Gaming Addiction Found to be Social, not Psychological

A recent story from Gamespot UK reported that Keith Bakker, the founder of the Smith & Jones centre on gaming addiction in Amsterdam, said video game addictions are a social ailment and not psychological.

Reportedly speaking on the BBC, Bakker said his institute had orginally believed video game addicition was a compulsion in the same way a gambling addicition functions. However, new findings show the contrary.

"These kids come in showing some kind of symptoms that are similar to other addictions and chemical dependencies... But the more we work with [them] the less I believe we can call this addiction," he said. "What many of these kids need is their parents and their school teachers: this is a social problem."

According to Bakker, playing video games is a response to being bullied in school and makes up for a lack of communication skills.

I personally never thought a video game addicition was a psycological condition. I figured it was only a psycological problem to the extent that compulsive gamers feel they need to play video games to avoid other social contact.

As with anything else, video games should only be played in moderation with other things.

You know it is a problem when it interfers with other aspects of your life such as school, work, and family.

Sometimes you need to just put down the controller or sign out of WoW.