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Addiction Essay - The teacher is real specific when it comes to following his guidelines, and

The teacher is real specific when it comes to following his guidelines...
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English Composition II (ENG-106)

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Video Game Definitional Argument

Jordan Roberson Grand Canyon University ENG- Dr. Skeen 02/13/

Addiction Essay People deal with or witness addiction in different ways due to the different levels that come with it. In some cases, a person may simply feel a heavy need to feed into their addiction, while in other cases another person will not live without feeding into it and take drastic measures to feed it. A long-lasting issue between society is whether video games can be deemed addictive or not. One side of the debate feels it should not be placed in. the same category such alcohol or drug addictions, while others feel that it is not as light an issue as it can be portrayed. Given the properties of addiction that will be discussed, it will be seen how addictive video games cannot be. As stated prior, one side of the video game addiction debate does not feel that it should be taken as such a light issue that can be brushed off their shoulders. It is mainly coming with parents when it is brought up about how negative kids perform in school when given free rein to their gaming habits. It is also common for scientists and researchers to point out how gaming can “trigger the release of dopamine, a chemical which reinforces behavior” (Addiction Center, 2021). This side of the debate ultimately deem gaming harmful when exposed long-term and unchecked that can negatively harm people psychologically, socially, and even personally. To counter the point of performing bad in school, it also comes down to the parent to set limits and look out for signs of addiction in their children to stop it early. Making sure schoolwork is getting done before playing or even taking away the game outright until improvement is made in school are the most basic things to do. And to counter the claim from professionals about the release of dopamine, just because it is reinforcing behavior does not mean it is also reinforcing pleasure. A person can do the same activity as much as they want but if there is not pleasure

Denial plays a part in every case of addiction no matter the severity or else it would not get to that severe level in the first place. Speaking specifically on the topic of video games; yes, denying that there is any sort of issue can be a potential sign. But because of the grey area in this specific property, it cannot be a sole motivating factor to believe that someone may have an addiction. This property is more of a last resort to use after looking at all of the other possible properties and seeing if they have all been given a positive result. Another property is focused on the inability to stop. This property is also a toss-up because it depends on the person once again. It is proven that dopamine releases while playing video games which encourages the person to want to play them again. According to Statista, a website that provides expert statistics for different topics, the average person in the US spends only 15 minutes a day playing video games. It may seem like such a low number, but the highest average is between 15–24-year-olds who average 39 minutes. There is also another statistic that states that the average gamer spends roughly 8 and a half hours playing video games a week, which translates to only 1 hours a day (Combs, 2021). Granted there is a large jump in numbers, but the statistics show that gaming is not a hard task to stop, especially when compared to nicotine users. There is a 33% chance of being addicted to nicotine while there is a 10% chance of becoming addicted to gaming. Having an improper set of priorities is also a sign of addiction. For most people that can be portrayed as having less care for personal health such as eating and hygiene. Esports News UK reports that on a study of over 1,000 gamers aged 16 and over during COVID lockdowns, 200 of them admitted to taking less showers as well as staying isolated (Sacco, 2020). Granted that is still a high number to think of, that is during the COVID lockdowns where staying home was a mandatory need and there were different views on the matter. Regardless, there was still an

80% of those surveyed that did not find any issue, which then goes against the property of addiction having improper priorities. The last property being discussed is the withdrawal symptoms that come with an addiction whether it be attitude changes or mental changes. According to Megan Hull of The Recovery Village, out of the 2 billion global gamers, only “1-10%” can show negative symptoms of withdrawal (Hull, 2021). That is still a large number when taken into context, but it should not be used as a motivating factor when trying to claim that games can show symptoms of withdrawal, because that can apply to anyone given certain circumstances. The number only indicates that there is a portion of people that do showcase those symptoms. With the massive sample size as well, it should be shown as proof that the instance is rare and not close to that of alcohol or nicotine addicts. Given the listed properties of addiction and its proper definition, when putting gamers into those properties it was seen that more times than not it was not able to fit the description of the property given. The only grey area that was given was the property of denial since it mainly relies on acting as a last resort when dealing with a potential addict. Regarding inability to stop, a shift in priorities, and showing signs of withdrawal, statistics were shown to support the idea that gaming is not addictive in nature. That does not mean a person may not become addicted to gaming because there is always a chance, but it should not be placed in the same category with alcohol addicts or drug addicts.

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Addiction Essay - The teacher is real specific when it comes to following his guidelines, and

Course: English Composition II (ENG-106)

999+ Documents
Students shared 1578 documents in this course
Was this document helpful?