Welcome Excalibur25

Internet Addiction-Online Gaming Addictions

     Welcome Excalibur25, TheProXSniper, or whatever your nickname is on the internet. I know that you are addicted to playing online games day and night, but you will of course not admit it. However, you have come to your right first stop -the stop of acknowledging addiction. In this blog, you will may come across your favorite games or maybe not, but you will definitely be reading more about what online gaming takes away from you without you even noticing it: things like your sleep, money and social life.

An Addiction to Be or Not to Be?

     Even though online gaming is not considered to be an addiction by American Medical Association, there are neuroscientific reports showing that the same region of the brain activates when an alcoholic sees a beer like a gamer seeing a picture of a game. Gamers have been reported to spend 6.14 hours to an online game “daily.” If we do the maths right by assuming that this teenager goes to a full-day school and has to get up at 6:30 A.M. and leave school at 4 P.M., he has about 5 hours of free time. However, he has to eat and study for the next day, so he has about 2-3 hours free. A teenager requires at least 8 hours of sleep per day, but there’s a problem in our maths equations. The hours will surpass 24 hours. Thus, it causes the gamer to take time away from their sleep, and it causes them to have insomnia. Insomnia is a sleep deprivation problem which affects the daily lives of the teenagers and causes them to have lower grades and life performances. Therefore, do not escape to the virtual world just because something hurt your self-esteem.

  

$ - £ - ₺ - € - ¥    Problems

     According to the statistics done by TechAddiction, online gaming addiction causes a few important problems, and one of the most important one is the financial one. As a teenager, you would probably not recognize this as a problem, but it unfortunately it is. According to an interview done by Daily News, a 13 years old kid secretly used his parents’ visa card and spent 1,000$ on video games. Since you are a teenager who will eventually be an adult with a job, you will begin to understand that earning money and knowing right places to spend it on is hard. However, you don’t have to “live and learn”, but be ready from today. Just keep on reading the blog for advices.

LOST: "My SOCIAL LIFE"

     As I have told before, a gamer will try to steal some time from his bedtime to play more games, but sleeping is not the only time a teenager can steal from. Teeangers should be social and physically active with their real friends in the real world. Thus, they will learn how to act when they are among their friends and in a social environment with people of many ages. If they manage to succeed this, they will have better relationships with the people they will encounter. However, if they fail to do these kind of activities, they will have physical and socializing problems in the world. Now, you might think that you are being social by playing online games with your friends. Then, I want "you" to think about the time when you had a dinner with your family or went out with your friends and had fun with them. I think it's very rare, and you also know it.

"Send Some Medic Here"

     In conclusion, "online gaming addiction" causes teenagers to have a sleep disorder that causes them to do poorly in their school and social lives. Teenagers should be taught how to be conservative with their money, have time and money limits that are spent on the games. The teenagers should go out with their friends more. Now you have done a favor to yourself by reading this blog, so now you know a few facts about your addiction. The only advice I can give you is that seek medical help and talk to people that you can easily open to.

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Works Cited

• Conrad, Brent. “Computer Game Addiction - Symptoms, Treatment, & FAQs.” Techaddiction.com. Techaddiction. 2017. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.

• "Internet Addiction Quiz". Psychcentral.com. Psychcentral. 22 Nov 2016. Web. 19 Apr 2017.

• Joyce, Amy. "Teens Say They Are Addicted to Technology". Washingtonpost.com. Washington Post Company LLC. 3 May 2016. Web. 19 Apr 2017.

• Lenhart, Amanda. "Teens, Social Media, and Technology Overview." Pewinternet.org. Pew Research Center. 9 Apr 2015. Web. 19 Apr 2017.

• “Video Game Addiction Symptoms, Causes and Effects.” PsychicGuide.com. Sober Media Group.2017.Web.10 Apr. 2017.

• Young, Kimberly. "What You Need to Know About Internet Addiction". Youtube. TedxBuffalo. 5 Jan 2015. Web. 19 Apr 2017.

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