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Simran Fabiani

The Psychology Behind Anorexia Nervosa - 0 views

www.natural-health-directory.com/...3614

psychology anorexia

shared by Simran Fabiani on 15 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Anorexics see themselves as obese no matter how much they weigh or how thin they look in the mirror.
  • This obsession or focus on constant monitoring of calories and weighing themselves helps them block out unwanted feelings and emotions. So it can be seen as a symptom of possible mental health problems, especially around self-esteem or what I prefer to refer to as self-acceptance.
Aneesh Mysore

Video game controversy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...Video_game_controversy

video game controversy

shared by Aneesh Mysore on 15 Nov 10 - Cached
  • There are three types of aggression, measured along a mild-to-violent severity continuum: physical, verbal, and relational. Violence refers to physical aggression of which the victim is likely to suffer serious physical injury.
  • One study did find an increase in reports of bullying, noting, "Our research found that certain patterns of video game play were much more likely to be associated with these types of behavioral problems than with major violent crime such as school shooting
  • On April 20, 1999, 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher in the Columbine High School massacre. The two were allegedly obsessed with the video game Doom.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • a 19-year-old Thai teenager, stabbed a Bangkok taxi driver to death during an attempt to steal the driver's cab in order to obtain money to buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV.
Ben Walters

Part 1 - How video games are good for the brain - The Boston Globe - 0 views

www.boston.com/...o_games_are_good_for_the_brain

Entertainment Brain Learning Education Video Games Society Psychology Aggression Positive

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - Cached
  • How video games are good for the brain Concerns about violent programs persist, but researchers are discovering that playing can boost cognitive function and foster positive behavior
  • In his speech to America’s schoolchildren last month, President Obama had a clear directive about video games: Put them away.
  • But the latest science shows that there’s a lot more to video games than their dark reputations suggest.
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  • “There’s still a tendency to think of video games as a big wad of time-wasting content,’’
  • “Games are a medium. They’re not inherently good or bad.’’
  • After years of focusing on the bad - and there are still legitimate concerns, for instance, about the psychological effects of certain violent games - scientists are increasingly examining the potential benefits of video games. Their studies are revealing that a wide variety of games can boost mental function, improving everything from vision to memory. Still unclear is whether these gains are long-lasting and can be applied to non-game tasks. But video games, it seems, might actually be good for the brain.
  • The very structure of video games makes them ideal tools for brain training.
  • games have figured out a way to encourage players to persist at solving challenging problems.’’
  • This adaptive challenge is “stunningly powerful’’ for learning, said John Gabrieli, a neuroscientist at MIT.
  • Most games involve a huge number of mental tasks, and playing can boost any one of them. Fast-paced, action-packed video games have been shown, in separate studies, to boost visual acuity, spatial perception, and the ability to pick out objects in a scene. Complex, strategy-based games can improve other cognitive skills, including working memory and reasoning.
  • Researchers now know that learning and practicing a challenging task can actually change the brain.
  • Richard Haier,a pediatric neurologist and professor emeritus at the School of Medicine at the University of California at Irvine, has shown in a pair of studies that the classic game Tetris, in which players have to rotate and direct rapidly falling blocks, alters the brain. In a paper published last month, Haier and his colleagues showed that after three months of Tetris practice, teenage girls not only played the game better, their brains became more efficient.
Puja DeGamia

Anorexia Nervosa Symptoms, Signs, Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment by MedicineNet.com - 0 views

www.medicinenet.com/...article.htm

Anorexia nervosa symptoms

shared by Puja DeGamia on 11 Nov 10 - Cached
  • Anorexia nervosa, commonly referred to simply as anorexia, is one type of eating disorder.
  • A person with anorexia often initially begins dieting to lose weight.
  • The individual continues the endless cycle of restrictive eating, often accompanied by other behaviors such as excessive
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Approximately 95% of those affected by anorexia are female, but males can develop the disorder as well.
  • anorexia typically begins to manifest itself during early adolescence
  • In the U.S. and other countries with high economic status, it is estimated that about one out of every 100 adolescent girls has the disorder.
  • According to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), an estimated 0.5%-3.7% of women will suffer from this disorder at some point in their lives.
  • ny experts consider people for whom thinness is especially desirable, or a professional requirement (such as
  • models, dancers, and actors
  • At this time, no definite cause of anorexia nervosa has been determined. However, research within the medical and psychological fields continues to explore possible causes.
Ben Walters

