HANDBOOK #10

10) Game Addiction

Ever since the creation of the very first video game - a tennis game on an oscillator - humanity has suffered a very serious issue: children just can’t seem to unglue themselves from video games. Unfortunately, the situation has become more serious than ever due to the fact that nowadays, more and more games are being developed and available, meaning that there are lots of options that we can choose. If left unchecked and uncontrolled, this can easily turn into an addiction, which can greatly affect their academics and physical/mental health (Eagle Ranch Academy, 2019). So what do we do? Or, more precisely, what can we do?

Definition

Addiction is a persistent psychological pattern where an individual overly engages in a specific activity despite being aware of its harmful consequences. In this case, it is video games - the urge to sit in front of a screen and do nothing but play, for hours and hours on end.

Causes

People possess a proclivity to be unfulfilled with their current lives, hence game addiction is often a way for people to get away from reality, from the stress that they typically face in their lives.

• Relieve stress from everyday activities: school, work, etc. 

• Peer pressure from friends, relatives or people online to play certain video games, to “catch up with the world” on the new trends or fads instead of “living under the rock”.

• Or, it could simply be due to the vast accessibility one has to the world of the Internet, where accessing quite anything is only a few clicks away.

Consequences

Needless to say, an excessive dose of video games have a devastating impact on your school life.

• Poor Performance In Classes: When your head is always clouded over with games, it leaves little space for academic information to stuff in, therefore your learning goes downhill. According to one study, those saying they did play video games had significantly lower GPAs than students who didn’t (Wright, 2011).

• Poor Time Management: When being addicted to games, our time is almost always majorly devoted to your video game, whether you recognize it or not. For example, you give yourself 2 hours to complete an assignment. But say, you get distracted by a game, and only when you realize it there’s 15 minutes left. And you end up completing an assignment that’s supposed to be done in 2 hours in 15 minutes, and the work you turn in is of poor quality and effort. No matter how hard or sincerely you worked during that 15 minutes, it can never compensate for the 1 hour and 45 minutes you have wasted - which is completely preventable.

• False Sense Of Social Interaction:  Being addicted to games would end up bringing a lot of problems into the picture, especially in your social life. The actual social interaction, the one with actual face-to-face people, is often neglected when people “withdraw from society” to play video games. When you play a multiplayer online game with other players, you may think yourself a very social creature to interact with so many people and have fun doing so, all the while shut inside your room with the door closed, curtains shut, lights off, a can of Monster Energy by your tableside, and your eyes glued to League of Legends. This may very well lead to a sort of “recluse” lifestyle, where development of negative psychological and physical conditions are very likely. Stress, social anxiety, sleep disorders and instability are all likely disorders that you may root from a video game addiction. Not to mention the physical health problems such as eye strain, vision problems, poor posture and nutritional issues. Of course, you have to be seriously addicted for these symptoms to take their full brunt on you, but the worst case scenario is never really too far away…

Solutions

So what are some of the solutions that one can implement to free oneself from addiction, or to not fall into it? 

• Seek help from family and friends: The scariest part about an addiction is that you know for sure it’s harmful for you, but you just can’t yank yourself away from it. That is precisely why outside help is an utmost important factor. Engagement from others who actively try to help you is crucial.