Not all that long ago, I had posted a similar topic in the Lounge about possible forum addictions across the internet. I have been secretly kicking myself ever since for not realizing a good point of discussion could be used for this board based on all the game related responses that thread had received.
Obviously, there are some strong opinions about the amount of time that could be considered acceptable for the average player, and what is considered just too much time spent to deny that an addiction is at hand.
How much time is just too much for gaming? What types of games encourage the addictions? Do you even feel an addiction to games is a relevant trend taking place today?
As more and more of the population spend their free time playing video games, and more long lasting demographic barriers are shattered, the more paramount in importance this topic may be.
Thoughts?
I often find the phrase “video game addiction” is misused, in the sense that individuals are improperly labeled video game addicts and demeaned for taking enjoyment in a viable pastime simply because the audience hasn’t grown to encompass a larger demographic (read: older folks). The term is thrown around in such a way that it targets the entire video gaming public – much in the same way that all rock and roll musicians were labeled devil worshipers and blasphemers in a time when the genre was new and misunderstood.
Take television and the internet for example; both are considered acceptable sources of entertainment and education. However, shortly after its inception television was thought to be an indulgence of the sedate that was highly addictive and would cause everything from weight gain to innumerable psychological disorders, due to the fact that it required the viewer to sit down for long periods of time and make large emotional investments in fictional characters.
Ironically, reading, an acceptable form of entertainment prior to watching television required almost the same level of on-rear commitment as the boob-tube. It also required an emotional investment, an arguably more intimate one.
The internet was pegged as the metaphoric dive-bar of the modern world, occupied by self-serving perverts who did nothing but search for nude pictures of Kathy Ireland all day; shady characters whose sole purpose in life was to rob the innocent of their hard-earned dollar through the cunning use of "hacking;" and socially inept, psychologically disturbed hermits whose only intention in using the internet was to act out their psychopathic fantasies on message boards and chat rooms web wide.
As television became more accessible and more commonplace the sentiment faded and it became completely acceptable to spend the majority of your week watching your favorite programming. And the internet? Well, everyone’s image of the internet user has changed. Now, instead of sallow faced perverts, digital thieves and murderous fantasists, we see the faces of grandmothers and ten-year-olds; everyone from the highest paid individuals in the modern world to individuals barely making ends meet - who still find staying “connected” is a necessary commodity and always budget so that their ISP's are paid on time every month.
These former "addictions" have been graciously assimilated into our lifestyles and as such they’re no longer approached with the same cynicism as video games are today. It’s completely acceptable to sit on your ass and watch copious amounts of television these days, even if the time you spend in front of the television could be considered physically unhealthy, with channels like TLC, The History Channel, Discovery, The Science Channel and 24 hour News broadcasting, it’s very hard for anyone to fault you for it. We all watch television; it’s a pastime of the individual and the family, a monument of the home.
And as we well know, the internet has become the backbone of mainstream society. This is no longer the information age, this is the information eon, and sitting in front of a computer screen for the majority of your day is not only acceptable, it’s almost a requirement of our generation. Whether you're a pre-teen or a retiree, your life is attached to the web.
Video games are entertainment, and like the television and internet, they’re a platform to help educate and sharpen minds. The simple fact is that outside the current demographic, video games are considered an unnecessary evil and until that demographic expands, and I believe it will, spending four or five hours a day with a controller in your hand, or a keyboard at your fingertips, is going to be far less acceptable than spending the same amount of time watching your favorite shows or news broadcasts, or spending your day searching the far reaches of digital space...or curling up with your favorite book.
Are video games addictive? Of course they are, but so is reading, watching television, knitting, baking pies and having sex. Anything that we find enjoyable and seek to do at an extent that is physically and mentally unhealthy is an addiction.
Gaming is no more addictive than any other form of entertainment, it’s only labeled as such because the demographic is smaller and more contained and those outside it are also outside the realm of understanding and therefore prone to pointing fingers and making judgments. And my opinion is that as that demographic grows the issue will actually become less of an issue. Like television and the internet, the more it becomes acceptable, the less reason folks will have to view it in a negative context. Can you think of the last person who told you watching TV was bad for you? Or that the internet was "evil?" I bet if someone said those very same things today the majority of the population would view them as out-of-touch, leftovers from another generation - yet they were saying the very same thing decades ago and folks were listening and taking their side.
