Posts filed under 'Problems'
Tony Long at the venerable Wired tackled the issue of video game addiction today. The topic ain’t dead.
But the article strikes me as a little naïve. Saying that “the answer lies in education, enlightenment and—in the case of video games, at least—a little physical and mental exertion” is all well and good, but will a visit to the batting cage and a trip to Carneigie Hall really do the trick?
It’s sort of like yelling “eat less” at people with overeating disorders. Sure, that’s where they need to go, but they can’t just do it in one step.
Tony’s right, though, that video games are problems for different people to the degree that they’re problems for different people. Some people’s lives are being ruined or damaged with (not by) video games.
If you know you have a problem, seek help. If you know someone who has a problem, intervene. I am trilled that people are talking about video game addiction as a real (if unclassified) problem, rather than using “addictive” as a marketing slogan.
But I shudder when I hear people talking about further regulation. The rating system is enough. Let’s not forget what Prohibition got us!
July 5th, 2007
The good folks at the University of Michigan (publishing in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine) have revealed the amazing fact that playing video games can cut down on homework time. You can find more readable summaries on almost every news web site out there (here’s one at random), although they tend to put spin and interpretation on the story.
The fact that video games interfere with homework is not news. Everyone knows there are lots of people who play too much and don’t get real-life things done.
While I think kids who read 30% less than they would otherwise are missing out, I’m not too worried about kids taking time away from homework to do some modest gameplay. Evidence abounds that kids today have too much homework (as well as too many structured activities thrust upon them by parents who want to overachieve through them and make up for being uninvolved). In fact, not too long ago NPR hosted a four-part series on the topic!
In the end, the study is horribly flawed. Using surveys from about 1,500 kids (not a bad number), it examines time spent on one weekday and one weekend day, which is simply not enough information to go on. Some folks cram all their homework into a quarter of the time and still get good grades. And we all know that getting good grades on homework correlates only poorly to actual intelligence, learning, and life preparedness—key things that the study didn’t examine at all.
It wouldn’t be even a little bit surprising to find that, on average, gamers actually perform better in school, on intelligence tests, and in life.
I’m certainly not advocating for an “unschooling” approach, allowing kids to play video games for eighteen hours a day if they’re so inclined. Good parent—and kids themselves, for that matter—know when video game playing is interfering with other parts of life. By all means, take steps to make sure that doesn’t happen! Set limits if necessary.
But don’t discount even entertainment-oriented video games as stellar learning tools, either. Passion for anything challenging is a passion for learning.
July 3rd, 2007
For the past several weeks, lots of stories concerning video game addiction have come out, in part because the American Medical Association has been chattering about it, trying to come to a conclusion on whether video games can properly be classified as addictive.
As a passionate gamer, I’ll ring in with my opinion. By the popular definition of “addiction,” I think it’s safe to say that some people do get addicted to video games, MMORPGs in particular. At least, many people play them compulsively, to the point that they ignore other important aspects of their life.
I know this because I have acquaintances who do this and friends who do this, and because I’ve done it myself. In fact, MMOs are specifically designed to entertain with a system of reinforcement and punishment that fosters addictive or at least compulsive behavior. Such games are certainly more worthwhile than slot machines—they have social dimensions and narrative richness and cost a lot less. But the lower cost actually means that people sink more time into leveling their characters or questing for gear than they’d ever do feeding slugs into a one-armed bandit.
Whether or not this behavior is properly defined as a psychiatric addiction is, to me, irrelevant. The fact is that it can mess up people’s lives.
So can alcohol, of course.
In fact, I think treating video game addiction like alcoholism is probably the best approach. We don’t need to outlaw or even further regulate video games, but we do need to watch ourselves and those close to us for signs of problem behavior. Let’s be honest with ourselves, seek help when we need it, and help others when they’re in need.
So even though I think the AMA and the media mostly say pretty silly things about video games and addiction, I’m very glad people are talking about it!
Do we have any other ex-addicts out there? If so, how did you break your addiction?
And hey, if you think you have a problem and don’t know where to turn, you can speak up here safely and anonymously. There are tried-and-true methods that work, and we can talk about them.
June 27th, 2007
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