Computer Addiction

Also known as: Pathological computer use; computer addiction, video game addiction; video game overuse

Definition: Obsessive use of computer programs, especially video games, has been proposed as a behavioral addiction similar to compulsive gambling. Disregarding Internet use, computer addiction is a concern of industries that lose productivity, and of parents and teachers who see a decrease in the academics and social skills of children and teenagers, especially boys, who are more likely to develop a computer addiction.

Causes

With personal computers becoming commonplace in the 1990s came an increase in the numbers of children who appeared to be obsessive computer users, primarily focused on video games. Children and teenagers moved from nonelectronic fantasy games to video arcades to home computers and smartphones, dramatically increasing the numbers of children and teens playing video games.

These games are purchased or are resident programs in desktop computers, laptop computers, smartphones, and dedicated video gaming units, or consoles. Many games may also be available with live streaming, allowing the users to interact with other players worldwide and in realtime. While some video games are available over the Internet, many are sold in packaged software for use with a general purpose computer or a dedicated computer unit; other computers are designed and advertised as gaming computers.

Computer addiction and particularly video game addiction continues to expand as electronic media use increases and as more computers come in smaller and more portable sizes, such as tablets and smartphones.

A 2022 report by Common Sense Media reported that teens spend 8.39 hours per day on electronic devices viewing entertainment media (watching videos, gaming, or using social media). Preteens (aged eight to twelve) consume 5.33 hours of content. That does not include the additional time that children spend using media for school or homework.

Students have been able to extend their electronic life by several hours by multitasking with electronic devices. Tasks that tend to take more of their time on the phone include texting (text-messaging), watching other media, and video gaming. According to a 2016 survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 84 percent of American households contain at least one smartphone. Eighty percent of households own a desktop or laptop computer, 68 percent contain a tablet, 39 percent contain a streaming media device such as Apple TV, Google Chromecast, or Amazon Fire TV.

Also problematic is video gaming in the workplace. Depending on the availability of computers, work time and productivity lost to video games and other nonwork-related computer use can exceed 10 percent.

Risk Factors

Researcher Douglas A. Gentile published a survey of eight- to eighteen-year-olds in the United States and found that 12 percent of boys were addicted to video games. Only 3 percent of girls were addicted to video games. Also, insofar as computers require a level of affluence, computer addiction is a problem mainly for developed and advanced-developing countries.

A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that while daily use of all electronic media did not vary much by gender (eleven hours and twelve minutes for boys versus ten hours and seventeen minutes for girls), girls lost interest in computer video games and played less as teenagers, averaging only three minutes per day. Some researchers suggest that computer addiction is a major cause of the worldwide “boy problem,” in which boys are dropping out of academics and girls predominating in the higher levels of education. The decline in boys in academics parallels the rise of personal computer technology.

Symptoms

Researcher Margaret A. Shotton was the first to extensively document computer addiction and dependency, although primarily through anecdotal cases and with references to early video arcade games. Ricardo A. Tejeiro Salguero proposed a problem video-game-playing (PVP) scale in 2002. Because problematic video gaming is a behavioral addiction (in contrast with a chemical addiction), video gaming was more closely associated with compulsive gambling. Gentile developed a similar scale of eleven self-reported negative factors. Having a minimum of six symptoms of the eleven on the scale was set as the threshold for addiction.

The correlation between computer addiction as determined by Gentile’s scale and poorer grades in school, for example, could have been an indication of comorbidity; that is, a child might spend more time on the computer and get poor grades because of a separate but common factor.

Proof that pathological video game addiction causes a decline in academics was established by Robert Weis and Brittany C. Cerankosky. After establishing a group of boys’ academic baseline achievement, they gave one-half of the boys access to computer video games and saw their academics decline. The control group continued on with solid schoolwork.

An extensive Kaiser Family Foundation survey found an inverse relationship between electronic media use and good grades, with 51 percent of heavy users getting good grades versus 66 percent of light users getting good grades. Heavy users were less likely to get along with their parents, were less happy at school, were more often bored, got into trouble at twice the average rate, and were often sad or unhappy compared with light users.