Six Wonderful Things About Games - 0 views

radoff.com/...x-wonderful-things-about-games

Gaming Wonderful psychology

shared by Ben Walters on 11 Nov 10 - Cached
  • Research is mounting that playing games can make you smarter.
  • At the 2009 MI6 conference, he pointed out that games engage the same brain machinery that’s used when one is learning.
  • Is it a coincidence that “nerds” often possess an interest in computer games, as well as have an aptitude for subjects like maths and science?
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  • A huge number of engineers, designers and artists have taken up their careers because of the excitement they gained from their exposure to games. Games challenge the imagination, and designing them is a fun and rewarding experience.
  • Part of this includes challenging kids to design games
  • This hasn’t been lost on the Obama Administration, which is including educational games in a $260mm program
  • It is often said that playing video games improves one’s hand-eye coordination.  This is a very important skill to have outside the realm of video games
  • playing games could help someone become a better surgeon (it does—a lot).
  • games have gotten people excited about learning something new.
  • eople do learn new things they might never have, just by playing these games.
  • Academic research has shown that games can increase the feelings that lead to creativity
  • laying WoW directly intersects with the study of applied mathematics.
  • ophisticated spreadsheets and statistical models to reach their conclusions
  • their first exposure to formal applied mathematics
  • well-researched tables, proofs and statistics.
  • If only my gradeschool teachers had come up with something this engaging to get me interested in in the almost impenetrable world of mathematics!
  • Furthermore, games themselves are becoming an increasingly creative medium
  • video and computer games
  • an be quite influential in fostering creative expression
  • Games even inspire creativity outside of the game
  • games as creative catalysts
  • we’re still at the very beginning of games as a means of artistic and creative expression
  • games provide a venue for expression
  • Furthermore, the study found that teens who are exposed to civics within games (e.g., city-simulators like SimCity, or running a guild/clan in other games) are more likely than other teens to be interested in political and civics activities.
  • players are learning real economics and business skills
  • Such claims have been repeatedly debunked after extensive research,
  • Unlike any other medium, games gets different people from different countries, political views and religions all playing together. Not because they are elite; not because they’re spectators, but because you must work together to solve problems.
  • I’m convinced that the more we play together, the more we’ll learn to live with each other
  • Games are fun, and that’s enough for me. Maybe it isn’t enough for you—or for your friends or for your family. I hope you the information I’ve presented is helpful to you in explaining many of the other positives about games.  Not only are games fun, but they’re also healthy, and can promote positive brain development, career opportunity and social behavior.
Ben Walters

Violence and Video Games - 0 views

www.video-game-addiction.org/violence.html

Addiction Violence Games Gaming Stress GAM Entertainment Psychology

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - Cached
  • As the level of violence in video games has increased, so has concern for the effects on those who play - especially those who play a lot. Many are quick to point out that most school shootings in recent years have been carried out by avid gamers, and their games of choice were always dark and violent.
  • But it begs the question: Which comes first? Can aggressive and violent behavior be attributed to violence in video games? Or do those who play already have violent tendencies which draw them to violent games? It's a type of "chicken or the egg" debate that has strong advocates on both sides.
  • The more lifelike they've become, the more interest there has been in the correlation between violent games and violent behavior.
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  • In order to play and win, the player has to be the aggressor. Rather than watching violence, as he might do on television, he's committing the violent acts. Most researchers acknowledge that this kind of active participation affects a person's thought patterns, at least in the short term.
  • Another factor that concerns both researchers and parents is that violence in video games is often rewarded rather than punished.
  • If played frequently enough, games like this can skew a young person's perception of violence and its consequences.
  • In 2002, researchers Anderson and Bushman developed the General Aggression Model (GAM). Often considered one of the greatest contributions to the study of violence and video games, the GAM helps explain the complex relationship between violent video games and aggressive gamers.
  • The GAM takes some (though not all) of the heat off video games by acknowledging that a gamer's personality plays into how he is affected by violence. Anderson and Bushman refer to three internal facets - thoughts, feelings, and physiological responses - that determine how a person interprets aggressive behavior. Some people's responses are naturally more hostile, making them predisposed to respond more aggressively to violent video games.
  • Short-term effects were easily identified in the GAM; the most prominent being that violent games change the way gamers interpret and respond to aggressive acts. Even those who aren't predisposed to aggression respond with increased hostility after playing a violent video game. The game becomes what's called a "situational variable" which changes the perception of and reaction to aggressive behavior.
  • No long-term studies have been conducted to date, so there are only hypotheses.
  • Anderson and Bushman theorized that excessive exposure to violent video games causes the formation of aggressive beliefs and attitudes, while also desensitizing gamers to violent behaviors.
  • Parents would be wise to monitor the amount of time their kids spend gaming and watch closely for any negative effects.
Ben Walters

