UK Dust-up Over Tanya Byron TV Program on Video Game Addiction
UK Dust-up Over Tanya Byron TV Program on Video Game Addiction
April 17, 2008
An MCV UK report on a recent episode of Am I Normal?, a TV show featuring Dr. Tanya Byron, has caused some concern among gamers.During the program, Byron, author of the widely read, British government-commissioned report on the effects of video games and the Internet on children, looked at video game addiction. Byron made comments that appeared to liken video game addiction to dependence on street drugs:
It might seem ludicrous to compare a childish computer fantasy game with hard drug addiction. But addiction counsellors offering treatment to gamers argue that there are key similarities in the way that the consumer gets hooked into coming back for more...
[Staff at an addiction clinic] treat computer game addicts exactly as they treat cocaine addicts.
Spong did a little more digging on the controversy, and found that the show was taped last summer. That is, before Byron accepted Prime Minister Gordon Brown's commission to undertake her video game review. A comparison the Byron Review to her comments on the program leads Spong to ask:
It might be us, but we do tend to see a change in attitude in the Review itself compared to the TV show. Could it be that Byron - like the industry - learnt something along the way?
GP: Maybe it's me, but this one looks a bit overblown. If game addiction does exist - and that's an enormous "if," since the American Medical Association hasn't decided that it does - wouldn't we expect that it would impact victims in much the same manner as more traditional depencies such as alcohol, gambling and drugs?
I mean, it's not as if Dr. Byron advocated that violent games should be banned like heroin as this guy did...
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Comments
I think games can be addicting like Pizza and Soda are. It's a hard habit to want to kick.
But it doesn't destroy lives. Games should be treated the same. Too much of anything is not a good thing, but it's a personal resposibility for moderation.
And Byron completely jumped the gun on this one. What kind of journalist [sic] reports BEFORE research?
Take for instance how things are monitored in one of my workplaces. They don't let you visit too many websites, because we can get addicted to web surfing at work which is wasting company time and spending "empty dollars" on the payroll. But, if there are people that are easily distracted, they will do something distracting anyways. If you take much of the interwebs away, maybe they will loiter around for a bit, or bug other nearby coworkers.
This wasn't supposed to be the premise of limiting recreational activities at the job. Since no one could get addicted to surfing the web, they can get addicted to doing something else. And it always happens with certain kinds of people, no matter what you remove. You can improve production at the job, but you cannot remove recreation completely.
its been seen all over the asian countries killing people, in the states we've had children and babies nearly starve, or be neglected completely till near death or death...
there is an addiction level, just not as "rough" in the withdrawl i'd say.
but i'm no psychotherapist that claims to know what everyones thinking cause i read some famous persons book so that makes me da smarter of duhs all! so i dunno.
I will say I played World of Warcraft for quite some time. Got prety rich, had some purple items, etc... However, I quit that without much trouble. I also have played both EQ and EQ2. If quitting cocaine and cigarettes are as easy as quitting those games, then I guess most people must have the will power of a spork... not even a metal spork.
Of course, I would assume the opposite is true, that quitting WoW, EQ, and EQ2 is much, much, much easier then any chemical dependency and people who compare the two probably don't have experience in either.
Some people like doing stuff, so they do it a lot. Byron likes talking about things she doesn't understand, does that mean she is addicted to it?
Yes, some people have issues where they spend hours on MMOs, but most of them had little to no social life before this. And like it or not, they have a bigger social life with the millions of other people they see every day. Besides, shut ins mostly have agoraphobia and those who turn to MMOs are comforted while able to commune with others, even if virtual. Remember, those are other people on the other side of the tube.
All in all, she calls games childish. So, she appears to be talking about children who get addicted. Well, if the kid is playing video games instead of doing schoolwork, maybe the issue is avoidance not addiction. Many kids don't like school. Maybe the kid has issues learning. Call the Sylvan Learning Center today, we can help your child discover the problem and solve it with specialised tutor-- Wait, that's from a commercial.
Anyways, my forehead is staring to pound and my hands are shaking, I'm going to go play some COD4.
It's very likely that gaming children with abusive or negligent parents could find their role models, affection, acceptance, self-esteem, etc from clan or guild members. This mostly applies to MMOs, as the persistent world presents a more palpable sense of immersion.
If this is the case, in any % of supposed 'addictions'.. does it actually constitute a threat? I suggest that it doesn't. I have absolutely no credibility though.. so take from that what you will.
