5th Post - Thoughts on Internet Addiction

The essay that I have decided to work on for this course deals with whether or not Internet Addiction has the same symptoms and characteristics as more traditional forms of addiction including alcohol and substance abuse.

My first thought was that while internet addiction can be a serious problem, especially in today's context, it probably does not exhibit the same characteristics as drug addiction. My own inclination is that people play games such as World of Warcraft or Everquest not because they get some kind of high off of it, rather, it is because in these virtual worlds it is much easier to make friends and have a 'social life'. In other words, teenagers who suffer from intense anxiety or who simply lack the social skills needed to interact with various strangers or colleges, may find it easier to socialize, when placed into a virtual world in which everyone has the same interest. Whether it be World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy online, Call of Duty: Black Ops, or Everquest, these worlds offer teenagers a place to feel comfortable and at ease. My initial thoughts before doing the proper research for my essay is that games like World of Warcraft are not so much an addictive substance as they are a place for gamers to interact and socialize. If teenagers begin playing for 12 hours a day, its not so much an addiction problem as it is a time management problem. For instance, would you consider and individual hanging out with friends 24/7 an addiction? or simply signs that the individual is an extraverted person?

After doing a considerable amount of research, reading article after article that dealt with both the psychological effects of internet gaming as well as going through various definitions of what addiction is, I have come to conslusion that internet addiction does have some similarities with drug abuse. Rather then going through all the nitty gritty details of my paper, the most persuasive article is that of Chich-Hung Ko et al. (2009). Ko et al., through monitoring the brain activity of pathological gamers while they were shown images of their respective games, found that the areas that are stimulated in the brain are similar, if not identical, to that of drug users. Furthermore, when these groups were no longer allowed to the play the video game, areas of the brain that were stimulated were the exact same as those exhibited by cocaine users going through withdrawals.

This led me to conclusion that perhaps there is a grain of truth in calling it World of Warcrack and/or Evercrack.