Reading 06

 

                                                            Image Source:  Gaming Addiction

For this weeks reading task I wrote about the themes I found.

Personal life

I never really knew how bad gaming addictions can be in someone’s life before reading this article. Without no knowledge I some people would think that people who have gaming addictions are just people who like to play games all day long and not to something else with their time. But after reading this article I know that backstory to peoples gaming addictions has a deeper meaning. While I was researching, I found an interesting article that gave a lot of statistical information in relation to gaming. One piece of information that really stuck out to me was 'In light of the latest conceptual and diagnostic advances in the field, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) included ‘Internet Gaming Disorder’ (IGD) in the fifth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5)'. It was quite surprising that a gaming addiction could be so bad that it has been seen as a mental disorder and has been put in a mental disorder Manuel. Reading this information gave me a new insight of how important it is to take gaming addictions seriously. As it can cause things like 'loss of interest in previous hobbies and pastime activities', 'the need to spend increasing amounts of time gaming, and deceiving family members, therapists, or others regarding the amount the amount of gaming.

Physical effects 

The harmful effects of gaming on the body are almost as worse or even worse than the effects on the mind. Some gamers could spend 3 to 6 hours playing a game every day, and sooner or later it can have a toil on the body. For example, research shows that staring at the device you are playing for long periods of time can cause eye strain because our eyes cannot stand heavy viewing of digital images. And if make a habitat of it over an extended period you will start to have headaches, dizziness and sometimes nausea and vomiting. These types of harmful effects only happen to people who don’t know how to manage their time in how long they should play a game for, and it happens to people who don’t have tolerance and are too invested in a game maybe because of friends, gaming culture or social media. I strongly agree that some people can put themselves in harmful situations because of their surroundings and people who they idol.

Addiction

Getting addicted to games is easy in real time Massive Multiplayer Online strategy games. Gamers can organize teams, develop their skills, and play for some type of status in the game. And in these types of games competition is a key aspect. People who play online may play with their friends or with random people who are on the game server. And one thing most people want is to be the best or to just be good in the game, some people would be willing to spend a good number of hours a day to try and be good or to maintain their status. Essentially people could be become game addicts because of friend groups or because of social media. Of course, some people can be addicted to games because it’s a good game but for others it’s the competition amongst other people that drives their game addiction. But gaming can also be seen as an escape. People with depression, stress boredom can find solidary in games and can later turn into a coping mechanism and addiction. And that addiction can lead to loss of relationships, education, and hobbies. And some withdrawal symptoms are anxiety, mood swings and impatience.