Ohio teenager Daniel Petric killed mother over Halo 3 video game | News.com.au - 0 views

www.news.com.au/...story-e6frfro0-1111118553464

Addiction Obsession Death Murder Games Teenager Psychology

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Teen not allowed to play Halo 3 Gets gun, says he "has a surprise" Shoots both of his parents in the head
  • A TEENAGER obsessed with a video game has been found guilty of murdering his mother and injuring his father after they took the game away from him.
  • Daniel Petric, 17, planned to kill his parents because he was angry that his father would not allow him to play Halo 3.
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  • On the night of the murder, the Ohio teenager used his father's key to open a box and remove the game, plus a 9mm handgun, the Associated Press reported.
  • "Would you close your eyes? I have a surprise for you."
  • Petric's father, Mark, said he was expecting a nice surprise. Instead, his head went numb from the gunshot, the Associated Press reported.
  • Mark Petric survived the shooting. Petric's mother, Susan, died of a gunshot wound to the head.
  • Petric took the Halo 3 game with him when he fled the scene.
  • udge James Burge said his obsession with Halo 3 may have warped his sense of reality, but rejected the defence lawyer's plea of insanity.
  • I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents they would be dead forever," Judge Burge said.
  • he planned the crime for weeks
  • The teenager was found guilty of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder and other charges
  • Petric faces a maximum possible penalty of life in prison without parole as he has been tried as an adult.
Ben Walters

Jail for couple whose baby died while they raised online child - CNN.com - 0 views

edition.cnn.com/...south.korea.virtual.baby

Addiction Death Gaming Child Obsession Couple Games Jail Malnutrition

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Jail for couple whose baby died while they raised online child
  • Seoul, South Korea
  • sought a five-year sentence for negligent homicide, but the court handed out a two-year sentence.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • A couple whose baby starved to death while they raised a virtual child in an online fantasy game
  • "This is the first legal case regarding Internet addiction in Korea,"
  • Three-month-old Kim Sa-rang died of malnutrition in September while her parents were engaged in 12-hour sessions of Prius Online. In the 3-D fantasy game, players nurture an online girl who gains magical powers as she grows.
  • During their trial, the court heard that the toddler weighed 6.4 pounds (2.9 kgs) when she was born, but was only 5.5 pounds (2.5 kgs) at the time of her death.
  • Internet gaming is hugely popular in South Korea, with some 21,500 'PC Bangs' -- or Internet cafes -- offering ultra-high speed Internet connections nationwide.
  • The case has highlighted the dark side of the nation's Internet, an industry touted by South Korean officials as cutting edge. A public debate is under way in the nation over online privacy and regulating Internet rumors.
  • There is particular concern about gaming addiction and its effects on teenagers and those estranged from mainstream society.
  • "Consequently, it comes as no surprise to me that two people who were disconnected from society in general found a common psychological space that kept them physically and socially divorced from reality,"
  • Suwon, the satellite town south of Seoul where the tragedy occurred, was named "Intelligent City of the Year" this month by a New York-based think-tank Intelligent Community Forum.
  • The honor was awarded because of the town's investment in broadband infrastructure and its push to increase connection speeds to 1 gigabyte per second, according to reports.
Ben Walters