Internet gaming disorder has been proposed as a "Condition for Further Study" in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-5), and centers to treat individuals who display symptoms of excessive internet use are opening in the United States signaling a response to a perceived problem.

Screening and Diagnosis

Salguero and Gentile both proposed a multiple-factor scale to designate pathological computer video gaming. Extensive time spent playing computer games is not a sufficient indicator of addiction. However, when combined with risk factors of low social competence and higher impulsivity, there is a greater chance of pathological gaming that can result in anxiety, depression, social phobia, and poor school performance. There may be a correlation of computer addiction and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that may be related to a child’s difficulty relating normally in social settings, but these are a minority of cases.

Treatment and Therapy

At the public policy level, Western countries appear little concerned with computer addiction beyond lost workplace productivity. The main societal concerns are in Asia, where there is much more focus on the pool of intellectual talent and more concern with children’s academic success. Several Asian nations have attempted to place limits on the amount of time that teenagers can spend on computers per day; most indications are that these limits are easily circumvented by tech-savvy students.

Modeled on summer camps for overweight children are China’s experimental summer camps for weaning students from computer addiction. Programs beginning in the United States attempt to use counseling to treat, for example, the psychological problems and antisocial feelings that may coexist with computer addiction. Other programs use outdoor wilderness experiences. Limited evidence exists of the success of these types of programs.

Prevention

Because computers and the evolving tablets, e-readers, cell phones, and other media that are primarily small computers are presumed to be technical advances, little likelihood exists of establishing regulatory measures or controls on the availability of computers and video games. In 2011, the US Supreme Court rejected regulation of violent computer video games in the United States. There is a rating system developed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) similar to that used in the entertainment industry that suggests age appropriateness, content descriptors, and interactive elements present in apps and video games, and rated on a scale. But this leaves the control of children’s access in the hands of teachers and parents. Surveys show many parents have a low level of concern about or have little desire to regulate their children’s computer activities although that may continue to be revised as more studies are conducted. During the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers noted children and teens' screen time greatly increased.

Bibliography

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Gentile, Douglas A. “Pathological Video-Game Use among Youths Ages 8 to 18: A National Study.” Psychological Science 20 (2009): 594–602. Print.

Gentile, Douglas A., et al. “Pathological Video-Game Use among Youths: A Two-Year Longitudinal Study.” Pediatrics 127 (2011): 319–29. Print.

Nielsen. "An Era of Growth: The Cross-Platform Report Q4 2013." Nielsen. Nielsen, 5 Mar. 2014. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.

Rideout, Victoria J., Ulla G. Foehr, and Donald F. Roberts. “‘Generation M2’: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds—A Kaiser Family Foundation Study.” Jan. 2010. Web. 16 Apr. 2012.

Robb, Michael. "Kids' Media Use Accelerated Rapidly During the Pandemic." Common Sense Media, 23 Mar. 2022, www.commonsensemedia.org/kids-action/articles/kids-media-use-accelerated-rapidly-during-the-pandemic. Accessed 22 Nov. 2022.

Salguero, Ricardo A. Tejeiro, and Rosa M. Bersabe Moran. “Measuring Problem Video Game Playing in Adolescents.” Addiction 97 (2002): 1601–6. Print.

Shotton, Margaret A. Computer Addiction? A Study of Computer Dependency. New York: Taylor, 1989. Print.

Shotton, Margaret A. “The Costs and Benefits of ‘Computer Addiction.’” Behaviour and Information Technology 10 (1991): 219–30. Print.

Vogels, Emily A., Risa Gelles-Watnick, and Navid Massarat. "Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022." Pew Research Center, 10 Aug. 2022, www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/. Accessed 22 Nov. 2022.

Weis, Robert, and Brittany C. Cerankosky. “Effects of Video-Game Ownership on Young Boys’ Academic and Behavioral Functioning: A Randomized, Controlled Study.” Psychological Science 21 (2010): 463–70. Print.