Growing up, I never cared much for video games. However, most if not all of my guy friends were in my mind "addicted" to them. They played them before school, after school, on the weekends, and pretty much any chance they could. While taking a closer look at the issues and researching these claims, I found that this "video game addiction" myth is more real than I thought. According to the Washington Post, in a study conducted by researcher Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University, it was found that 8.5% of American's ages 8-18, who play video games, show multiple symptoms of behavioral addiction.
According to the study symptoms included spending a lot of time and money on video games to feel any level of excitement, those tested would become irritable or restless when playing time was scaled back, and many seemed to play the games as a way to escape real life problems. It seems that these gamers were using video games as a way to escape the real world, and that the real world brought them less pleasure than these video games did. However, on the flip side, video games have said to be a release for many young teens, as a way to unwind after a long day of school, or long weekend of homework. So the question remains, where do we draw the line?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/19/AR2009041902350.html
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