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Only 15% of Gamers are Internet Addicts
Huckster writes "Jeffrey Parsons - a doctoral candidate from University of Iowa has resently conducted a research on MMORPG addiction. It took a while to get the results - but they are now available.
The study found that about 15% of gamers meet the criteria for Internet addiction as provided by Kimberly Young, a leading researcher in Internet addiction. Using more strict criteria, a minimum of at least 10% of gamers met criteria for Internet addiction. Compared to national studies of Internet addiction, this numbers are somewhat elevated. However, given the sheer number of hours MMORPG gamers spend online (in comparison to the general population), even a 15% addiction rate is somewhat low.
To illustrate the point, the college student spends 10 hours on the Internet per week. The average MMORPG gamer (addicted or not) spends 20-25 hours per week just playing MMORPGs, and an additional 10-15 hours per week in other Internet use. In other words, MMORPG players are spending 4x as much time online as non-gamers."
I used to scoff at Internet addiction until I witnessed it firsthand. My roommate in University was hopelessly addicted to MMORPGS. It got to the point where he was skipping class to play. Shortly after that, he started asking everyone to call him by the name of his Everquest character (I think it was StealthDemon or something rather lame like that). It was *extremely* uncomfortable when he got up in front of the Stats201 class to "announce" his name change. It didn't help that he was wearing a cape and a huge plumed hat at the time, either. Before I moved out, he had actually started keeping a pail under his computer desk to urinate into so he wouldn't have to miss any action. Pretty sad, really.
I always save my last mod point to mod up a good troll. You people are too serious.
The Kimberly Young definition of internet addiction: http://www.netaddiction.com/whatis.htm
You can find out for yourself what the criteria are as defined by Kimberley Young, and find out if you too are an addict, by taking the test (20 multiple choice questions) here. Apparently I'm not addicated to the net though, so the thing must have a flaw somewhere...
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Since half of the posts in response to this article will devolve into some sort of argument about what is and isn't an "addiction", I feel I need to define it.
An addiction is any behavior that someone does in preference to other things and which results in adverse effects on another aspect of their life (e.g. relationships, job, assets, etc). Both of those things are important. If you just prefer to do something but it's not causing a problem, it's not an addiction.
Note that there is nothing in the definition describing "withdrawal" or whether it's psychological or physical or anything like that. Most of those things come from people's half understanding of substance abuse terminology, and have nothing to do with it. There is confusion over "dependence" and "addiction", such that people can be addicted to drugs (using them and having life problems) and be either physically dependent (e.g. heroin), mentally dependent (e.g. cocaine) or neither, although the last one is rare with drugs (it more applies to things like gambling and such).
Very true. Good post. Mod Up!!
I think the key to remember, though, is that you said yourself "obsessive/compulsive". Obsessive/compulsive behaviors aren't always healthy either. I wouldn't call the need to play softball OC in a clinical sense. However, one could possibly argue that *some* individuals who play online games do have OCD in a real sense and that an online game isn't the most healthy way to deal with the underlying problem.
So while I agree with what you said, that the term "addiction" is far overused. I'm not sure I agree that obsessive/compulsive behaviors are something to just brush aside as if they're no big deal. They are a big deal. And if someone is knee-deep in them, that person needs to be treated.
Of course, in the US, mental healthy is the getto of healthcare. It doesn't get nearly the respect nor funding that it deserves. Everyone just pops a pill and calls it good, without realizing that for many people therapy is necessary and helpful.
Have you ever played a MMORPG? I played Everquest for several hours every day for over two years back in high school, and yes, it was an addiction. I wasn't alone, either, or even in the minority.
If someone had deprived me, or most of the other people who played that game, of my gaming "fix" for a couple weeks, I would have had serious withdrawls.
Furthermore, can we get past this stupid habbit of calling every apparant obsessive/compulsive behavior an "addiction?" It's not as if these people are going to go through withdrawl symptoms if they are deprived of their gaming "fix" for a couple weeks.
You've never been around an Evercrack addict when their cable modem goes out, have you? I've seen someone sit there and stare at the screen, click "refresh" repeatedly, go reboot the cable modem, reboot their computer, and practically go into the DT's.
I just want to make 2 quick points here...
First, you mention TV... If you compare what the article was saying to your example, then most people watch TV 20-30 hours a week, but the 15 percent that watch TV 80-120 hours a week are the addicted ones. I don't think they're saying 10-15 or 25 hours a week of something is what makes an addiction; but the fact that you're doing something 4 times as much as most others is.
Second point: I had no interest in MMORPGs until my friends got me to play FFXI with them when it came out in October 2003 for the PC. Maybe because it was my first MMORPG, I don't know, but I spent literally 1/2 my time playing - 12 hours a day - for a good six months. After that for a year or so, it dropped to 1/3 my time. I dropped a class in college during those months and failed two others so I could play the game more. From release (Oct 2003) until about June 2004, I had clocked in 100 days worth of play time in the game.
I don't know if you've ever played one of these games, but there is a true addiction - the game can be so much fun it's almost like a drug. In FFXI, there's actually a screen when you log in to play that reminds you not to forget about your friends, family, school or work... something we all had a good laugh about... I'm still stuck to that game, despite cancelling 3 times. Eventuallly I'll end up replaying the music, hearing about friends who still play, or I'll see something online that will just get my hopes up again. For me, and at least a few others I know of, it really is like an addiction.
It so happens that my father is a licensed phsychologist. He once told me that he spends the vast majority of his clinical time takeing people off anti-depressants and other mind-altering drugs which were prescribed by general practitioners.
The vast majority of the people on Vallium, Paxil, Prozac, or Ritilan are people who probably should not be on anything, and in many cases these drugs are a hinderance to ideal mental health.
Unfortunately, you don't need to be a specially trained phsychiatrist to prescribe this stuff, and any medical doctor who perceives you as "depressed" or exibiting a behavior where he recently read that drug X "has had some success at treating the problem" during his 7-minute visit which included a physical can load you up on all kinds of Happy Pills.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
I gues 85% of americans would be considered "Addicted" to TV since they spend upwards of 30-40 hours a week watching TV?