Game Addiction in People - Research Paper Example

Parents should control their children’s online time Introduction Children become addicted as they spend most their time playing online game. Studies show that children spend about 15 hours in a week playing online games (The Economist 1). Addiction is a brain condition that makes it difficult to control what one does or uses. Parents are responsible for controlling the amount of time children spend playing online games in order to prevent addiction. It is crucial to note that addiction to online games has similar effects as other addictions such as drug addiction. Over the past decades, online games have changed due to technological advancements. The games are currently more entertaining due to advanced features added in them. This contributes to addiction which makes the game industry to grow very fast. Apart from addiction, online games have negative economic impacts because parents and teenagers spend their savings playing the games. It is difficult for some gamers, especially children to differentiate reality and cyber world. Study outcomes show that online games violence does not help in reducing real world problems as some people claim. 2. Reality life problem a. Most people are spending their entire day on gaming throughout the whole day. People are spending most of their time playing online games. Currently, studies show that a large percentage of children in the US play online games (Prot, McDonald, Anderson 2). They also show that young people play online games for about 2 hours a day. 25 percent of the young males spend about 4 hours playing online games (Prot, McDonald & Anderson 2). Children are the most affected because they make 79.9 percent of all the gamers globally (Fullerton, Taylor, Grande 1). b. People focus on the game world more than the realty world. Relationship with family is at risk As people spend their time playing online games, they start focusing more on the game and forget the real world. Most people play games in order to escape reality. Games are currently more advanced and interesting. Consequently, people use them as way of relaxing. Others also use them to pursue their passions. For instance, those who like football and have never had a chance to play it in real world gain satisfaction by playing virtual games. In addition, people can play games that require opponents in real world such as chess. They do not need their friends in the virtual world. This has reduced people’s level of interaction in the society. People do not have much interaction with their families because the online games have become their first priority. The situation destroys relationships between family members. c. People tend to bring problem from the gaming world to the real life. The virtual game world affects people’s real lives because gamers bring problems from the gaming world to real life. In the virtual game world, people do not care about how they act and do not worry about problems. They do not also care about how they act in the real world. For instance, they stop caring about other people because games create their own world for them. Such individual are less likely to help others in the society (Weinstein 269). In addition, some people, especially children may start practicing what they learn on games. For instance, they may start practicing violence and other deviant behaviors depending on the games they play. These problems occur because the games affect how people think. d. Most people do not make money out of their gaming jobs. Even though the game industry is growing at a faster pace, most people do not make a lot of money out of their gaming jobs. This is because they spend most of their time playing the games themselves. This hinders them from making more profits as expected. e. Constantly sitting and playing can cause health problem. Studies show that sitting constantly while playing games cause health problems. Many people make repetitive movements while playing games. This causes pain, especially when such movements are unfavorable. For instance, the movements can cause backaches when one sits in wrong position. Those addicted to games are more likely to get RSI in the wrist. In addition, sitting for a long period increases the risk of being obese because it reduces one’s physical activities. f. Possible radiation which might lead to hair lost. It is important to acknowledge that people staying on computers for a long time are exposed to radiations that many cause hair loss. Computers have Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) radiations which may affect the users’ health. It is worse if someone uses computers with Cathode Ray Tube (CRT). 3. Cyber world problem a. Recent psychology research show that aggression in cyber world does not act as an outlet for anger. Some people think that aggression in cyber world reduces violence in the real world because they help people let out their anger. However, recent studies show that aggression in cyber world leads to violence in the real world (Brunorg, Mentzoni & Froyland 28). Cyber world aggression stimulates anger and violence because it desensitizes violence. For instance, when one is playing a killing game, one gets killed and disappears if they are not violent. This means that the games reward violence. Some gamers especially children transfer the problem to real world. b. People in cyber world tend to more disrespectful to other gamers because they are hiding behind the computers. Gamers in cyber world bully each other because hiding behind computers gives them courage. Allowing children to spend most of their time in the cyber world exposes them to cyber bullying. During play, gamers usually harass each other in order to make others lose the game. This kind of bullying is referred to as “griefers”. The bullies try to annoy other gamers in order to distract them. Others threaten their opponents in order to make them give up playing. Such kind of bullying may lead to psychological problem such as anxiety and depression. In order to avoid such problems, parents should monitor the games their children play in order avoid the “griefers”. c. Social in gaming world cannot act as real life social friends Many people who are addicted to online games replace their real friends with their imaginary friends in the cyber world. The approach reduces their interaction with other people in the society. People in cyber world find it difficult to maintain close friendship with people in the real world. They fail to understand that games cannot act as real friends in social world. Real life friends help people develop effective social skills (Brunorg, Mentzoni & Froyland 28). In addition, real friends offer emotional support unlike the games. Relying on the cyber world hinders one’s abilities to deal with social problems. For instance, if a child does not interact with friends in the real world, he may experience anxiety when meeting new people. This may affect a child’s ability to interact with his workmates in his future work place. In addition, lack of emotional support makes one to develop depression. d. Most people tend to be more serious in game playing. Many people take the games seriously. As a result, they spend a lot of money on the games. Just like other forms of addiction, online games addiction forces people to spend their money on the games. Spending money on the games does not pay off because it has more negative impacts compared to benefits. 