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Video Game Addiction to Be Termed as a Medical Condition
The tell tale signs of the new disease is teens holing up in their rooms, ignoring friends, family, even food and a shower, while grades plummet and belligerence soars.
Video games for certain kids can be as powerfully addictive as heroin.
The vote was spearheaded by Doctor Mohamed Khan with the AMA’s Council on Science and Pubilc Health. Khan authored a study called “Emotional and Behavioral Effects, Including Addictive Potential, of Video Games” and recommended that Internet/video game addiction be added as a formal diagnostic disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV). Since the American Psychiatric Association (APA) is responsible for additions to the DSM-IV, its members will have their own vote, once the vote passes the AMA.
Khan also recommended that parents should allow their children to be in front of television and computer screens for a maximum of one to two hours a day. Video game time would be included in that amount.
The AMA would not be voting that all video game players are addicts. It will be saying that video game addiction, like gambling addiction, does affect some members of the gaming population and they need help.
There are many who do agree with this new malady. There will be debate among psychologists who might say that if you know well enough to eat, sleep, go to work, school, kiss your significant other and or children goodnight, chances are you aren't an addict. "I'm an addiction skeptic," said Steve Jones, a communications professor at the University of Illinois and a research fellow with the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
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guest
06/06/2008
Computer addiction is very real , very pervasive and very devastating. Our high school Principal was not even aware of how big a problem it is until we spent a few minutes showing her books, web sites and hundreds of thousands of complaints from parents and affected people on the Internet, that is the huge problem of video game addiction. In particular World of Warcraft. When parents and the few enlightened Doctors decide to tackle this in earnest they will be taking on one organization, Blizzard, in particular that has a warchest of 8 Million subscribers pouring 15$ per month into it's coffers. Blizzard can afford a huge legal team. That's $120,000,000 (Million) per month of revenue. That's 1.4 Billion per year. Blizzard is a sneaky company hiding from the light. Kids know them. Parents and teachers don't. It is time to turn on the switch and see the cockroaches for what they are. They are not some little company that can easily be stopped or even deterred. It will take a lot of will, money, angry parents, ruined teenage lives and litterally an act of Congress to go after these "drug pushers". The Congress we have today is corrupt and in the pocket of big business and Multinational Corporations. So, it will be a tough battle. "World of Warcraft" is a drug and Blizzard, the company that writes the software and hosts the servers is simply a lot of drug pushers. They know what they have. It is making them rich at our boys expense. They should be put in prison for the damage they are doing to teenage boys. Girls seem to have different wiring and are not nearly as susceptible or even interested in the first place. Save our Boys for soon they will be men and they are being damaged. We must protect them and our future. We must recognize the disease as an addiction and take Blizzard to task just like the tobacco companies. Give no quarter they should be financially ruined and removed from the earth. There are many games that engulf our boys minds but World of Warcraft is in a league of it's own. It is uniquely dangerous and addictive.
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guest
06/09/2008
Unfortunately entertainment itself is addictive, may it be partying hard or watching tv, or even surfing the web. Blizzard should not be the one to be blamed, a video game is meant for entertainment. Period we should not mix up the fact that, it is made to be mentally and visually stimulating. I feel online web games are played more, games like scrabulous have nearly 500,000 users playing it on a daily basis. That accumulates to 15 Million people a month! What happens to those games, which are addictive, aren’t they drug pushers for helping people improve vocab?. Blizzard to curb teenage addiction added a parental control on the game. You can curb how many hours a person plays weekly or monthly. The idea is to teach your children discipline, and not “how to be disciplined”. I would be content if people stop pointing fingers at the companies who spend time creating the game, and start pointing fingers at people who play it!
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