Computer Addiction

Earlier today I was reading a blog http://netaddictionrecovery.blogspot.com/ that was talking about Pathological computer use. Which basically just describes obsessive computer usage as an addiction with all of the same symptoms. Symptoms like withdrawal. This got me to thinking that maybe the gaming addiction itself isn't the games themselves but the computer instead. Maybe the games are just a way to justify spending more time with the computer. The games give people goals and tasks to complete so that they don't feel poorly about spending hours at a time glued to their monitors. They can say to themselves "Hey I accomplished something." While it is easy to get lost surfing the web it is even easier to get lost in a mystical game world.

In our society today there are little ways to escape the Internets hold on us. It control and is part of so much of every ones daily lives. I personally spend 2 hours on the computer mandatory every day, if not more. I check email, read stories, visit blogs, play games, write papers and whatever else I need to do. The computer has become the new Swiss army knife and has some gadget for every last situation. I would like to say I could go without the computer for a year and be fine with it, but I don't really know how I would survive. How would I get my news? How would I entertain myself? How would I communicate? How would I write my papers?

I suppose I would have to begin watching television and reading the newspaper to get my news. To entertain myself I suppose I would have to get up and move.... but who wants to do that. To communicate I suppose I would have to write letters, which is something I rarely ever do, I occasionally send mail to relatives thanking them for gifts. Email is so much faster, easier, cheaper and better. The only thing you lack with email is the physical piece of paper and you can always just print out the email. As for writing papers I guess I would have to use a type writer... only problem with that is I make so many errors while typing by the time I was done I 'd have gone through fifty sheets of paper, which would hardly be helping the environment.

So after realizing all of that I have to admit that I don't think I could go without the computer, I just use it for too many things. It is also clear if I was forced I could find a way to make do. I think a lot of people are the same way. The computer has entered almost every ones life and is now a integral part of it. Anyone out there think they would want to try and manage a whole entire year without computers, living the life they are living?

There Could Be Worse Things

I was thinking today about all of the different addictions people have. Such as alcohol, tabacco, marijuana, cocain, caffine, painkillers, gambling and even sexual addictions. I put things into perspective, I realize that while gaming addiction harms friends, family and one self, there are worse things out there. Not to diminish from my cause here, but things really could be alot worse. At least with a gaming addiction a person is fairly well safe in the it own home and doesn't run the risk of killing themselves instantly with a overdose or a bad mix of drugs and or alcohol. None the less I fell there should be a greater sense at freeing people from their addictions, as the addictions themselves have no positive aspects to them.

WoW Detox

I thought I would make a post purely devoted to this site - http://www.wowdetox.com/. This is a site people post there stories of WoW addiction on. It is fairly interesting to read about how these people have destroyed or just saved aspects of their lives by quitting. There are also stories of people how can stop and want a way out. I encourage anyone reading this to follow the link and read a few of these peoples stories, as it will give you a far greater perspective on what I've been talking about for the past few weeks.

These people that are posting here have taken the first step to quitting, they have admitted there is a problem, most people wont even do that. It sounds silly to say really, " I'm addicted to a computer game." I don't really no how much a site like this helps people considering there are 27670 posts today and currently 10 million people playing the game. That's not to say that everyone who plays is addicted, in fact its quite the opposite. What is true is the fact that many people are addicted, don't realize it and need help. At least this is a step in the right direction.

More Evidence

This morning as i was combing over some of my regular sites I happened across a link to the TechNewsWorld site. The article that I was referred to talks in depth about the effects of video game addiction and refers to a real story about a 11 year old boy named William. It talks about his transition to becoming addicted and doing anything he possibly could to continue playing the games. It talks of the violent out bursts he would have when he was denied access to games, such as hitting his mother during tantrums. He also at one point pushed his elderly grandmother down a flight of stairs.

I think Children are the most susceptible to video gaming addiction because they lack willpower. They often see nothing wrong with playing games all day and skipping school. The article states that the main reason for the addiction to occur is the reward based nature of the games. This mirrors what I hav said in previous posts, in these game worlds it becomes easy to accomplish monumental goals, ones that cannot be achieved by going to school or playing a game of basketball. In many of these games you have something to show for playing hours on end. Xbox 360 is a perfect example of this, every game they have for that console has something called achievements. They special goals that are often difficult to complete, but make the games that much more rewarding. So instead of just having the drive to beat the game, they have now introduced something that keep players coming back for more once they have beat it. These goals can be as simple as completing the game on a harder difficulty or as complex as figuring out a pattern of jumping through hoops to unlock a item.