2025 Teen Webzine
Not only drugs get you addicted! Games have a precise composition to get you addicted and manipulated, similar to drugs. The effect of the game industry in your life is significant. We need to understand that the games are a tool: the way you use it will define if it is harmful or not. For example, according to the American Gaming Association games have already made millions of jobs, however it ends relations. Finally games are a tool. What you do with it will be the result.
There are some techniques used by industries to make people addicted to games. In addition, these techniques can ruin the brain in a serious way that can affect our future, especially kids making their life 10 times more difficult. According to DR.Michael Milhaw in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, games affect the brain by using rewards. These prizes make your brain generate dopamine (a chemical that makes people incredibly happy in a short time), however, for kids, this is a real danger because, different from adults, they have a less developed Prefrontal Cortex (an area of the brain that controls us when we have a sudden down of happiness). When kids stop playing and have a drop of dopamine, the Prefrontal cortex, that is less developed, makes kids have extreme reactions and. Also, there are some psychological techniques, that each part is coldly calculated to make you become more and more addicted in a way that you lost all but you still only care about gaming. According to the youtube channel Game Quitters, games use a term called “hierarchy of needs”, made by the psychologist Abraham Maslow (a hierarchy that defines the physiological needs to the most important to the last) and as said by Games Quitters “ Video games are designed in a way that they simulate some of these psychological needs”, but the real problem is that the video games do a simulation, despite, the needs are not totally fulfilled, there is a limit of what games can do. Also they use another factor called flow state (a state of brain that we get totally focused in one thing that we are doing in the moment) is like a trance they use this state by trying to add the requirements to these states that are a set of goals, a purpose, personal agency, feedback and a close match between perceived skills and perceived challenges. The flow state is found in a lot of things like work sports and is a healthy phenomenon, however the way that games include it is bad because they try to trap you in this state and never go away. You don't see the track of time play, play and play without stopping. Then, we have a big dilemma: Can games be compared to drugs? In my opinion they can, because they are very addictive, this is terrible because this can transform games into something bad, and they were not meant to be that. According to a comparison between the Cleveland Clinic and Psychiatric Times 40 that in Cleveland Clinic, it says the dopamine drugs as dopamine agonist (A classification to drugs that give dopamine) and in Psychiatric Times 40 the excession of dopamine have a very similar idea, games use these excess of dopamine for the gamers play again and have this dopamine and then they never stop playing and drugs use this dopamine to make the user addict in the excess of dopamine and want more and then they never stop buying, Both ideas are similar on the contrary games are less dangerous of course but this don't change the fact that the way is plan to the addiction of both is similar. And then we have a big point that was said in the film Social Dilemma: there are only two industries that name their clients users; software and drugs.
Techniques are made to be addictive consequently they have bad outcomes. Are there real consequences of addiction to games? Furthermore can these consequences be psychological ? How can it affect us? How much does it affect us? Based on PubMed Central, researches, it shows that games can affect mental health, depression, anxiety, and psychoticism as said by PMC “disrupt family relationships, lower quality of life, increase social phobia, lower school performance, and improve sleep deprivation “. Also, an important point to be said is that the most affected by gaming addiction are teenagers. One of the worst consequences is to health because there are some problems that are impossible to solve or can probably affect the future. As claimed by Harvard, excessive gaming can affect in a serious way your health, “Repetitive stress injuries, or overuse injuries, are injuries that come from activities that involve repeated use of muscles and tendons, to the point that pain and inflammation develop. If these injuries are allowed to progress, numbness and weakness can develop, and permanent injury can result.” Some named injuries can also appear as example Carpal tunnel syndrome normally found in office workers. it gives inflammation of a nerve in the wrist, it causes immense pain. Another injury would be De Quervain's Tenosynovitis also known as Gamer’s Thumb. It is an inflammation of the tendon. Everyone says how bad is gaming that you need to stop but nobody knows how to stop, and then we have the final point on how to stop addiction. According to Uk Addiction Treatment Centers we have two options, the first one is a treatment called Outpatient gaming rehab. You have daily visits to counsellor therapists, however it is proven that is less effective than the other treatment because you don't stop playing. The other option is Inpatient gaming rehab when you stay with zero contact with gaming and stay the the time of your treatment in a residential rehab centre where you have total support of specialists of the team, have already been proven more effective, despite, is the most difficult way to stop.
Games are bad, although we can't forget that there are good effects. Now we have an important topic to talk about, games have good sides if they are controlled, because games are only a tool depending on how you use it. And sometimes these skills, which are acquired through games, can help in real life or in social relations and learning new cultures. These are the good sides of gaming. According to American Psychology Association games can develop a lot of skills, some effective for life, others not. When thinking about objects in three dimensions, that is one of the skills needed to play first person shooter games. As said by them “This has critical implications for education and career development, as previous research has established the power of spatial skills for achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,”. Another ability could be the skill of problem-solving skills. It is said that a lot of gamers that play strategy games that gain this ability have improved a lot in grades related to problem-solving skills. Everyone says that sometimes games are positive but you already thought about what would happen if a good side becomes bad. According to Institute for Educational Advancement skills as social interaction is also seen as bad, because it is said that a lot of kids, besides interacting with people in their life, change by interacting with other players. The vision of the site is that this could be seen as a social isolation, despite in my opinion is already proven that the world social isolation is not correct seeing in a way is really a bad thing but this interactions with players can give knowledge of culture, the ability of social interaction even being in a bad way to be acquired.
Beside all these advantages and disadvantages, games are also a huge power in economic terms helping people and the economy. According to American Gaming Association games industries already dominated United State economy they say that the industry already provide to the country $329 billion, 52.7 billions in taxes to the government and gave access to 1.8 millions works around US, “we are only talking about US, imagine the rest of the world.”
Keep this in mind, games are not so different from guns. Games sometimes are bad because they are very addictive, on the contrary games are a way of learning new cultures. We have guns. Guns are used to kill but it is used to protect us. The main idea you need to have is if the game is using you or if you are using the game. As said by Evolve 90% of the kids in the US play games and 4% of these kids are addicted. Do not forget games are dangerous, but they are tools.
Lucas U. is a good student, smart, and dedicated. He loves cats and video games, and writes about Technology, Advice Columns, and other articles for TEEN MINDS’ Community Life section.