Nearly 9 % of American children are "pathologically" addicted to computer gaming, according to a new Iowa study.
Gentile found that 8.5 per cent of the survey respondents were showing symptoms that would be classified by the manual as pathological if they had been gambling instead of playing video games.
Several problems come to mind with this account, even without access to the study itself. For one, are those adult gamblers or children, with whom the comparison is being made?
Second, note the list of "symptoms":
* Spent 24 hours a week playing video games: about twice as much time as non-pathological gamers.
* Were more likely to have video game systems in their bedrooms.
* Were more likely to report having problems paying attention at school.
* Were more likely to have received a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
* Received poorer school grades.
* Had poorer health.
* Were more likely to say they felt "addicted" to their habit.
* Stole to support their habit.
* Were more likely to have video game systems in their bedrooms.
* Were more likely to report having problems paying attention at school.
* Were more likely to have received a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
* Received poorer school grades.
* Had poorer health.
* Were more likely to say they felt "addicted" to their habit.
* Stole to support their habit.
What a farrago. Having a game in one's room is a problem? What makes playing twice as much as others a pathological sign? (And imagine how many of us thereby become "pathological readers") Does anything connect the actual problems from this list in a causal way?
Ian Campbell puts it well:
No mention that quite a bit of this behavior is abnormal but related to childhood, no mention that adult addiction and childhood addiction are fairly separate phenomena. And there’s absolutely no reflection regarding cause and effect. The explicit premise here is that the video game addiction causes the above pathologies, and is not a symptom of an underlying problem.
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