The gaming-violence connection: why society finds it comforting - 0 views

arstechnica.com/...8959.ars

Entertainment Gaming Games America Society Youth Violence Psychology

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • the attempts to legislate restrictions on violent video games and the ambiguous science that supports those efforts.
  • why these legislative efforts gain so much traction despite their lack of a solid scientific foundation.
  • in the journal Contexts, USC sociology lecturer Karen Sternheimer analyzes these efforts in terms of ongoing societal fears regarding the influence of media on children.
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  • despite the proliferation of violent, first-person shooters in the wake of Doom, juvenile homicide rates have fallen in the decade since its release. Random school shootings remain incredibly rare; for all forms of homicide, students face a seven in 10 million chance of being a victim.
  • Random school shootings remain so rare, in fact, that Sternheimer reports that the FBI found it impossible to generate a profile of a "typical" shooter.
  • society doesn't really understand its youth. As a result, adults fear their loss of control over the factors that influence childhood development in an increasingly connected world.
  • Far from being a new danger, the Sternheimer report suggests that gaming is simply the latest in a long series of media influences to take the blame. "Over the past century, politicians have complained that cars, radio, movies, rock music, and even comic books caused youth immorality and crime, calling for control and sometimes censorship." She terms the targets of such efforts "folk devils," items branded dangerous and immoral that serve to focus blame and fear.
  • These folk devils can be used for political advancement or financial gain via lawsuits such as those that have targeted game makers. But, based on Sternheimer's description, their primary function appears to be to distract people from identifying the real causes underlying our discomfort with youth culture. It also may distract people from getting to know their kids.
Ben Walters

Were video games to blame for massacre? - Technology & science - Games - msnbc.com - 0 views

www.msnbc.msn.com/18220228

Entertainment Brain Games Society Psychology Violence Aggression Jack Thompson

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - Cached
  • The shooting on the Virginia Tech campus was only hours old, police hadn't even identified the gunman, and yet already the perpetrator had been fingered and was in the midst of being skewered in the media.
  • Video games. They were to blame for the dozens dead and wounded. They were behind the bloodiest massacre in U.S. history. Or so Jack Thompson told Fox News and, in the days that followed, would continue to tell anyone who'd listen.
  • But whether Seung-Hui Cho, the student who opened fire Monday, was an avid player of video games and whether he was a fan of "Counter-Strike" in particular remains, even now, uncertain at best.
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  • Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the school shootings and the finger-pointing that followed, game players and industry advocates say they're outraged that the brutal acts of a deeply disturbed and depressed loner with a history of mental illness would be blamed so quickly on video and computer games. They say this is perhaps the most flagrant case of anti-game crusaders using a tragedy to promote their own personal causes.
  • "It's so sad. These massacre chasers — they're worse than ambulance chasers — they're waiting for these things to happen so they can jump on their soapbox," said Jason Della Rocca,
    • Ben Walters
      Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10
       
      'common sense tells me'
  • When Jack Thompson gets worked up, he refers to gamers as "knuckleheads." He calls video games "mental masturbation." When he's talking about himself and his crusade against violent games, he calls himself an "educator." He likes to use the word "pioneer."
  • On those rare occasions when a student opens fire on a school campus, Thompson is frequently the first and the loudest to declare games responsible. In recent years he's blamed games such as "Counter-Strike," "Doom" and "Grand Theft Auto III" for school shootings in Littleton, Colo., Red Lake, Minn. and Paducah, Ky.
  • He's blamed them for shootings beyond school grounds as well. In an attempt to hold game developers and publishers responsible for these spasms of violence, Thompson has launched several unsuccessful lawsuits.
  • "It disgusts me," said Isaiah Triforce Johnson, a longtime gamer and founder of a New York-based gaming advocacy group that, in response to the accusations, is now planning what is the first ever gamer-driven peace rally. 
    • Ben Walters
      Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10
       
      Counter Strike, the game he blamed for these killings, has two objectives. Protect an objective from a bomb that the team of terrorists are going to try to plant, or to plant this bomb. Neither of these objectives have to include murder, or solo missions.
  • authorities released a search warrant listing the items found in Cho's dorm room. Not a single video game, console or gaming gadget was on the list, though a computer was confiscated. And in an interview with Chris Matthews of "Hardball," Cho's university suite-mate said he had never seen Cho play video games.
  • "This is not rocket science. When a kid who has never killed anyone in his life goes on a rampage and looks like the Terminator, he's a video gamer,"
  • And in a letter sent to Bill Gates Wednesday, he wrote: "Mr. Gates, your company is potentially legally liable (for) the harm done at Virginia Tech. Your game, a killing simulator, according to the news that used to be in the Post, trained him to enjoy killing and how to kill."
    • Ben Walters
      Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10
       
