Читать книгу Overcoming Internet Addiction For Dummies - David N. Greenfield - Страница 17

Video gaming is perhaps the most common reason why people seek treatment in our clinic and residential treatment center. Of all the content areas that are consumed on the Internet, video gaming is perhaps the most problematic that we see in terms of negative life consequences. That doesn’t mean that video gaming is bad or inherently dangerous; in fact, most people who use video games have no significant problem with them and are able to use games with little or no negative life impact. In other words, they can use them in a moderated manner. However, there is a small percentage of users (studies suggest between 1 and 10 percent) who cannot self-regulate their use and who spend inordinate amounts of time on gaming platforms, including handheld devices, consoles, and PC-based systems. Most of the patients we treat seem to be having problems with PC-based or console games.

Video games incorporate some very attractive factors that contribute to their addictive potential:

 They provide stimulating content that is novel, interactive, and dynamic. Games are always evolving, through updates and modifications, to keep the novelty and challenge factor high.

 When playing a video game, you can experience a level of growing mastery that often creates a sense of accomplishment; you might develop greater efficacy in your skills and a higher ranking in comparison to other users.

 The game provides a sophisticated variable ratio reinforcement and reward structure (the maybe factor), and this structure is modified and changed to maintain user interest and to maximize the dopamine/pleasure response.

All forms of Internet communication facilitate some degree of social connection and group interaction, albeit in a two-dimensional online format, but many video game users find the social component of video gaming to be quite compelling. Many times, gamers are communicating verbally (on a headset) via apps such as Discord or others, and the conversations may not only be about the game being played. Flip to Chapter 7 for more about video games.