Addiction and Gaming

How do you define addiction?

Traditionally, it has been defined as a state in which the body relies on a substance for normal functioning. When this substance is removed, it can cause withdrawal. Like, for example my wife's addiction to hot chocolate in the morning. She's not approachable until she's had a cup of hot cocoa in her hands for a bit.

However, in a more modern sense addiction is defined as recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences to the individual's health, mental state or social life. The term is often reserved for drug addictions. More and more frequently this term is being applied to areas of our lives such as shopping, gambling and even eating.

Can video games be addictive?

What happens when we apply the modern concept of addiction to video games? The activity has to be harmful to ones individual health. Does staying up night after night subsisting on no to a few hours sleep just to play a game count as harmful to ones health? Over a long and short time spans, yes. Lack of sleep is very detrimental to a persons health. There are reams and reams of documented medical information about the detrimental physical effects the lack of sleep has on a person. How sharp are you after just a night or two without sleep? Now imagine that on the scale of weeks?

What about mental state? Certainly lack of sleep here too has an impact, along with the added stress of mental exhaustion from keeping ones focus on the game for hours at a time.

And, what of social life? Isn't it a cliché that a video gamer is a social misfit, preferring to remain separate from his or her peers to engage in game play?

You better believe it.

Additionally, game play requires an ever escalating investment in hardware and software. A serious gamer must replace their entire machine every few years- regardless if this is a console or pc environment. Ever expanding requirements for graphics and hard drive space force gamers to invest in building and rebuilding their equipment, or purchasing and repurchasing branded platforms such as the Sony Playstation or Microsoft's XboX. This has a serious economic impact on the lives of gamers. Now they have less to spend on what others might consider basic necessities such as food or clothing. Or, you know, girls.

So, upon a cursory examination, video games seem to fit the description of an addiction: detrimental physical, social and economic effects.

Then why do we actively encourage it in our children? Playing video games is a common element in from the late 20th century and 21st childhood. If a child does not own a game system of some sort, it is a sure bet that a close friend or older family member does own one.

They are introduced early to video games, and they are withheld as a punishment for wrong behavior, thus reinforcing the perceived notion that video games are desirable.

And if this addiction is the case, is it ethical to be involved in the production of video games? Is this within the realm of alcohol production? And, by that I mean, it's not the producers fault if the end user has no ability to moderate their consumption? Or is this within the realm of illegal substance production? Is it the fault of the producer and the consumer?

So, I ask you directly; are video games addictive, and if they are is it morally correct to introduce our children to them at impressionable ages by holding them as a reward for proper behavior?