So dangerous subject possibly, I am quite obviously biased on the matter and strongly believe that addiction from games stems from other problems in peoples lives and not the games themselves. However i do take on board peoples opinions on this matter and some people have convincing arguments.
Last night (6th Dec) there was a Panorama (30min BBC Doc) on Addiction and computer games. It presented what appeared to be a nicely balanced argument with both sides fairly well represented. The main problem I had with it was the parents blaming the game directly, the presenter for the record never blamed the games. Games are fun, Games are an Escapist media, Games are immersive, Games ARE NOT drugs. It is interesting in a way that games can be compared with Gambling in their addictiveness. Gambling is classed as a serious addiction and affects many thousands, this too is a completely mental psychological disorder in that chemicals are not altering the brain in any severe way. So do games have that same ability to draw people out of reality to skip basic living needs? No I don’t think they do. The amount people lose as a whole is nothing compared with a proper gambling addiction. One student on the show got kicked out of University for playing too much games, well that’s not the games fault.
Just want to end this post with a quote from a discussion page on this documentary:
We seem to be quite schizophrenic in this country with regards to complaining about the “nanny state” interfering with parenting while also having it both ways by blaming and demonising outside forces letting parents off from actual responsibility.
No comments:
Post a Comment