IGN - Obsessive Gaming Not Necessarily An Addiction

IGN posts an article dealing with a new examination of obsessive gaming by Keith Bakker, founder of the Smith & Jones Centre, an Amsterdam-based clinic that treats addictions of many types. The conclusion he comes to is that the problem is a social rather than a psychological one:

"These kids come in showing some kind of symptoms that are similar to other addictions and chemical dependencies," Bakker told BBC News; however, he noted that the problem wasn't really an addiction and that the issue could be solved through positive social interactions. "The more we work with these kids the less I believe we can call this addiction. What many of these kids need is their parents and their school teachers; this is a social problem."

"This gaming problem is a result of the society we live in today," Bakker said, adding, "Eighty percent of the young people we see have been bullied at school and feel isolated. Many of the symptoms they have can be solved by going back to good old fashioned communication."

The article also examines the idea that violence in real life is tied to playing video games:

[One gamer named George]…used Call of Duty 4 as a cathartic release. "I was aware that I played too much but I didn't know what to do. But it helped me because I could be aggressive and get my anger and frustration out online."

This hostile behavior has lead many to believe that videogames also spur real-life crimes. Anti-videogame activists have linked 1999's Columbine shootings to violent videogame addiction… However, the Smith & Jones Centre says that acts of anger and aggressions often exist before the desire to play violent videogames.

Conclusion:

A solution to the problem, Bakker proposes, is for parents and caretakers to spend more time listening to what children have to say.

More information.

A solution to the problem, Bakker proposes, is for parents and caretakers to spend more time listening to what children have to say.

My, that's a novel idea.

Most of the parents of the world use the video games to put their childrens to do something soo they can have more time to do stuffs.
________
Medical Marijuana

I do have to agree with the statement that the violence is in the child before it plays violence games.
Not the other way around

Children are violent? Really? Wow, never happened before.

And parents should spent time with their kids? Now, doesn't that sound strange to you? I always thought the only reason to get kids is to save the retirement system.

I am so stunned by this new and strange theories, I don't know what to do…perhaps I actually wait with getting kids until I am prepared to take care of them…a strange concept…I have to investigate further.

*closes this tab and begins Google research*

I don't believe that i was violent.

Instead, I had been bullied throughout most of my school time. Only the last years of secondary school/high school (don't know the right term for it) were free from it.

I have surely learned what aggression can do to people. From a victim's point of view, aggression is never good.

I don't know about aggression as a means to "break free". I've never encountered this. As a bullied person who had almost no friends (at least not at that school), I've only encountered aggression as a means to suppress people, so always in a negative way.

And don't try to convince me that aggression against people might be something positive. You haven't been bullied, then, I guess.

can't agree more with you a-Alrik. I do know the feeling all to well

Listening to kids may sound like a no-brainer, but it seems to be a dying art, at least around my area. In stores, in restaurants, I see kids constantly tugging at their parents' sleeves, asking them questions, telling them things they think are important, etc, while the parents completely ignore them or push them off. I understand children can be hyper and annoying sometimes, but if you aren't prepared to at least acknowledge their existence, why did you have them?

@ Alrik: did you notice in the above article the author says many of the kids who have this obsessive interest in gaming have been bullied in school, and find gaming a way of releasing their feelings about it. Thought it was an interesting point.

The thing that struck me the most is that he said 80% of children are bullied!
I never saw this as I grew up and went through the public school systems. That's a staggering number.
Maybe it's because I grew up in the fifties and sixties or because it was in Texas. I don't know, but I saw nothing like this anywhere.

edit: well, reading it again, he says 80 percent of the kids they see, so maybe this isn't as bad as I first took it.. lol (it's still bad)

The art of communcating with children seem to a duying one. Each Christmas I need to go into a toy story to buy a Christmas gift for my njece. And I have seen and heard how adults (or grown ups) treat children; they tugg to their parents, try tell them what they think is important, and is scoffed at when they tell parents that
"I want one of X, Y,Z". Some of the smarter parents tell the children they can wish for one for their birthday or for Christmas; most parents do need seem to care , however. Sad this is --- and what to they children then do ? They either shut up totally… or become more more 'impossible' by crying and shouting very loud so that the parents will notice them…

When I read about the article and the research it presented, I smiled inside. People, young or old, that have been bullied at school need an aoutlet for the build-up-agression in them. Videogames like Crysis or CoD4 are today's way of handling this; when I grew up in the 1970's we might kick the football around, play soldiers and robbers (or cowboys and indians). It was and is a way of relieving stress and emotional build feelings - like anger, resentment and such. Basically, it works like punching to a boxing back when you're angry.

Also, I know that I myself spent a lot of time reading books, other children spent a lot of time playing D&D (in the 1980's anyway, I didn't see anyone scof at them or telling them to go outside.

The article did say that 80% of the children they see have been bullied at school and feel isolated. And why are you bullied at school ? Because you're not like the others. But guess what, when you're an adult, a grown up, that's exactly what you're supposed to be - not like the other…you're supposed to be unique…

And talking to or with your child are two entirely different ways of communicating…

I was bullied throughout junior high and I ended up getting into a few fights because of it but it stopped those people from bullying me. I didn't have much choice since they were severly abusing me and along with my health problems I thought my life was at risk.

PS. I tried to tell teachers and the principle about this but they wouldn't do anything so I think the staff at these schools need to start preventing the bullying. That might help to stop the violence at school.

PPS. The first fight I got into was in self-defence (like all of them) and me and the other person got 3 day suspensions but the other person came back the next day and nothing happened to him.

Originally Posted by magerette
@ Alrik: did you notice in the above article the author says many of the kids who have this obsessive interest in gaming have been bullied in school, and find gaming a way of releasing their feelings about it. Thought it was an interesting point.

Yes, I found this quite surprising, too, because I cannot understand it.

But I'm quite sure I can't understand it because when I was young, there were no widespread games there - plus no widespread home computers.
Well, at least not where I lived.

Does anyone know the feeling that after a hard day you put on the console or whatever and play a good beat em up like tekken, Mortal Kombat or others? it is just such a good vent for all your steam

Can't say I've ever been bullied much, but I can certainly commiserate on that steam-venting feeling even if I don't play beat-em-ups. When I'm feeling jittery, mindless games are the best thing to soothe the brain.

Originally Posted by titus
Does anyone know the feeling that after a hard day you put on the console or whatever and play a good beat em up like tekken, Mortal Kombat or others? it is just such a good vent for all your steam

Yes, I'm doing that with Star Wars Battlefront I , my only game of this genre I'm currently playing.

I think it's quite interesting that probably everyone here has experienced media effects before, but when it comes to violence everyone is eager to stress that it is absolutely impossible that games could have such an effect on certain people…

Ah primary school. In school there were groups like sports people, smoking people, etc. If you didnt belong to any group you would get bullied. I did fairly ok in school but my single parent had this weird need to move all the time - multiple times per year even so I had to change schools many many times. Everytime I finally managed to get settled we moved again. It was extremely tiresom to be a new kid all the time.

The school system sucks but Im not sure if it has ever been any better. Its just the way of things.

no you are right, it does have such an efect on some people, but there is already something wrong with those people, if they play the games or not