Video Game Addictions

Yep, it's true.  People can get addicted to video games.  When they are taken away these addicts can start to have tremors just like other addicts who have had their drug of choice taken away.

A new study concludes that children can become addicted to playing video games, with some youths skimping on homework, lying about how much they play and struggling, without success, when they try to cut back.

In what is described as the first nationally representative study in the U.S. on the subject, researcher Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University found that 8.5 percent of American youths ages 8 to 18 who play video games show multiple signs of behavioral addiction.

"For some kids, they play in such a way that it becomes out of balance. And they're damaging other areas of their lives, and it isn't just one area, it's many areas," said Gentile, a psychologist and assistant professor whose study was posted online Monday by the journal Psychological Science.

To get at gaming addiction, he adapted diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling into a series of questions about video game use. The questions became part of a 2007 Harris Poll survey of 1,178 children and teens. Gamers were deemed "pathological" if they reported at least six of the 11 symptoms.

Symptoms included spending increasing amounts of time and money on video games to feel the same level of excitement; irritability or restlessness when play is scaled back; escaping problems through play; skipping chores or homework to spend more time at the controller; lying about the length of playing time; and stealing games or money to play more.

Four times as many boys as girls were considered "pathological gamers."

Gentile said he started his research with doubts about the possibility of addiction. "I thought this was parental histrionics -- that kids are playing a lot and parents don't understand the motivation, so they label it an addiction," he said. "It turns out that I was wrong."

What he found, he said, was that children considered pathological gamers did worse in school, had trouble paying attention in class and reported feeling "addicted." They were twice as likely to report attention deficit disorder or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

The study found that 88 percent of the nation's children ages 8 to 18 play video games. With 45 million children of that age in the country, the study would suggest that more than 3 million are addicted "or at least have problems of the magnitude" that call for help, Gentile said.

Here;  http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-04-21/news/0904200538_1_addiction-video-games-pathological

So why would parents allow their kids to sit in the basement gaming for hours per day?

Because the parents are happy to have some silence and do what they want to do while the kids are gaming.  Also the kids say, "That's what everyone does these days mom!", and the mom says, "Well, OK then..."

Parents don't want to be parents anymore these days.  They would rather slap a movie in their drop down TV in the mini-van while they drive to grandmas, than they would talk to their kids.  And yes, DIVORCE AND SINGLE PARENTING probably plays a large part into teen boys being given permission by mom to play hours of video games....because she needs the quiet and rest...and she simply doesn't want to fight with her teen boy.

We are becoming a society of "screen zombies"....just the way Satan would love it to be!

If we are addicted to our screens, we are out of balance....and if we are out of balance there's a VERY good chance that we are ignoring our Bible reading and prayer time with Christ our savior.