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."

Comments

I've seen it first hand

[kneecarrot]

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.

definition of Internet Addiction

[fantail]

The Kimberly Young definition of internet addiction: http://www.netaddiction.com/whatis.htm

Re:What is "addiction?"

[Zocalo]

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...

Re:Bit of a strawman (I think), however...

[d3kk]

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.

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.

Re:Bit of a strawman (I think), however...

[Golias]

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.