      See how bad his research is, the only possibility of him ever playing a game was on his computer, yet he blames Microsoft, who created a game for the Xbox (which would be incompatible for a PC) for directly and massively influencing these events.
  • Microsoft did not create "Counter Strike" but did publish a version of it for the Xbox.
  • Fed up with the scapegoating and lack of understanding, gamer groups have begun to get increasingly organized in their attempts to change public perception of their favorite hobby.
  • "You cannot tell me — common sense tells you that if these kids are playing video games, where they're on a mass killing spree in a video game, it's glamorized on the big screen, it's become part of the fiber of our society. You take that and mix it with a psychopath, a sociopath or someone suffering from mental illness and add in a dose of rage, the suggestibility is too high. And we're going to have to start dealing with that."
  • Dr. Karen Sternheimer, a sociologist at the University of Southern Calfornia and author of the book " Kids These Days: Facts and Fictions About Today's Youth," disagrees. She believes that it didn't require much skill for Cho to shoot as many people as he did. After all, eye witness accounts indicate many of the victims were shot at point-blank range.
  • And for all of Thompson's claims that violent video games are the cause of school shootings, Sternheimer points out that before this week's Virginia Tech massacre, the most deadly school shooting in history took place at the University of Texas in Austin… in 1966. Not even "Pong" had been invented at that time.
  • Sternheimer says the rush to blame video games in these situations is disingenuous for yet another reason. Although it remains unclear whether Cho played games, it seems nobody will be surprised if it turns out he did. After all, what 23-year-old man living in America hasn't played video games?
  • "Especially if you're talking about young males, the odds are pretty good that any young male in any context will have played video games at some point,"
  • "I think in our search to find some kind of answer as to why this happened, the video game explanation seems easy," she says. "It seems like there's an easy answer to preventing this from happening again and that feels good on some level."
  • The blame game
  • Jason Della Rocca agrees. "Everyone wants a simple solution for a massively complex problem. We want to get on with our lives."
  • As the leader of an organization that represents video game creators from all over the world, Della Rocca knows the routine all too well.
  • Someone opens fire on a school campus. Someone blames video games. His phone starts ringing. People start asking him questions like, "So how bad are these games anyway?"
  • Of course, he also knows that this is far from the first time in history that a young form of pop culture has been blamed for any number of society's ills. Rock and roll was the bad guy in the 1950s. Jazz was the bad guy in the 1930s. Movies, paintings, comic books, works of literature…they've all been there.
  • Still, Della Rocca believes that people like Thompson are "essentially feeding off the fears of those who don't understand games."
  • For those who didn't grow up playing video games, the appeal of a game like "Counter-Strike" can be hard to comprehend. It can be difficult to understand that the game promotes communication and team work. It can be hard fathom how players who love to run around gunning down their virtual enemies do not have even the slightest desire to shoot a person in real life.
  • "It's the thing they don't understand," Della Rocca says. "It's a thing that's scary."
  • While Thompson concedes that there are many elements that must have driven Cho to commit such a brutal act, he insists that without video games Cho wouldn't have had the skills to do what he did. "He might have killed somebody but he wouldn't have killed 32 if he hadn't rehearsed it and trained himself like a warrior on virtual reality. It can't be done. It just doesn't happen."
  • the members of Empire Arcadia — a grassroots group dedicated to supporting the gaming community and culture — have been so incensed by the recent attempts to blame video games for the Virginia Tech shootings that they've begun planning a rally in New York City with the assistance of the ECA.
  • "There we will protest, mourn and show how real gamers play video games peacefully and responsibly," organizer Johnson wrote on the group's Web site. "This demonstration is to show that gamers will not take the blame of this tragic matter but we will do what we can to help put an end to terrible events like this." Johnson says that, ultimately, he hopes the rally — scheduled for May 5 — will help people better understand video game enthusiasts like him. "We are normal people," he says. "We just play games."
Ben Walters

