Video Games, Harmless Fun or Dangerous Addicton?
By Troy L Parrish, MA LCPC
Video Game Addiction or Just Harmless Fun?
I can remember traveling to the arcade to spend a number of quarters on arcade games when I was a teen. You could even leave your initials on machines that you had the high score for that machine. These of course were the earliest versions of video games outside of Atari that would play Pong or Breakout on your TV. Of course the boring nature of Pong and Breakout and money and time it took to go to the arcade would limit the use of these video games. With game systems becoming readily available and the graphics and complexity of the games continuing to improve, these old games of my youth are simple, not overly engaging games by comparison. Obviously, the problem becomes the very engaging nature of the games and the appeal they have, particularly for boys. The ease of playing the thing in your home without any natural constraints on the behavior causes concern for many parents, and even the mental health and medical community.
Recent meetings of the American Medical Association have seen discussions concerning the potential of video game addiction as a legitimate diagnosis, and clinics have begun to provide services tailored to video game addicts. There are a number of self help groups for those that believe themselves to be addicted and there are more than a few wives and parents that have complained about excessive gaming. Each year a whopping $13.9 billion is spent worldwide $10 billion on video games1 demonstrating that the play of video games is big business and that more than a few people are playing these game. There are entire online communities built around games which ultimately involve tens of thousands of players. While these facts can be alarming, you as a parent are concerned about two things primarily.
Your first concern involves the nature of video games and the potential harm they may cause your child.
Research into the effects of media and attitudes and violence are well documented. There are undeniable links between viewing aggression and violence on TV and violence exhibited by children. “Hundreds of studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may:
Extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness.”2 While TV executives will be quick to claim that TV does not really influence behavior, they are just as quick to sell expensive advertising assuring their advertisers that advertising on TV is effective. Research into the effects of video games has not seen a lot of attention as of yet, but that appears to be changing. There is bound to be more research and it will not be a real surprise to find that video games effect children much in the same way TV does. Check out the link to this article to see one research project that found just that type of link between game violence and attitude changes Video Game Violence Changes Attitudes in the Real World. (http://pub.ucsf.edu/today/cache/feature/200608312.html). Additional concerns involve the development of attention span, tolerance levels, and even issues such as eye strain and posture and repetitive movement disorders associated with posture, prolonged and excessive use of keyboards and controllers and exposure to stimuli while the brain is in the process of wiring itself. Consider the results of a recent study: “It turns out that all that time spent playing make-believe actually helped children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a number of different elements, but a central one is the ability to self-regulate. Kids with good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline. We know that children’s capacity for self-regulation has diminished. A recent study replicated a study of self-regulation first done in the late 1940s, in which psychological researchers asked kids ages 3, 5 and 7 to do a number of exercises. One of those exercises included standing perfectly still without moving. The 3-year-olds couldn't stand still at all, the 5-year-olds could do it for about three minutes, and the 7-year-olds could stand pretty much as long as the researchers asked. In 2001, researchers repeated this experiment. But, psychologist Elena Bodrova at the National Institute for Early Education Research says, the results were very different.
‘Today's 5-year-olds were acting at the level of 3-year-olds 60 years ago, and today's 7-year-olds were barely approaching the level of a 5-year-old 60 years ago, ’Bodrova explains ’So the results were very sad.’ Sad because self-regulation is incredibly important. Poor executive function is associated with high dropout rates, drug use and crime. In fact, good executive function is a better predictor of success in school than a child's IQ.”3 What is important to note is that video gaming is not this unstructured, imaginative play the researchers were referencing. In contrast, children’s toys of today provide an immense amount of detail that was, at one time, only supplied by our imagination. It appears to be common sense that too much video game time can be harmful in a number of ways. The loss of real social interaction and the benefits this brings, the lack of physical activity, the potential repetitive movement problems and eye strain, as well as attitudinal changes all represent real dangers associated with game play. It seems fairly probable that while the research is not there yet, it will be.
There have been some recent articles suggesting that video gaming can actually be beneficial. “In fact, the skills needed to succeed in gaming can often help young people to be more sociable, develop strategic thinking, and become better leaders in life, according to the book The Kids are Alright: How the Gamer Generation Is Changing the Workplace. The authors, John Beck and Mitchell Wade, say games require use of various mental and social skills, often simultaneously. In a survey to find out whether the experience of gaming, and growing up surrounded by games, changes attitudes, expectations, and abilities related to business, ’the answer is a resounding yes,’ they say.”4 Of course, these same individuals could get some of the same benefits from other social activities as team building exercises have done for decades before. In addition, any technical skill that is derived from gaming can be had in other forms. In his excellent book Preparing Sons, Steven Maxwell notes that several of his boys developed excellent computer skills by working on real world computer problems rather than spending time playing games. You can read the review on this book by going to the archives page.
