The Negative Effects Of Video Games Addiction

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Video games have completely changed childhoods of many children across the globe. A video game involves visual feedback from a TV or computer monitor. Ever since the 1970s, video games have continuously improved by improving the graphics and sound. During the 1970s, there were many arcade games that were not advanced compared to today’s games. By 2016, video games are produced in three-dimensional imaging and are incredibly realistic. For example, Madden 2016 is a football game based on all the athletes in the National Football League. The graphics from Madden 2000 to Madden 2016, have improved drastically due to technology. Therefore, video game creators make billons of dollars by selling them to individuals across the world. However, there …show more content…

As a result, it raises the question whether playing video games excessively is an addiction or not. There are arguments that are made that correlate addiction with video games; however, there is no such addiction. There is no such addiction due to external issues, personal issues and flawed case studies. According to Aviv Weinstein (2010), from the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, “Computer game addiction is excessive or compulsive use of computer and video games that may interfere with daily life” (p. 1). A survey done to measure the negative relationship between video games and addiction involved kids from the age of 13 to 17 (Brunborg, G. S., Mentzoni, R. A., & Frøyland, L. R., 2014). To no surprise, there was a relationship between depression, low academic achievement, conduct problems …show more content…

As a result, multiple case studies have been developed to understand what video games do to the brain and what it does to individuals. However, that has not changed the fact that video game addiction is not currently listed as a disorder of the mind or body (Wood, 2007, p.169). According to Richard Wood (2007), this concept is supported by the media, parental concerns, and some profile cases of people who obviously play too much video games. Richard Wood (2007) analyzed multiple case studies to find that the criteria used to measure video games and addiction in some of them was pathological gambling screens. For instance, there are huge differences between gambling and video game playing (Wood, 2007, p. 170). Gambling involves wagering a certain amount of money to win more of it. However, when the subject continues to lose, that person bets even more and it begins to lead into debt and stress (Wood, 2007, p.170). On the other hand, video games do not involve money and is different from gambling. Hypothetically, if there were money involved in the game, than it would automatically be deemed gambling. Wood also has a difficult time interpreting how excitement of video games can be increased, like gambling. Another issue arises when using the Addiction-Engagement Questionnaire that concludes an overestimation of prevalence (Wood, 2007, p. 170).

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