Is Gaming an Drug-type addiction?

1

10mmCurator

Mildly Dipped
On the five oh-clock news, a few doctors and concerned parents were saying that computer games and online games seem like a drug addiction. Kids are skipping dinner, not doing their homework all because they are gaming all the time.

I know I have a gaming addiction but I also live life. I only game for about 5 hours a day and thats 7 to 12 at night. Those idiots just need to understand that social misfits need to socilalize too but either there arent that many to socialize in person with or they rather socialize through gaming.
 
Computer gaming can't be a drug type addiction, because it's an action, not taking a chemical substance.

Heh, my real life consists mostly of having walks in the city and in local park. Not much worthy people where I live.
 
It could be as bad as a gambling addiction, I suppose, but you won't lose as much money...
 
This problem with kids skipping supper and schoolwork could be avoided if parents were actually interested in their kids lives...

I have 5 1/2 and 4 year old boys and their favorite toys are not their computers, or their action figures, or their bikes, their favorites toys are their mom and dad. seems like todays people are just to busy to be a part in their kids lives.
 
Sorrow said:
Computer gaming can't be a drug type addiction, because it's an action, not taking a chemical substance.
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They seem "like" a drug addiction. The doctors should have simply said: gaming can become an addiction, 'cause you know, Sorrow, there are other types of addiction than taking chemical substances. Actions can become addictions as well: never heard about sex addiction? Sports addiction?
If you game for 5 hours each and every day, then there is something not right about that. Sitting in front of the tube, 5 hours a day is not right. Visiting NMA 5 hours per day is not right. Eathing 5 bars of chocolat each day is not right. Smoking 10 joints a day is not right. And so on. Whether it's a bad thing to be addicted to something, is a whole different matter. There are a whole lot more people dying from smoking 20 cigarettes a day than from playing WoW 5 hours a day. If kids fuck up their future (education, good job, social life, ...) by staring too much at their pc screen, well, that's just too bad. I see it as natural selection: the smart ones won't do that, so all's well in the end.

natethegreat said:
I have 5 1/2 and 4 year old boys and their favorite toys are not their computers, or their action figures, or their bikes, their favorites toys are their mom and dad.
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For some reason, that doesn't sound kosher to me. At all. :roll:
 
in the same way the runners get a runner's high, in the same way that sportshooters (or well, maybe just me) get a rush from shooting stuff, etc, sure, gaming might potentially trigger the release of those nice 'feel good' chemicals in our brain (thank you mister hypothalamus), i guess it might be comparable.

also, all these 'addictions' can have bad influences on you if you overdo them (as with anything in life).

other than that, i think the term addiction has been flung around a whole lot too much lately.

it's funny that if you have a huge book collection, you're an intellectual; if you have a huge Lego collection, you're a collector; if you have a huge game collection, you're an addict.
 
Pretty much as SuAside said, for me I found gaming was a good way to get rid of stress at school. And yeah at somepoint it did get overboard. But In the longer run It has changed me for better, I hope. :P
One game I did get adicted at 1990 was Prince of Persia ah nostalgia. :D
 
alec said:
natethegreat said:
I have 5 1/2 and 4 year old boys and their favorite toys are not their computers, or their action figures, or their bikes, their favorites toys are their mom and dad.
Click to expand...
For some reason, that doesn't sound kosher to me. At all. :roll:
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Good thing I'm not Jewish :roll:

My kids would rather help me change the oil in the truck, or help their Mom make dinner than play their computer games :shrug:
 
I think this is just another tatic by certain elements of society that think they can dicate what every child can and cannot do. They often cite the rise in school violence as a reason. This is hardly new anyhow. When Elvis started, mothers thought their daughters would become sluts just by watching him swivel his pelvis. They also thought that heavy metal would turn guys into murderers and rapists or make them commit suicide. Same with ultra violent comics such as Deathstroke, Lobo, Hellblazer, Animal etc...

I was horribly addicted to gaming in the past. I was spending 8 hours (10pm-6am) playing Gemstone III (Online text based RPG from Simutronics). Five years ago, I made a friend who turned out to be someone I really liked spending time with. She became my current girlfriend. I no longer needed to nor did I have the desire to live as a Gamer Vampire any more.

I'm extremely selective when it comes to making friends. I'll meet them and talk with them. Within 10 minutes I'll know if the person with whom I am talking is the kind of friend I want. I rarely find anyone who meets the criteria so as a result I only have 3-5 friends at any one time.

I agree with natethegreat that parents should stop letting TVs and computers raise their children.
 
alec said:
They seem "like" a drug addiction. The doctors should have simply said: gaming can become an addiction, 'cause you know, Sorrow, there are other types of addiction than taking chemical substances. Actions can become addictions as well: never heard about sex addiction? Sports addiction?
If you game for 5 hours each and every day, then there is something not right about that. Sitting in front of the tube, 5 hours a day is not right. Visiting NMA 5 hours per day is not right. Eathing 5 bars of chocolat each day is not right. Smoking 10 joints a day is not right. And so on. Whether it's a bad thing to be addicted to something, is a whole different matter. There are a whole lot more people dying from smoking 20 cigarettes a day than from playing WoW 5 hours a day. If kids fuck up their future (education, good job, social life, ...) by staring too much at their pc screen, well, that's just too bad. I see it as natural selection: the smart ones won't do that, so all's well in the end.
Click to expand...

Well, people need to do something to relieve stress from their daily lives. It's also an escape for many people like reading a book or otherwise. We all are like robots, trapped in a system where we have no choice but to do what we are told, and being able to break free of your reality is a very appealing thing to many individuals that don't want to be where they are in their point of life. It's not like we can all choose to simply become millionaires overnight, it all requires hard work, more than a quarter of your life, and then some. All of those things you listed, people do just because they enjoy them - and as long as the person knows they are doing it willingly of their free will, be it gaming five hours a day, smoking, or whatnot - they can drop their habit immediately because they are consenting to actually do said action. So don't immediately bash down on these sorts of things and say they aren't right; what else are we all going to do to try to escape our miserable and ultimately pointless lives while waiting for our 'goal' to come? The pursuit of happiness, never the achievement.

You ranted, and I did also.
 
I think of it this way - imagine you had to share an apartment for a year with one of the following people: a gaming addict, a junky, or an alcoholic. Which one are you going to pick? Sure, there are some general similarities between them all in that they are all obsessively or compulsively engaging in behavior which is more or less detrimental to them, but in practical terms the gamer does not belong in the same category as the other two.

These concerned parents are all idiots anyway. They somehow get the idea that if they could eliminate video games then their kids will suddenly start loving school and become workaholics. I'm sure the same thing has been going on for hundreds of years - "Music must be abolished! The minstrel has bewitched mine son! Now he desires naught but to listen to the lute's beguiling sounds, and aways himself to the publick house when he should be attending to his bible studies!"
 
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