Are video games addicting? Douglas Gentile: a psychologist at Iowa State University said that in 1999 the first study he did was showing that game addiction wasn’t a real thing. But roughly now 8.5% of children are addicted if they play video games, “A risk favor for addiction is access, if you can’t get to something you want really bad then you don’t really want it anymore. “It’s really hard to get addicted to drugs if you can’t get to them Douglas says. Now in the world most people have computers and video games in their homes so they can addicted easily especially if they are home a lot and don’t play sports. And a lot of people have smart phones now so you can get games on them and you can play anytime and anywhere, it’s easier to access.  Are there different types of video game addictions? Well according to there is single player addiction that involve a clear goal or mission. The addiction in the games is either completing the mission or beating a high score. And the other type of video game addictions is multiplayer addiction. This can be addicting because the gamer is online and the game usually has no ending like ever. Gamers with this addiction enjoy creating and becoming an online character. They build relationships with other online players as an escape from reality. They might feel most accepted online playing games with other people.

The different two symptoms for video game addiction are Emotional and Physical. The symptoms for Emotional can be: restlessness when unable to play, thoughts about the game all day long(doesn’t think about anything else except the game), lying to family and friends about how much time you spend playing a game, and isolating themselves from others in order to spend more time gaming. And the symptoms for Physical can be: Fatigue, Migraines/headaches or eye strain due to intense concentration, carpal tunnel caused by the over-use of a mouse/controller, and poor hygiene.

Sources: http://www.psychguides.com/guides/video-game-addiction-symptoms-causes-and-effects/

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/06/health/video-games-addiction-gentile-feat/index.html