4. Similar drug addiction a. Loss of consciousness around the surround while playing One of the common signs that prove one is addicted to online games is lack of consciousness of what is going on around them while they are playing (Seah & Cairns 1). The process happens through immersion that is considered a winning strategy when playing games. In order to win, gamers believe that one has to get fully absorbed to the games. This makes them to lose awareness of the real world around them and other important things. Addiction is a health condition that leads to other serious health problems. b. Suffered withdrawal symptoms and had difficulties cutting back on their hobby. Online game addiction is similar to drug addiction. Its negative impacts are similar to those of drug addiction (Weinstein 269). For instance, just like those addicted to drugs, people addicted to online games suffer withdrawal symptoms. They also find it difficult to reduce the symptoms. One of the symptoms includes the empty feelings. One may feel like he is missing something after quitting the games. They may be angry about it. Most of them express anger through violent behaviors. Some children may cry excessively. This especially occurs if children are forced to quit playing the games by their parents. The other symptom includes interrupted sleeping patterns because they spend their time thinking about the game. Another symptom includes fantasizing about playing the games. This may hinder children from concentrating in class leading to poor performance. The other symptoms include anxiety and depression. Some children may start being lonely because they do not have friends and some become restless. If parent are not supportive, children may start playing the games again due to the difficulties in quitting. d. Autism spectrum disorders effect decrease the following: Autism is a health condition that increases a child’s risks of becoming addicted to online games. Study outcomes show that children with autism are more likely to spend more hours playing video games compared to those without autism. This is because of the various social problems that affect children with autism. i. Social Interaction Children with autism do not spend time with their friends because they have poor social interaction skills (Corett, Newsom & Key 2). They prefer playing online games because it does not require the skills. However, this worsens their social health conditions. The poor interaction skills are caused by poor social cognitive abilities. Social cognitive skills enable people to understand and respond to information when talking to other people. However, children with autism do not have the abilities. It hinders them from making and maintaining friends. The quality and quantity of the children’s social interact is usually very poor. Parents should reduce their reliance to online games. They should instead encourage them to makes friends in order to improve their social cognitive abilities. ii. Communication Autism hinders the children’s ability to communicate both verbally and non-verbally (Corett, Newsom & Key 2). Autism negatively affects the language development of children. The usually find it difficult to convey and understand information when communicating verbally and nonverbally with other people. Their voices are also impaired by the disorder. This also discourages them from making friends. Online games are the only things that interest them. The games hinder them from exercising their language skills. iii. Behavior and interest Autism also makes children to develop inappropriate behaviors and to lose interest easily. Their inappropriate behaviors are usually caused by their emotional impairment. They usually have mood swings and some of them always feel unhappy. Emotional impairment makes them to have poor relationship with other people. Some may develop violent behaviors if they play violent games. It is important for parents to interact more with such children while discouraging them from relying on online games. 5. Conclusion a. Online game are harmful to most of the teenagers Online games are harmful to children. They have negative impacts on their social, psychological, and physical health. Relying on online games hinders the children’s social development. For instance, constant playing of video games reduces children’s interaction with other people. Watching video games constantly makes children to develop violent behaviors because they glorify violence. In addition, spending more time playing online games leads to mental problems such as addiction. Addiction is a medical condition that leads to other psychological problems such as anxiety and depression. b. The outside world is much better than the cyber world. Parents should restrict the time spent by the children playing online games because the outside world is better than the cyber world. The real world enables children to develop effective social skills. In addition, it enables them to make quality friendship. This prevents them from having social problems such as loneliness and other emotional problems. c. Constant gaming without rest can cause damage to the body and even death. Children should stop playing online games constantly because repetitive physical movements damage their body. Online games addiction is also known to cause death because of the constant exposure to harmful radiations and physical injuries. Works Cited Brunorg, Geir. Mentzoni, Rune. & Froyland, Lars. Is Video gaming, or Video game addiction, associated with depression, academic achievement, heavy episodic drinking, or conduct problems. Journal of Behavioral Addiction. Vol 9 (1): 27-32. 2014. Web. 13 November 2014. Corett, Blythe, Newsom, Cassandra, Key Alexandra et al. Examining the relationship between face processing and social interaction behaviors in children with and without autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Vol 6: 35. 2014. Web. 13 November 2014. Fullerton, Simon, Taylor, Anne, Grande, Eleonora et al. Measuring physical inactivity: Do current measures provide an accurate view of sedentary Online game time? Journal of Obesity. 2014. Web. 13 November 2014. Prot, Sara, McDonald, Katelyn, Anderson, Craig. Et al. Online Games: Good, Bad, or Other? Department of Psychology. 2012. Web. 13 November 2014. Seah, May-li. & Cairns, Paul. From Immersion to addition in videogames. 2008. Web. 13 November 2014. The Economist. What makes video games addictive? The economist. 2014. Web. 13 November. 2014. Weinstein, Aviv. Computer and Video Game addiction- A Comparison between end users and Non-game users. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse. 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