For those of you who have taken a look at the title of this article and are now sitting in front of your computer screen scratching your head wondering if this is for real or just a bad joke, you can stop wondering. Video games are indeed addictive and a study has proven this. What you are about to read may be a total surprise to you. There is no doubt that video games are popular. Companies spend millions of dollars a year in research and development to make these games. They're not only played by kids but even by adults. There are more video game titles on the market than any one person can keep up with. But the ones that are the biggest sellers are the ones that kids just can't stop playing. Does that mean they're addictive? Actually, a recent study shows they are. The reason is that with certain video games that are action oriented, what happens is that inside the brain a chemical reaction occurs that in a real sense gives the person playing the game a high. This high is no different from that caused by taking a drug to cause that same chemical reaction. The more intense the game and the more appealing it is, the stronger the reaction and the stronger the addiction. Studies have shown that kids can play these games non stop, sometimes for days, with very little sleep or food. Some kids have actually become physically ill from exhaustion because of this addiction. This is where the real problem comes in. Playing a game for hours on end is one thing, but when it gets to a point where the kids start getting sick because of it that's when we have a serious problem. And to compound the problem, it has been reported by psychologists, who work for game companies, that they are hired to study the effects of these games and to make recommendations to make the games as addictive as possible. The main way this is done is by creating games that have multiple levels that get harder and harder with each level and also give more rewards for achieving that level. Some games may have as many as 20 levels or more. This makes it so that the game goes on for a long time and also makes it so that the game becomes very difficult to discontinue playing. The player is always trying for that next level. The industry is trying to crack down on some of these games and is even issuing warning labels on some. But the truth of the matter is, unless they can ban the games from being sold, which is unlikely, there is very little that can be done to stop this problem. The only way to stop it is at home with the monitoring of playing time by the parents. Until this happens video game addiction is going to be an ever growing problem and one that is going to threaten the health of every child who plays them. |
