Ramble - Gaming Addiction... should you be worried?

Almost certainly the answer is no.  If you're a gamer and you're reading this, without doubt you've found a game so amazing that you've put your life on hold for a bit to play it.  You've played into the night.  Maybe you took the day off work on the day when a game came out.  But does that mean you're addicted to games?  No, it does not.

On 18th June it was widely reported that gaming had been classified as an addiction in the World Health Organisation's latest disease classification manual.  This in itself is controversial amongst those in the know.  An article by proper science type guys who know about this sort of  things has the following abstract:

Concerns about problematic gaming behaviors deserve our full attention. However, we claim that it is far from clear that these problems can or should be attributed to a new disorder. The empirical basis for a Gaming Disorder proposal, such as in the new ICD-11, suffers from fundamental issues. Our main concerns are the low quality of the research base, the fact that the current operationalization leans too heavily on substance use and gambling criteria, and the lack of consensus on symptomatology and assessment of problematic gaming. The act of formalizing this disorder, even as a proposal, has negative medical, scientific, public-health, societal and human rights fallout that should be considered. Of particular concern are moral panics around the harm of video gaming. They might result in premature application of diagnosis in the medical community and the treatment of abundant false-positive cases, especially for children and adolescents. Secondly, research will be locked into a confirmatory approach, rather than an exploration of the boundaries of normal versus pathological. Thirdly, the healthy majority of gamers will be affected negatively. We expect that the premature inclusion of Gaming Disorder as a diagnosis in ICD-11 will cause significant stigma to the millions of children who play video games as part of a normal, healthy life. At this point, suggesting formal diagnoses and categories is premature: the ICD-11 proposal for Gaming Disorder should be removed to avoid a waste of public health resources as well as to avoid causing harm to healthy video gamers around the world.
(PDF) Scholars' open debate paper on the World Health Organization ICD-11 Gaming Disorder proposal. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311981176_Scholars'_open_debate_paper_on_the_World_Health_Organization_ICD-11_Gaming_Disorder_proposal [accessed Jun 23 2018].

This is not to say that some people aren't addicted to gaming.  But whether it's actually gaming they're addicted to, or their problem with gaming is due to some other underlying cause, is far from clear.  Many games are designed to have rewards built in that make our brains happy.  As this article in the Guardian puts it:

Other games, particularly those played on smartphones and tablets, and which bill themselves as free, are designed to extract money and attention from players with countdown timers and “streak” mechanics that encourage you to come back several times a day, or spend money to speed up progress. 

We know that every time someone 'likes' one of our social media posts it makes our brains happy, causing us to do it more.  Just go for a walk and see how many people are glued to their phone screens.  Or sitting in a cafe looking at their phones rather than talking.  I honestly don't know what they're looking at.  (The problem here is that adults should make sure they don't spend too long on their phones.  Adults cannot take the high ground here.  Various surveys have been carried out where kids have said they've had to ask their parents to stop checking their phones.)

Then there are things like loot boxes, which have recently been declared illegal under Belgian gambling laws.  These things are a horrible addition to games and I, for one, will not be sorry to see them go.

So, there are things built into some games, particularly "free" games, that are bad.  And can cause you to spend more time playing that you mean to.  But your kid probably isn't addicted to gaming.  Following the initial scare stories, some more balanced articles about the WHO classification have been appearing saying it was "premature" and based on a "moral panic".  Playing games for a couple of hours a day isn't the end of the world.  How much time do you spend watching TV?  Or reading?  Games can be positive things.  They can be social.  We all have to watch our screen time - adults and kids.

There's been a major furore over Fortnite.  Some parents are very negative (probably because they don't know what all the fuss is about), but I was talking to someone this week who finds the videos her son makes in it really fun and loves his creativity.  I don't really get the game (it's not my sort of thing) but I have watched some hilarious videos of other people playing it.  Like Squid going to max height with the shopping trolley:

It seems that every time something becomes a popular thing amongst kids adults get worried.  Spend a little time googling - it's kind of fun.  For instance...
Fortnite
Fidget Spinners
Minecraft
POGs (remember them?)
Panini football stickers
Even Harry Potter books

The bottom line here is... understand what your kids are doing on their computers, join in with them (while they'll let you), and don't be a hypocrite..!