoming addicted to video games,
although gaming addiction cannot be disproven. Gamers that spend the majority of
their time playing video games will be seen as addicted by their friends and family,
although no one ever attempts to find the underlining cause as to why that person
spends their time in the virtual world. In the case studies by Richard wood in his
paper Problems with the Concept of Video Game Addiction. (Wood, 2007) There
can be many reasons a person prefers the comfort of video games rather than the
real world, from poor time management skills to escaping from a bully at school, no
one ever asked the people analysed in the paper why they play the games they play
or even why they spent so long doing so. Video games industry has been attacked
on many other fronts such as including violence and nudity or foul language. This
industry like many others is facing problems the main reason could just be simple
human fear, fear of the new technology. The film industry faced the same problems
as well as television, but after people were given the time to adjust they became part
of their everyday lives. Although people still attack these industries it is not as much
as it once was and therefore we can only hope that the gaming industry will not be
attacked as violently as it is now. Perhaps all it will take is something new to take the
attention off the game industry but until then games will always be attacked either for
addiction or violence or simply containing foul language.

Conclusion: It is important to note that the majority of people that play games for
most of their time, and can have negative consequences on their life or on those
around them. Although there is evidence to suggest that gamers that are excessively
playing games are likely to have other external problems in their life and may only be
using the games as an escape from this. Constantly playing video games could be
looked at as more of a symptom of their problem rather than the cause. Teaching the
gamers how to organise their time management skills or providing therapeutic
treatment to address their underlying problems can be more beneficial to help these
people. However, people are labelled as addicts without conclusive evidence to
prove this is the problem they have, which can result in misunderstanding and fear
among the gaming community as well as their family and friends.

References:
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