Part 2 - How video games are good for the brain - The Boston Globe - 0 views

www.boston.com/...o_games_are_good_for_the_brain

Entertainment Brain Learning Education Video Games Society Psychology

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - Cached
  • A type of scan that illuminates brain activity showed that at the end of the three months, the girls’ brains were working less hard to complete the game’s challenges. What’s more, parts of the cortex, the outer layer of their brains responsible for high-level functions, actually got thicker. Several of these regions are associated with visual spatial abilities, planning, and integration of sensory data.
  • Other researchers are hoping to use video games to encourage prosocial behaviors - actions designed to help others.
  • Generalizability to non-game situations is the big question surrounding other emerging games, particularly software that is being marketed explicitly as a way to keep neurons spry as we age. The jury is still out on whether practicing with these games helps people outside of the context of the game. In one promising 2008 study, however, senior citizens who started playing Rise of Nations, a strategic video game devoted to acquiring territory and nation building, improved on a wide range of cognitive abilities, performing better on subsequent tests of memory, reasoning, and multitasking. The tests were administered after eight weeks of training on the game. No follow-up testing was done to assess whether the gains would last.
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  • Now that researchers know these off-the-shelf games can have wide-ranging benefits, they’re trying to home in on the games’ most important aspects, potentially allowing designers to create new games that specifically boost brain power.
  • “Until now, people have been asking can you learn anything from games?’’ MIT’s Klopfer said. “That’s a less interesting question than what aspects of games are important for fostering learning.’’
  • Do students learn more with a more narrative game?
  • is assessing whether games that are novel, include social interaction, and require intense focus are better at boosting cognitive skills. McLaughlin and her colleagues will use the findings to design games geared toward improving mental function among the elderly.
  • Does this mean that Tetris is good for your brain?’’ Haier said. “That is the big question. We don’t know that just because you become better at playing Tetris after practice and your brain changes . . . whether those changes generalize to anything else.’’
  • an international team of researchers, including several from Iowa State University, reported that middle school students in Japan who played games in which characters helped or showed affection for others, later engaged in more of these behaviors themselves.
  • Researchers also found that US college students randomly assigned to play a prosocial game were subsequently kinder to a fellow research subject than students who played violent or neutral games.
  • Unlike, say, movies or books, video games don’t just have content, they also have rules. A game is set up to reward certain actions and to punish others. This means they have immense potential to teach children ethics and values
  • (Of course, this is a double-edged sword. Games could reward negative, antisocial behavior just as easily as positive, prosocial behavior.)
  • Some off-the-shelf games already contain strong prosocial themes
  • he classic Oregon Trail, which make players responsible for the well-being of other characters and feature characters who take care of one another.
  • “Ultimately, the video game needs to be an entertaining experience,’’ Seider said. “The game has to be fun.’’
Ben Walters

When Escape Seems Just a Mouse-Click Away - washingtonpost.com - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2006052601960.html

