hmmm.... I am absolutely fascinated by your definition of "addiction" as having to include only physiological criteria... particularly since the a whole slew of illegal "drugs" are considered "addictive" and this is now purely based on psychological addiction. Marijuana for example.... and most psychedelics... and I do not have a copy of DSM-IV handy but I think that text would disagree with you. Disagree with you completely. Hmm, and I am also unaware of any study that actually looked for altered brains in video-game addicts, so you must know of such a study as you are claiming "no shred of evidence" was found. I should like to know about the study that actually looked at these game users brains. Please cite the study. And if you are not aware of such a study, I should like you to totally rethink what you wrote. Muraco Kyashna-Tocha Anthropologist P.O.Box 85325 Seattle, WA 98145 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rhiannon Bury" <rbury@oise.utoronto.ca> To: <air-l@aoir.org> Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2002 3:50 PM Subject: Re: [Air-l] Video Game Addiction
I think we should be suspicious of terms like "video addiction"; addictions are primarily physiological, not psychological and there is not a shred of evidence that playing video games alters brain chemistry in any way. I would say that this story is part of the latest media "moral panic" to divert attention from deep rooted social and individual problems. Nobody takes his/her own life because of a video game. It's rather like suggesting the boys at Columbine killed their classmates, teachers and themselves because they watched The Matrix and listened to Marilyn Manson.
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Bury Assistant Professor Wilfrid Laurier University Waterloo, ON, N2L 3C5 Canada
air-l@aoir.org writes:
This week's "48 Hours" on CBS featured a story about video game 'addiction', especially those playing "EverQuest" by Sony. One sad tale of a twentysomething young man who killed himself after his favorite character was destroyed. His mother thinks suicide was due to the game.
What amazed me was that most of the people in the story were not teenage boys, but men in their 20s and 30s.
Any real research out there on this subject of on-line gaming addiction?
Thanks,
Valdis Krebs http://www.orgnet.com
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