Online Gaming Addiction causes Gambling even in Academic Performance

Online Gaming Addiction causes Gambling even in Academic Performance

When I first discovered online gaming it was like I was at the doorstep of heaven and who wouldn’t want to check heaven out so I opened the door and It began. I had become an online gamer but I am not addicted but not everyone can say that. The addiction has affected a lot of people in different ways. There are a lot of things that would be on your mind right now but what I want to talk is gambling that results from online gaming. Just like anything you do in the world, you become better as you do it more often because it is good practice and training. This also works the same way in video games. The more you play you can only get better if you take it serious which most people do. After people have played video games online with other people and they are sure of their skills then they become ready to bet on it. The funny thing about gambling is that money is the motivation. Someone might not take something serious but when there’s cash on the line you can bet that it’s going to be all out war literally when people gear up for the shooter games. The shooter games are very addictive if not the most addictive. Everyone’s trigger finger is itchy. People use online gaming to relieve stress and meanwhile it might be causing a problem for them too but they don’t think so. There are many consequences of online gaming and one of the consequences in relation to college students is the decrease of academic performance. Academic performance can decrease when students spend more time playing online rather than studying or finishing up assignments. If I was to give an example, I’d say I’m a pretty good example. I play video games all the time and study for a little time and usually only when a midterm or an exam is creeping around the corner. According to Anderson and Dill (2000), the relationship between the total amount of time spent playing video games and academic performance is not a positive one. Teenagers who witness larger amounts violence in video games have poorer performances in school (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, & Walsh, 2004). A student might be performing in the online gaming world but might be doing poorly when faced with academic challenges in the real world. Different studies have been conducted to show how online gaming affects academic work done. According to Cummings & Vandewater (2007) survey, “For every hour boys played video games on the weekdays, they spent 2 minutes less reading. Because boys spent an average of 8 minutes reading, this represents a 30% decrease. There were no significant relationships between reading and video game play on the weekends among boys, and there were no significant relationships for girls on either day type. For boys, there was no significant relationship between time spent playing video games and time spent doing homework on either day. For girls on the weekdays, every hour of video game play was related to 13 minutes less doing homework (a decrease of 34%). On the weekends, video game play and homework were unrelated for girls.” These are just a few of the consequences of Online Gaming Addiction. According to Craton (2011), “Playing video games is often associated in our society with poor academic performance. This anecdotal idea is supported by some research. A 2000 study found a negative correlation between GPA and time spent playing video games (Anderson & Dill, 2000).” Craton also states that “MMORPGs have been criticized for hampering academic and job performance. The FCC has specifically accused World of Warcraft, one of the most popular games, as leading to college dropouts (Somaiya, 2009).”

Sources:

Cummings HM, Vandewater EA. Relation of Adolescent Video Game Play to Time Spent in Other Activities.Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161(7):684-689. doi:10.1001/archpedi.161.7.684

Toker, S., & Baturay, M. H. (2016). Antecedents and consequences of game addiction. Computers In Human Behavior, 55668-679. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.10.002

Craton, B. J. (2011, April 26). The Effect of Videogames on Student Achievement. Retrieved October 09, 2016, from http://www.acsd.org/article/the-effect-of-videogames-on-student-achievement/