Korea Stress Addiction Games Entertainment Psychology Teens School Pressure

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - Cached
  • "I guess I knew I was becoming addicted, but I couldn't stop myself," Kim recalled from a clinic where he was undergoing counseling. "I stopped changing my clothes. I didn't go out. And I began to see myself as the character in my games."
  • Last month, the government -- which opened a treatment center in 2002 -- launched a game addiction hotline. Hundreds of private hospitals and psychiatric clinics have opened units to treat the problem.
  • An estimated 2.4 percent of the population from 9 to 39 are believed to be suffering from game addiction, according to a government-funded survey. Another 10.2 percent were found to be "borderline cases" at risk of addiction -- defined as an obsession with playing electronic games to the point of sleep deprivation, disruption of daily life and a loosening grip on reality. Such feelings are typically coupled with depression and a sense of withdrawal when not playing, counselors say.
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  • The situation has grown so acute that 10 South Koreans -- mostly teenagers and people in their twenties -- died in 2005 from game addiction-related causes, up from only two known deaths from 2001 to 2004, according to government officials. Most of the deaths were attributed to a disruption in blood circulation caused by sitting in a single, cramped position for too long -- a problem known as "economy class syndrome," a reference to sitting in an airplane's smallest seats on long flights.
  • In one instance, a 28-year-old man died in the central city of Taegu last year after reportedly playing an online computer game for 50 hours with few breaks. He finally collapsed in a "PC baang " -- one of the tens of thousands of Internet game cafes that have become as common as convenience stores across South Korea. Users can pop in to these small, smoky dens -- with walls covered in gothic game posters -- for about $1 an hour, day or night.
  • "Game addiction has become one of our newest societal ills," said Son Yeongi, president of the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity, which offers government-funded counseling. "Gaming itself is not the problem. Like anything, this is about excessive use."
  • Experts are seeing more cases of game addiction in many industrialized nations -- particularly the United States and Japan. But sociologists and psychiatrists have identified South Korea as the epicenter of the problem.
  • That is in part because young people here suffer from acute stress as they face educational pressures said to far exceed those endured by their peers in other countries. It is not uncommon, for instance, for South Korean students to be forced by their parents into four to five hours of daily after-school tutoring. With drug abuse and teenage sex considered rare in the socially conservative country, escape through electronic games can be a hugely attractive outlet.
  • At the same time, South Korea boasts an unparalleled gaming culture. In 2000 in Seoul, the capital, South Koreans inaugurated the World Cyber Games -- a sort of gaming Olympics that now draws players from 67 nations. Professional South Korean gamers can earn more than $100,000 a year in domestic and international competitions.
Ben Walters

Stress over teen's 'addiction' | Perth Now - 0 views

www.perthnow.com.au/...story-e6frg13u-1111113958526

Stress Games Addiction Teens Entertainment Psychology Runescape

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • THE father of a 15-year-old Perth computer-game addict has described the family's extraordinary nightmare - comparing it to heroin addiction.
  • his son's life had spiralled out of control in the past 14 months.
  • The Year 11 Ballajura Community College student has not attended classes for two months. He spends his time alone in a dark room playing the RuneScape game for up to 16 hours a day.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • The son used to dress in his school uniform each morning, but after his mother left for work he would change out of the uniform and spend the day playing the interactive game.
  • She would return home each night none the wiser.
  • The family is struggling to find help for him, and a succession of psychologists and counsellors have not yet made any progress with him.
  • The boy's parents are divorced, and he lives with his mother. His sister moved out because she couldn't cope with his bizarre addiction.
  • His son had been transformed from a typically bright, sports-mad teenager to being reclusive and aggressive.
  • "It just got worse and worse,'' he said. ``He just wouldn't come off it at night. He'd play until two or three o'clock in the morning.
  • "If his mother tried to shut it off or whatever, he'd become violent.
  • "He displayed the characteristics of a heroin addict. You haven't got someone putting a needle in their arm and having a high, but you've got all the telltale collateral damage of a heroin addict _ withdrawal from his family, withdrawal from his friends, lies to cover his addiction. He'll do anything.
  • "He was an outdoor kid. Every sport you could name, he was playing. Now he's white, doesn't go outside. He was very bright, he was going to be a forensic scientist.
  • "Recently he has admitted it, before he was in denial. He wants to get back to what he was like. He wants to get better. He wants to go to school. He can't -- it won't let him. It's like any addiction.''
Ben Walters

Video Game Addiction - Internet Gaming Addiction - 0 views

www.video-game-addiction.org

game addiction video Entertainment Games Society Psychology

shared by Ben Walters on 14 Nov 10 - Cached
  • Anyone who has experienced it knows all too well – video game addiction is real.
  • Although gaming addiction is not yet officially recognized as a diagnosable disorder by the American Medical Association, there is increasing evidence that people of all ages, especially teens and pre-teens, are facing very real, sometimes severe consequences associated with compulsive use of video and computer games.
  • it’s not surprising that some teens would rather play the latest video game than hang out with friends, play sports, or even watch television.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Of course, all gamers are not addicts – many teens can play video games a few hours a week, successfully balancing school activities, grades, friends, and family obligations. But for some, gaming has become an uncontrollable compulsion. Studies estimate that 10 percent to 15 percent of gamers exhibit signs that meet the World Health Organization’s criteria for addiction. Just like gambling and other compulsive behaviors, teens can become so enthralled in the fantasy world of gaming that they neglect their family, friends, work, and school.
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