I'm also concerned that, perhaps, since there is no drug which could be marketed to gamers for addiction, a disease hasn't been created to fulfill the need for said drug. In that case, it's just a waiting game.
The important thing is not to blame the game itself for the addiction. Instead, it's important to be on the lookout for extreme changes in behavior in a very small percentage of players, and try to help them overcome their fixation.
And before some of you freak out and cry about how you aren't an addict, remember that no one said you were. There's a difference between "playing a lot," and "playing until your real life falls apart." Perhaps the reason some gamers are so defensive about the issue, is because they know they play way too many hours and feel subconcious guilt?
Btw, I also just kicked my caffeine addiction. I have been on a 1liter a day diet mountain dew addiction (if you want to call it that) for the last 11 years. However, with the latest price hikes I just couldn't afford it any more. So I just stopped, I took Alieve for the caffeine headache, and that was it.
And I didn't bother removing the source of temptation either. Wife still drinks Diet Mtn Dew and I've had a half empty 2 liter bottle on my desk for the last month.
Bingo.
Further more, extremists breed counter-extremists. I'm not saying that this is universally the case with people in defense of the industry, but it is a factor.
It's hard to fault the inclination of the industry to withhold even an inch on the matter, just because the anti-gaming advocacy groups will take that for miles. Look at all they've already done (or attempted to do) with next to no evidence.
The more I think about it tho, the more I feel like diseases are in some cases, created or at least over-hyped in order to push pills. I really really think that if Big Pharma had a treatment ready, we'd already see a 'Electronic Dependency Disorder'.
I better go get rights to that phrase.. =X
By your logic then there is such a thing as "Television Addiction" or "Sports Addiction" etc etc. Gambling addiction IS different that video game addiction. When a person is gambling they are utilizing their real-world money for a chance to obtain more real-world money. For a minority of people, this creates a devistating cycle in which they will either win big and assume that winning occurs often, then spend a lot of money trying to replicate that win but never doing so. That's the best case for a gambling addict. The worst case is that they lose big and then start saying to themselves "If I keep playing, I will win eventually and make the money back."
When looking at video games vs gambling there are no concrete links other than time spent at the activity. However you can link the time spent to any other activity in existance. Am I addicted to school because I spend 64 hours a week on it? Am I addicted to work because I spend 15 hours a week on it? Am I addicted to reading because when I get a new book I finish it on the day I bought it, even if it takes me 5 hours straight reading? By your logic, I am addicted to all of these things.
Gambling addiction is a real problem caused by a person's guilt and disappointment for losing mixed with the perceived hope of re-obtaining everything that they have lost. Video game addiction is not an addiction. It's a hobby that the paranoid perceive as an addiction.
"It’s a hobby that the paranoid perceive as an addiction."
Just curious, do you have any credentials to share? Any relevant research made into this subject?
Perhaps you should reread Are'el's post. I'm not exactly sure how you came to react that way from what he/she said.
If you here a aloud whooshing noise, thats just several people's points going over your head.
I work in the Gaming and Lottery industry and deal with gambling addicts on a daily basis. I just get irritated when I see people comparing things that have the possibility to be an addiction to a very serious problem.
Well.. the thing is.. when you discuss something like this.. first hand experience is great, but if you're allowing your emotional bias to impede logic then you might end up looking like clown shoes.
This is true unfortunately. I probably did come off over the top upon re-reading my post. I get his point that a chemical element doesn't have to be present for an addiction to be present, however that fact alone isn't enough to declare something to be an addiction.
Video game obsession is probably a better monicker than video game addiction. They are a time sink like anything else. In the realm of MMORPG's however, which is pretty much what I think of whenever someone mentions this topic, there is a viable case to be made due to the social pressure related to the genre of game and the dependance of others upon you.
I apologize for coming off the wall over this topic, gambling addiction's just a touchy spot for me because it's the reason why people demonize the industry I work in.
They are a special part of my life, but I also have other parts of my life that are also meaningful too.
Just because someone says that playing videogames for long hours makes it an addiction has never really talked to anyone who loves playing Videogames.
So I may or may not know what is defined as a Videogame Addiction, but please talk to the gamers first before jumping to conclusions.
