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this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
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Have video games now been found addictive by professional psychologists — the only people qualified to make that determination? Last I heard, “technology addiction” was a myth promulgated by abusive “boot camp” operators who were practicing unlicensed mental health care (i.e. scams, and dangerous ones at that).
Those microtransactions-laden mobile games employs a whole stack of evil tricks to make sure their users got addicted and can't miss even a single day not playing.
I'm sure those kids sneaking out of home to find wifi aren't doing so to play Mario Kart. They're probably playing one of those free to play mobile games.
No doubt some games manipulate users to increase engagement. This is not addiction. I wouldn’t presume to speculate which games these kids play.
You could make the same ridiculous reductionist statement about casinos.
Are you claiming that the statement is incorrect? Or did you just feel the need to show off an ad hominem fallacy?
It's in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - THE authoritative guide on what is or is not considered a mental disorder, yes.
This is hardly groundbreaking stuff - people can be addicted to porn, food, exercise, pretty much anything. Really the primary criteria in calling any addiction a "disorder" is "what negative effects is it having on your life?" Well, "I literally want to kill myself when my parents cut off the wifi" is a pretty negative effect.
Addiction is defined by repeated behavior despite repeated consequences.
My little cousins stole my aunt’s credit card and spent $10k on digital goods. This wasn’t the first time this happened.
There are legitimate concerns about how these services are shaping the minds of children, constantly poking the reward center of their malleable brains and wiring them a specific way to open pathways to addictive behavior. YouTube channels promoting desperate consumerism by featuring kids opening endless “presents” for an hour as an example.
I will admit that as someone who is a bit more tech savvy than the average person this stuff is pretty alarming. I’m planning to become a parent soon and it seems like keeping their usage in check will be an endless game of whack a mole, and that screen/game/content addiction is now the default outcome because they’re all built to be so predatory and addictive by nature.
Yes, I’m aware that the APA has recommended much further study in order to determine whether technology use might be an addiction. Or did you not bother to read the page you linked?
I did bother to read it. Did you? Just because it hasn't been fully fleshed out to be officially listed with diagnostic criteria and full information for the manual doesn't mean that it hasn't been defined or that it doesn't exist or that the APA does not classify it as a mental disorder.
Do you have some kind of ideological problem with the concept of gaming addiction, specifically, in the universe of all the other behavioral addictions out there? Gamers™ sure do seem to get sensitive any time anyone says anything that could be construed as remotely negative about their hobby - like that some people develop crippling addictions to it as outlined in the topic article.
The article makes no such claims. It outlines the major positions and recommends further research. Gaming is not an addiction, according to the APA.
Gambling addiction - a rather well documented phenomenon over centuries - wasn't even in the DSM until the fifth edition. Gaming addiction will be in the sixth. See you then.
I look forward to seeing if you actually are able to predict the future, Nostradamus.
It's crazy to me that some people don't believe that this is a thing. I knew this guy who seemed like he had it all. A decent job, a house, a wife and kids, good friends, etc, you name it.
Warning: This gets a bit heavy
Over time, this guy's gaming addiction cost him nearly everything. He kept calling in sick to work in order to game instead, so he lost his job. His gaming also caused him to neglect getting mental health treatment for one of their children. His wife worked as much as legally possible, but it wasn't enough for them to keep their house. They were forced to move in with their family for a while, on the other side of the US.
Of course, it didn't end there. They got a new place of their own somewhere else a few years later, only for him to fall back into those same habits. His wife divorced him when she discovered that he was cheating with someone that he had met while gaming.
One of their kids (may they rest in peace) is no longer with us due to their terrible experiences throughout all of this. You never forget seeing a distraught parent at their own kid's funeral. I will never forget the horror in their eyes. The guilt.
Gaming addiction is absolutely a thing.
What kind of gaming/game was it? I'm betting either a mobile game literally designed to get you trapped in it, or some hyper competitive lootbox and microtransactionv filled game
There can be mental addictions, but older generations don't tend to care unless it's something they don't like.
I don't feel like I was addicted to games growing up, but I know I was using them for escapism. Nobody from the outside would have looked any farther than "you spend X amount a day playing games", and ignore why I felt the need for it.
Too many self important people act like addiction is a personal failing when it's usually somone trying to find some relief in a society that has failed them.
Addictions are, by definition, mental. They are also complex and multifaceted phenomena with myriad causes and expression.
I’m sorry that you felt failed by society. I hope things are better now.
For me it was that I didn't have the information I needed to process what I was feeling and deal with what was wrong. I didn't have the language to even describe that something was wrong.
I know many others in my situation that ended up with worse coping mechanisms in the same circumstance. Heavy drinking and drug use is common in the community.
That said, addictions can be physical. There's a reason you have to ween people off of certain substances because withdrawal can kill them.