Video_Game_Addiction

Dickensian diseases such as rickets and malnutrition have been firmly relegated into the history books, at least in this country; however they are being rapidly replaced by a growing number of malignant physiological disorders which are almost always self-inflicted. The newest and least understood of these modern illnesses is addiction to online games. The first arcades were introduced in the early eighties and held a humble collection of games such as table tennis Pac-man and various types of space invaders. As technology progressed those games became available in our homes, and gaming became an anti-social, solitary pastime. Most modern homes have broadband wi-fi available in each room and if your hooked up to a 37 inch High Def. TV in your bedroom, filling your entire field of vision, and have a blue tooth head set with stereophonic battle sounds bombarding you brain for up to twelve hours a day gaming can become your reality. Many players are more concerned with their progression through the virtual world than they are with their own lives in the real world. Of course certain necessities like eating or going to school are tolerated as long as they don't interfere too much with their games. As a result these extreme gamers are deprived of socialisation and begin to withdraw from the world outside their bedrooms. The biggest problem amongst adolesants is that unbeknown to themselves their virtual character becomes intertwined with their own personality and character. For example they begin acting out the violence\aggression which dominates some of the most popular games in their day to day lives. As they increasingly find social interaction challenging they immerse themselves deeper into their virtual reality. Although we know that these games are addictive to the adult population we are primarily concerned with children, a young boy is able to compete with an adult on an even playing field the only thing that is visible to their opponents is their handle and avatar (their screen name and chosen character). Also, wi-fi now means access means that players from all over the world can compete at all hours of the day and night so there is no time limit to gaming and people have been known to play for 2-3 days on end without sleep. Lets not underestimate social media, multiple contacts an be updated of your progress instantly with one click of your handheld device, this virtual positive recognition further consolidates the belief that the virtual world is more important than the real world in their eyes. Addictions are nothing new to the world of physiology for example there are now numerous disorders recognised by the British Medical Association like Anorexia, Attention Deficit Disorder & Social Anxiety Disorder. However addiction to online games is yet to be formally recognised by the medical profession. In the past five years gaming addiction in South Korea has been linked to the deaths of 12 people, some of whom had developed fatal blood clots from sitting in front of their console for hours on end. The government now provides regular boot camps to treat young addicts and children are taught the dangers of excessive gaming in schools. This could be a glimpse into our future as the government hope to develop high-speed broadband access like that of South Korea. The government of China (where more than 20 million people play online games) has also introduced an online gaming restriction limiting playing time to three hours, after which the player would be expelled from whichever game they were playing. There have been reports of suicides, deep vein thrombosis and child neglect all associated with online gaming, as the dangers become increasingly apparent I think we will see a direct coloration to things like poor academic performance, childhood obesity and eventually an increase in crime and family breakdown’s. This multi billion pound industry already generates more revenue than both the film and music industries together. The most recent worldwide game launch saw people queuing for up to three days in Leicester Square to have a copy of “Call of Duty – black Ops” a violent war game where users battle against other worldwide users to whom they can speak to, swear at, and eventually kill or be killed, and the more confirmed kill you have the more medals you are awarded. However One positive is that some games involve the whole of the family in a fun interactive way, the Wii console (TM) specialise in family games that involve dancing, playing tennis and other active games where an inferred ray tracks your movement and you improve your score by for example in the dance game keeping your movements in time with onscreen characters and music. You are encouraged to set up your own profile where the game will then monitor the time you have spend and will actually remind you initially when you have been on for too long of even kick you out of the game completely. Sent from my iPad