Also when it comes to addictions, it is not the Videogame's fault, it is more of the person and you need to handle with care because with Videogames, a person is fufilling a certain part of their life with it and by trying to blame videogames for their addiction can lead them into a defencive stance,
So please, anyone who is reading these comments, just don't worry what what some people say and just enjoy playing Videogames, because they don't understand them
and the less we worry about them, the less we will feel depressed, because depression is where the REAL addiction comes from I feel.
Can you explain the correlation between gambling addiction and "video game addiction" for me? There's no correlation beyond neither of them having a chemical component that I can see.
Game addiction is like gambling well depending on the game. MMO addicts do see gains for time played. Raiding for gear PvP for gear bragging rights etc... There is a tangible reward in their minds. Same as a gambler even when a hard core addict gambler is up they still keep going for the next big win. Same with game addiction from an MMO stand point.
Game addiction does indeed ruin lives. Look how many folks in Korea China and Japan played to death in 3+ day sessions not stopping to sleep or eat in some instances. Look at the couple that starved their baby to death.
I would say those are life shattering examples of how games can be addicting. To certain personality types I think games can be addicting to the point of destroying a life.
I have a very good friend who will not have internet connection at his house because he WILL put online play ahead of everything. He recognized the problem and took steps to keep it from becoming an extreme.
Just because there is no chemical dependency does not meen a perosn can not have an "addictive personality" I'm no psychologist but when you have concrete examples of people starving their kids so they can raid play etc.. folks going through marathin gaming sessions lasting a week non stop for no sleep. These tell me that "certain" individuals are wired incorrectly and have an issue with controlling their play times.
Is this a problem with all of us no of course not. Same as you or I could go to Vegas and not lose our house cars life savings etc... You and I know when to stop.
However NOT all gamblers, same with not all gamers, know when enough is enough. Thats the only point.
The two key ingredients of "addiction" are:
1. Allowing other aspects of your life suffer for your obsession, to the point of serious consequences (like failing College because you couldn't get off the computer long enough to go to class).
2. Inability or unwillingness to stop even after you see it hurting other parts of your life.
That's the major difference between "addiction," and playing a lot. Just because you play an MMO for 30+ hours a week, doesn't make you an addict. Losing your job because of it, does.
No Chemical Component
Positive Subconscious reactions to both winning AND losing
A subjective, yet tangible reward
Denial of obsession
Trouble with prioritization
Compulsive 'chasing' failed attempts for a win
Not that this isn't in itself bad, I've seen people base their holiday lodgings based on whether it had a TV or not, which makes no sense whatsoever to me, bad it's not so much a physical addiction as a mental one, and not nearly as strong as many forms of mental addiction.
Mental addiction is very difficult to treat, oddly enough, physical addiction can be targetted down to a particular substance, mental addictions go through fads, someone will be obsessed with one thing for a while and then move onto another, as was mentioned earlier an 'addictive personality' is the common example of this.
So yes, video games are addictive in my opinion, but not through any component that the companies put into them beyond other forms of entertainment, but because of the mental make-up of a certain percentage of people who play them, and if video games did not exist, that percentage would merely hook onto something else and get addicted to that instead.
I acknowledged that in an above post.
@Are'el
As long as we agree then. My point is that video game "addiction" is over-acknowledged when compared to many other hobbies that people refuse to denote within the same category. As long as the term counts for everything, it's acceptable, however if it doesn't count for everything then a new term should be found.
@Rhade
Good points when taken in context of everything works like this.
In my personal opinion, the subject matter of an addiction is not relevant. The presence of an addiction does require the two points you stated. My problem with terming video game addiction as a viable addiction is that it is being focused on in the same mannar as video game violence at this time. If the AMA were to validify it with a diagnosis, they should also do this for everything else that is done to excess.
Sounds a stone's throw away from just saying 'BAN HOBBIES.'
Take for instance how things are monitored in one of my workplaces. They don’t let you visit too many websites, because we can get addicted to web surfing at work which is wasting company time and spending “empty dollars” on the payroll.
That's probably just be trying to save bandwidth costs mate, a few knobs wasting their days watching youtube crap will eat up the download limits on a company connection pretty quickly. I remember when I was doing my IT diploma we had trouble with that, 2 members of the class more interested in online games & videos than actually learning stuff.
As for the addiction thing, AbsumZer0 was right about almost anything being addictive on a psychological level. There doesn't have to be a physiological reaction to an external checmical element for it to happen, the end result is the same either way, a thing that the brain determines is necessary for its operation. Hell when you get right down to it, thats all love is...
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