Video Game Addiction Raise your hand if you play video games. A little history on video games is that video games first came out in homes in 1972, according to the book Before the Crash: Early Video Game History (Wolf, 2012). I think many of us are aware of video game addictions but may not think much of it. Video game addictions are a serious problem with many consequences. Video games, especially in college, can be a break from your classes or just something fun to do in your free time. Limiting your time playing video games will help prevent video game addiction and the consequences that come with it. I am not saying completely cut them out of your life, but don’t allow yourself to play them every moment you can. Today I will talk to you about the problems caused by video game addictions, what you can do to limit your time, and the impact that will happen if we don’t do anything about it. As you can tell by this picture I found at buzzle.com, video game addiction can cause social isolation, insomnia, and obesity (Negative Effects of Video Games, n.d).
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Social isolation, insomnia, and obesity will cause many problems in the future for gamers when it comes to getting a job or staying in college. According to video-game-addiction.org, if you aren’t getting enough sleep, this can cause consequences socially (Video Game Addiction, n.d). Losing sleep to play videogames will mean you don’t have the energy or want to put in the time for your relationships and you are probably not someone who people want to be around when you don’t get enough sleep. When playing video games for a long period of time, insomnia can be caused because of “overstimulation of the brain” (Video Game Addiction, n.d). You could also lose sleep just because you are too worried about playing or just thinking about the game. Obesity may not be completely caused by video game addiction, it is related. As you can tell by this image I found in the article Health Psychology, based on how many hours video games are played, there is an increase in obesity (Health Psychology, 2009). Stateofobesity.org states that 30.3% of adults ages 20 to 39 are obese (Obesity Rates & Trends, 2015). If we limit our time playing video games, there is a better chance of not having a video game addiction. There are many things you can do to get your mind off of playing video games and putting something else into the time you have free. Instead of playing the game every chance you get such as between classes, skipping your classes, and late at night, you can find other things to do. Decide on a certain amount of time that is reasonable to play. Say you decide to only play 5 hours a week. To make yourself do this, instead of going straight from class to play a game, you can take a walk instead. Instead of playing video games late into the night, put in that extra time to work on homework instead of rushing through it. Instead of staying in on the weekends to play the games, spend time with your friends and family. If you don’t play videogames but know someone who does, all you need to do is encourage them to spend less time on games
Social isolation, insomnia, and obesity will cause many problems in the future for gamers when it comes to getting a job or staying in college. According to video-game-addiction.org, if you aren’t getting enough sleep, this can cause consequences socially (Video Game Addiction, n.d). Losing sleep to play videogames will mean you don’t have the energy or want to put in the time for your relationships and you are probably not someone who people want to be around when you don’t get enough sleep. When playing video games for a long period of time, insomnia can be caused because of “overstimulation of the brain” (Video Game Addiction, n.d). You could also lose sleep just because you are too worried about playing or just thinking about the game. Obesity may not be completely caused by video game addiction, it is related. As you can tell by this image I found in the article Health Psychology, based on how many hours video games are played, there is an increase in obesity (Health Psychology, 2009). Stateofobesity.org states that 30.3% of adults ages 20 to 39 are obese (Obesity Rates & Trends, 2015). If we limit our time playing video games, there is a better chance of not having a video game addiction. There are many things you can do to get your mind off of playing video games and putting something else into the time you have free. Instead of playing the game every chance you get such as between classes, skipping your classes, and late at night, you can find other things to do. Decide on a certain amount of time that is reasonable to play. Say you decide to only play 5 hours a week. To make yourself do this, instead of going straight from class to play a game, you can take a walk instead. Instead of playing video games late into the night, put in that extra time to work on homework instead of rushing through it. Instead of staying in on the weekends to play the games, spend time with your friends and family. If you don’t play videogames but know someone who does, all you need to do is encourage them to spend less time on games