Addiction

During the lecture on Wednesday, I was reminded of how I'm frequently told that I'm a smartphone addict. Some of the main reasons I use the phone so much are, 1. facebook, 2. whatsapp/kakaotalk/skype (especially useful when I have no credit left on my phone as the apps allow instant texting or calling for free), 3. calling, 4. listening to music, and 5. other helpful applications such as Car navigation or the guitar tuner app.
But when people complain that I seem "addicted" to my phone, they don't seem to try and understand that I am not addicted to my phone but to connecting with friends/family or I just like carrying it around because it's handy. I remember my dad saying something last week along the lines of 'Your like a drug addict with your phone, you can't seem to live without having it on you 24/7'. I totally agree with Rob Cover in that new technology in general seems to be viewed negatively. What my dad does not seem to get is the fact that the phone is just a means to an end.
Games, I think, have a similar case. People may play games because it is a means to end boredom or to hang out with friends. I know that I reach for a casual game or two when I have nothing to do or if I'm bored waiting somewhere. I don't care about the game itself, I just want to pass the time as quickly as possible and casual games faciliate this well. As mentioned in the lecture, with casual games, it's hard to lose track of time due to the bite sized interactions that seem insignificant but wind up being a long, long chain. I remember almost everyone on my old high school bus played that the old game of Snakes on those blue Nokias. And, I remember playing Sims as a last resort if there was nothing to do. (The thing with Sims was that of the world-of-concern. You invest a lot of time into building your dream house for your family to live in and you further invest time into giving your family skills such as cooking skills so that they don't burn themselves to death in the kitchen. Buliding up such skills take quite some time and you don't want to let your imaginary Sim family down and thus you become 'addicted' and stay in that environment you've created for the benefit of that family).
Overall, it really is the wider social context that should be considered before labelling people as addicts of videogames or other technological things. Before using the term 'addiction' so easily, we should look at the larger picture of the society and of the supposedly 'addicted' individual him/herself. Concentrating on why and how they are playing videogames may be a better idea if people want to reduce their 'problematic use' of games.