"Everything you do alters your brain's neural networks. An obsession with video games stems from the nature of what video games are: constrained spaces that cancel out everything except for the experience of playing the game; what we call being in the zone".
Where did you get your information from.
http://www.theshallowsbook.com/nicholascarr/Nicholas_Carrs_The_Shallows.html
http://www.alonetogetherbook.com/
The portion about a constrained space is from page 226 in the second book. The part of the statement I made pertaining to neural networks is derived from the first book.
Tl;Dr I believe that no one has got to the bottom of this, even though thousands of scientists are looking at it from every perspective, so maybe we are looking in the wrong area? I firmly believe like depression, that addiction is a physiological illness, to do with the mind, however it CAN BE CURED... after all, it would be a much nicer life if someone wasn't addicted to something / depressed all the time.
You are correct. This is a very big puzzle, but many people are looking for the pieces and they are trying to fit them together as best they can.
It is very beneficial to seek out all the information you can in books, articles, journals, etc. There is a lot of literature out there on the topic. However, you might that one of the best ways to acquire knowledge over the situation is to observe the ways we speak to and interact with one another.
Just common sense and real life experience. If someone doesn't know when enough's enough and can't balance work and play or is using them as an eacape from reality then were they removed from the situation they would have gone to something else. Some people go to video games, some people go to drugs, some people go to alcohol. It's the same desire to forget the problems in the real world.
I've been addicted to video games and I've been in a place where I was drunk most of the time; both of which used to forget about my problems and stresses. I know many people that that is the case with.
It's doesn't have a scientific explanation, no, it's only inductive. But I categorize these people as all the same.
But for this reasoning you must begin with the assumption that an addiction to video games always begins with an inability to cope with real world problems. This may be true in some (perhaps many) cases, but can it hold true for toddlers?
I am not arguing that a video game addiction cannot have its root in real-world conflict, rather I contend that it occurs through a combination of real-world factors together with properties inherent to the video game systems; in specific cases the influence exerted by one factor may be greater than the other, but in the case of very young children it may be more likely that, given their immaturity, and thus their susceptibility, they fall victim to the appeal as well as the mechanisms of video games which cause them to get 'hooked'. As they move through life and encounter an increasingly wide array of challenges and conflicts, they already have at their disposal a virtual world images to which they can escape to in order to cope with life's stresses. However, this tends to become a viscous cycle: a given person will condition themselves to use video games as a means of escape, but in the process they exposes themselves to a mechanism which in fact exerts a direct influence on the nervous system, latching itself onto the mind, such that even under non-stressful circumstances, the urge to seek the pleasure of the virtual gnaws at the back of their heads.
This is a rational addiction. The consequences of prolonged video game use are not easily felt or visible, since they emanate directly from the afflicted person. It is very difficult to recognize one's self as the root of a problem which has no physical factor other than a seemingly benign projection of images. Coupled with the effect of dopamine, it becomes very difficult to let go of, or even acknowledge, the use video games even if they have become a problematic habit. In a sense, it becomes easier to imagine reasons for why one
is not the root of the problem, and for why they
should continue to play, thus perpetuating the cycle.
This is a problem which goes far beyond video games, and it is more pervasive than we generally acknowledge. It is extremely important that we examine our habits (however insignificant they might seem) when it comes to television, computers,
cell phones, video games, or anything else really, but especially electronics, given their omnipresence in our lives.
For now, I've said all I need to say, but I would like for anyone who bothers reading these posts to consider McLuhan's words,
"For any medium has the power of imposing its own assumption on the unwary. Prediction and control consist in avoiding this subliminal state of Narcissus trance. But the greatest aid to this end is simply in knowing that the spell can occur immediately upon contact, as in the first bars of a melody."
