Addiction to video games is a growing concern, reports U.S. News.
Concern is spreading among parents and mental-health professionals that the exploding popularity of computer and video games has a deeper dark side than simple couch-potatohood. . . . Studies show that 92 percent of children under age 18 play regularly.According to the Media Research Lab at Iowa State University, about 8.5 percent of 8-to-18-year-old gamers can be considered pathologically addicted, and nearly one quarter of young people — more males than females — admit they’ve felt addicted.
Little wonder: In February, a team at Stanford University School of Medicine showed that areas of the brain responsible for generating feelings of addiction and reward are activated during game play.
The founder of On-Line Gamers Anonymous says the games are “turning their brains to mush.”
Haven’t we been hearing these warnings for the last 20 years? Of course, some would say gamers’ brains have turned to mush.
Parents can start the mush process while their babies are still eating mush, notes Robert Pondiscio on Core Knowledge Blog.
Arguably, a majority of Americans’ brains already are mush, but I’d be inclined to blame airheaded TV shows rather than video games. Can’t write any more now; have to try to beat level 22 before Wheel of Fortune comes on.
I’d say that it has less to do with video-game usage and more to do with the lack of time spent reading or other cognitively-demanding tasks.
Pleeeese. Video games are mentally challenging. They’re the equivilant of a game of chess, bridge, monopoly, or risk. They may not be as mentally demanding as reading Shakespeare or doing algebra for fun, but they demand logic skill, hand eye corrdination, and strategic thinking. If you don’t believe me just read Enders Game.
Well, as habits go, it’s better than smoking. And I’ll tell ya, some of my daughter’s Wii games are fantastic. I haven’t got time to get addicted to them, and fortunately, she doesn’t either.
I wonder if we parents complain so bitterly about video games simply because we never had toys that cool when we were growing up.
I would rather work with kids who play video games than with kids who hang out in gangs. Both are highly social activities for kids, although adults often don’t realize that online multi-player games and games played with multiple players on a single console are the most popular ones.
People tend to lament the effect that things that are “new” will have on youth. My great grandmother used to tell me that her mother was afraid of the impact that reading novels would have on her! That was in the 1890’s.
On-Line Gamers Anon. is an organization chock-full of people with addictive personalities. Of course they’re seeing people who’ve had their brains turned to mush by gaming. Of course, if those people hadn’t had gaming they likely would have had some other addiction that was turning the brain and others organs into mush.
I’m not buying the ‘blame the video games’ thing anymore then when people blamed comic books, TV or *gasp* novels.