Comment Re:Online activities are perfectly legitimate. (Score 1) 28
I think you have a good point- sometimes people overdo things because of an addiction, and sometimes they overdo things because they have poor time management skills or obsessive/compulsive tendencies.
As I see it, you're setting up a dicotomy between hard drugs (i.e. the problem is the drug- and *anybody* using them will fall into addiction) versus video games (the problem is that some people enjoy video games a lot but can't manage their time well, or tend toward obsession in *whatever* they do). Addiction to hard drugs is chemical, but that to computer games is "purely behavioral and psychological" and hence more a personal problem.
I think this usually works, but not always- and I think it'll work less and less with games that tap into common pre-existing behavioral/psychological structures to increase immersion (i.e. MMOs). I'm reminded of a somewhat recent NYT article where the effects of love on the brain were shown to significantly parallel the effects of cocaine; the barrier between chemical and psychological addictions may be somewhat contrived, especially if the right buttons are pushed. I think games like World of Warcraft may push this envelope-- the cause of marathon gaming sessions becomes less the fault of the player and more a function of how Addictive the game is. MMOs are now breaking up marriages-- I'm not sure this is merely a function of one spouse having poor time management skills; it sounds more like a real addiction.
I'm not for releasing people from all time management responsibility, and I don't have many hard facts for you (there are well-done studies about video games and addiction, sadly), but we do know from MRIs that there's little actual difference between chemical addiction and some forms of behavioral compulsion- i.e. being in love, or being "addicted" to video games.
So in the end, you give good personal advice- work on those time management skills and play video games responsibly- but I'm not sure how well your dicotomy translates into the real world in certain circumstances, and these certain circumstances (MMOs, for instance) look to be growing more common.
Anyway, thanks for the quality response.
As I see it, you're setting up a dicotomy between hard drugs (i.e. the problem is the drug- and *anybody* using them will fall into addiction) versus video games (the problem is that some people enjoy video games a lot but can't manage their time well, or tend toward obsession in *whatever* they do). Addiction to hard drugs is chemical, but that to computer games is "purely behavioral and psychological" and hence more a personal problem.
I think this usually works, but not always- and I think it'll work less and less with games that tap into common pre-existing behavioral/psychological structures to increase immersion (i.e. MMOs). I'm reminded of a somewhat recent NYT article where the effects of love on the brain were shown to significantly parallel the effects of cocaine; the barrier between chemical and psychological addictions may be somewhat contrived, especially if the right buttons are pushed. I think games like World of Warcraft may push this envelope-- the cause of marathon gaming sessions becomes less the fault of the player and more a function of how Addictive the game is. MMOs are now breaking up marriages-- I'm not sure this is merely a function of one spouse having poor time management skills; it sounds more like a real addiction.
I'm not for releasing people from all time management responsibility, and I don't have many hard facts for you (there are well-done studies about video games and addiction, sadly), but we do know from MRIs that there's little actual difference between chemical addiction and some forms of behavioral compulsion- i.e. being in love, or being "addicted" to video games.
So in the end, you give good personal advice- work on those time management skills and play video games responsibly- but I'm not sure how well your dicotomy translates into the real world in certain circumstances, and these certain circumstances (MMOs, for instance) look to be growing more common.
Anyway, thanks for the quality response.
