Is Gaming Addictive?

I decided to concentrate on the mainstream debate of addiction surrounding video games. This topic really interests me because I not only knew someone who was so addicted they attended “Gamers Anonymous,” but I am interested in the arguments surrounding this topic.

In the book, Handbook of Computer Game Studies, the authors of chapter 23, Mark Griffiths and Mark N. O. Davies, expressed that, “the concept of “video game addiction” has caught some “knee-jerk skepticism” within the academic community.” Throughout the chapter we see how many studies and polls were taken in regards to the amount of time adolescents spent gaming. However, these tests needed further and more extensive research done to prove anything. And actually this was the case for most of the information that was presented. There was barely enough concrete information that could 100% prove that gaming is an addiction. Now, one could conclude that gamers show additive behavior when playing games but at the same time the percent of people who actually show this type of behavior is quite slim.

The question of, “What are people addicted to?” is a very important question and a very interesting one as well. This has led to much debate (360). Young made a claim that Internet addiction in a broad term that covers a wide variety of behaviors and impulse control problems. He categorized them through five specific subtypes and the most notable one was “computer game addition: that includes obsessive computer game playing (e.g. Doom, Myst, Solitaire, etc.) (361). Countering this claim, Griffiths argued that many of these excessive users are not “Internet addicts” but just use the Internet excessively as a medium to fuel other addictions (360). In contrast to this however, “Young reports of individuals who appear to be addicted to the Internet itself.“ “These individuals to some extent are engages in text based virtual realities and take on other social personas and social identities as a way of making themselves feel good about them selves” (361). Through this last paragraph you can see how much contradiction was taking place. Every time the authors would make a point they were quick to follow it with another study that dispelled anything previously said.

My thought on video game addiction is that it does exist. Now, as stated before this is not a high percentage of people this applies to, but people do get addicted. We as humans have addictive behavior we cannot deny that. So therefore, if there is something in our lives that we enjoy doing and even may make us feel “high” doing, chances are we are going to keep doing it. I see video game addiction just as I see an alcoholic addicted to booze. It makes them feel good; they are able to escape from reality, so they keep doing it. Gamers and Alcoholics or any other addiction people may have go hand in hand.