Essay on Video Game Addiction

Words: 3001
Pages: 13

Literature Review
Video game addiction has become a major problem in our society. Many children and teenagers play an excessive amount of hours of video games a day that they develop countless problems such as violent behavior, hostility and social isolation. These are but few of many examples of problems young teenagers face when they have gotten to the point of addiction. However, video game addiction is proven to be associated with academic achievements and social skills as well. (Chui et al., 2004). Gaming addicts experience huge fluctuations in behavior as stated by Chin & Wen-Bin (2007). These so called fluctuations in behaviors do not manifest on their own however. Many addicts have actually become hooked on gaming simply because
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(2007) focused on Taiwanese adolescents since video game addiction has become an apparent problem in many countries, namely Taiwan. However, Kamala (2004) decided to tackle the possibility of gender in his unique study. His findings showed that females are socially less aggressive and less prone to play violent video games, which makes their possibility of developing aggressive behaviors lower than males. In addition, his research found that there was no significant difference in behavior from females who play games and females who do not. Chumbley & Griffiths (2006) found that skill and reinforcement made a difference in the experience of the game. The player experiences less frustration and is found in a state of relaxation which is not correlated with aggressiveness. Though this state of relaxation is often what the player wants when playing a video game which can create a habit. If this habit continues over time it can create a dependence which is otherwise known as an addiction.

Many of these studies were limited in the sample size. The amount of subjects varied from 1 to 2000 which in my opinion is not a clear representation of the population of gamers. The studies should focus on more specific age groups which would indicate if there would be a correlation between age and addiction.

In conclusion, many of the studies used contained very similar elements such as video game addiction being tied with significant behavioral changes and levels of aggression.