Video Game Addiction

The article:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/03/health/webmd/main1773956.shtml

My thoughts:

This article discusses video game addiction and the fact that it is as serious as other forms of addiction such as alcohol addiction and drug addiction. Although the article mainly discusses video game addiction in the US, it is also rampant in other parts of the world, especially Singapore. Walking into a classroom in any Singaporean school during recess, one would easily be able to find students playing handphone games; this is but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to video game addiction.

The article goes on to define addiction as something that causes a person to "[need] more and more of a substance or behavior to keep him going" or something that causes a person to "[become] irritable and miserable" if he "does not get more of the substance or behavior". This shows that video game addiction, which can cause both of those things, is as serious as other forms of addiction. I strongly agree with this - video game addiction is not something that should be taken lightly or overlooked. If left unchecked, video game addiction can result in a great setback in terms of normal social development. Keith Bakker reinforces this point by saying, "You can get a 21-year-old with the emotional intelligence of a 12-year-old. He’s never learned to talk to girls. He’s never learned to play a sport".

Further on in the article, the author discusses the psychological factor of video game addiction. The player, who in real life is often very intelligent but not very social, often uses the video game as a form of escape from real life, as he can "become dominant in the game", as Kimberly Young says. In such cases, the player's parents should take him or her for psychiatric help, so as to prevent furhter addiction, and to help the player to become more social with his or her peers.

The article ends off by saying that video game players have to learn how to use computers responsibly, which means that they should not be playing computer games. Additionally, Bakker says that "the key... is to show gamers they are powerless over their addiction, and then teach them 'real-life excitement as opposed to online excitement'". I believe that this statement is quite valid, as when a gamer experiences real-life excitement, he may find that it is more exciting than online excitement, and take a turn for the better.

In conclusion, I think this article presents us with a very realistic situation - that we cannot treat video game addiciton as something less serious than other forms of addiction. We must combat this problem as soon as we detect it. If not, the gamer's future is bleak indeed.