“Millions have been infected. The disease only keeps spreading and spreading… Who will save us now? There is no cure, there is no hope, no life no friends no girlfriend. No future. No tomorrow, only games, games, GAMES!”
Game addiction is not uncommon but are video games controlling the way people live their lives? It could be said that people who sit inside playing video games are more at risk of becoming obese, suffering from depression and having limited social skills than those who don’t. But is this true? Or is it just a stereotype that has been associated with the term Gamer?
According to psychotherapist Shavaun Scott, a video game addict has two lives, one being their primary one (reality) and the other being their secondary (virtual). So what is Game addiction and is it affecting people’s futures? In my opinion their really is no simple answer to this. It could be argued that children and adults alike who spend more time playing online games than interacting with others can be seen as neglecting their responsibilities of their primary life to accommodate the ones in their secondary life. This can be seen as affecting not only themselves but those around them as well. Cutting themselves off from friends and families and relying on their virtual world for happiness can be seen as a trigger for depression and anger problems. On the other hand however video games might not result in these problems at all. I believe that the terms we have grown the associate with gamers are just stereotypes which we have come to believe are true. Words such as nerd, creepy, smelly, dork, skipping school and lazy, all spring to mind when the word gamer comes up. But this is not true. Well not in my opinion. I have many friends who obsess over playing video games but aren’t nerds or dorks and never skipped school (well not often anyway) and they still have time for a social life and are able to interact with family and friends perfectly fine, yes they may spend waaaay too much time sitting around their computer and talk waaaay too much about the games they play but this isn’t affecting the way they live their lives. I think the point I’m trying to make here is that although it is possible in some cases -but not all- for a person to become trapped in a fantasy world, it is not going to drastically affect a persons’ life unless they never leave their computer and die of starvation.
Rebecca J
It's an interesting discussion, and we have a whole lecture about discourses of addiction later on.
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