Your second concern stems from the answer to your first concern, that is, how much video gaming is excessive, or too much. This question is more difficult to answer. Is one hour a week the upper limit, how about an hour a day? When does a child begin to demonstrate the negative effects of game playing? Part of the difficulty lies in the fact that every child is different and that some children will show greater tolerance for game playing without negative effects than others.
“Does your child:
If the answer is "yes" to more than four of these questions, then your child may be playing too much.”5
The amount of time on certain games may be more of a concern than others. Some games that have an educational purpose clearly are not going to be as much of a concern as a game saturated in violence. But then again, I have yet to see any of my children just aching to spend more time playing an educational game on the game console or computer. There is no arbitrary set time to say that is enough and beyond that point is too much. It really is important that you monitor your child’s attitudes and behavior surrounding his time playing video games and determine from your observations of your child whether they are spending too much time or not. Toddlers simply should not be playing video games, there is too much neurological development occurring to plant your child in front of a screen. Younger children should be limited as their attitudes and values are forming and while teens are more mature there will still need to be the observation of their attitudes and behaviors to manage their gaming time. While some video game time is most likely not harmful, it is evident that you can certainly over do it. Again, common sense would suggest to us that less is better than more, and if you are concerned about the time your son is playing a computer game, you will not harm him by giving him some other activity to do and you will most likely be doing him a favor.
But are boys more prone to being drawn by video games than girls. Folk wisdom (if there is such a thing for video games) would indicate that indeed boys are far more attracted to video games than girls. A recent research study at Stanford University showed that when males and females are playing video games the region of the brain associated with pleasure is far more active in males than if females.6 Consequently, while the saying goes, “ it is all in your head” in this case it may be literally true. Other brain imaging technologies show that the brains of addicted individuals demonstrate far more activity when exposed to their addiction that those who are not addicted, suggesting a biological component to just about every addiction. At its base, pleasurable activities are things we are going to want to repeat. If males find that their brains reward them with pleasure when they play video games, they are going to want to repeat that behavior. And with the immediacy and intensity of today’s games, the drive to want to play can become intense, for boys in particular.
Does this intensity lead to addiction? While the majority of individuals that play computer or video games will not become addicted, it is beginning to look like there are is segment of society that will become addicted to computer games. While the American Medical Association is not ready to declare video game addiction a true medical condition (due to insufficient research)7 , the fact that such a prestigious organization would take up such a topic and that there are treatment facilities springing up to deal with video game addiction, it evident that there are people who take the issue of video addiction seriously. There are undoubtedly tales of individuals who have compromised their jobs and their families for their gaming. ( Read about one man’s struggle with his excessive gaming and its consequences: http://www.news.com/2100-1040-881673.html) Also read a Q and A session in which people ask questions concerning getting help for their loved ones being seriously impacted by video games: http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/teens/gameaddiction.html. There is much about excessive gaming that looks like addiction, what is lacking is the evidence of a physiological basis in order for it to be declared a true addiction from a medical point of view. Despite this quibbling over nomenclature; excessive gaming can have devastating consequences, including one mother who blames gaming for her son’s eventual suicide (http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=31536). You can read about video game detox here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/03/health/webmd/main1773956.shtml.
While most games are contained in the game console or the computer, the advent of online gaming has created what is seemingly the most addictive type of video game. With these games, you typically invest long hours developing a character or characters with special abilities as well as equipment. To achieve high levels in these games represent significant investments of time and energy, not only completing the required tasks but also hours investigating how to achieve these tasks. By far, when reading about video game addiction and those who believe themselves or their loved one’s addicted, it usually involves these types of games. Other games that allow multiple players in LAN or Local Area Network parties where individuals hook computers together in order to play together represents the second most engaging type of games. But the differences are obvious, you must coordinate with other and physically be in the same place to play, making this a little more difficult to do every day for hours a day. As games get more interactive and more global, the potential for addiction seems to be rising. What can you do if you believe you or your child or love one is addicted? Here some help:
National Institute on Media and the Family
Taming the Video Game Tiger
http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/tips_tamevideogames.shtml
McLean Hospital
115 Mill Street
Belmont, MA 02478
Phone: 617-855-2908
Email: Orzack@ComputerAddiction.com
Call or write for a local referral
http://www.netaddiction.com/articles/symptoms.htm#
Lists of resources and helps for a variety of online addictive behaviors
Unfortunately, there are still few resources available for this problem, but as it continues to receive attention, there will be a growing number of helps available. The surest way to deal with such a problem is to work to prevent it to begin with. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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