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The Psychological Effect of Excessive Online Gaming in Teens and Children

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The Psychological Effect of Excessive Online Gaming in Teens and Children
7 March 2012
Real Virtual Reality:
The Psychological Effect of Excessive
Online Gaming in Teens and Children Droning away on the computer next to me, my friend is able to completely zone out his surroundings; with each click of the mouse, he is exclusively in the virtual world he creates. His constant need to disappear from society and to construct his own, compels me to question the reason of why he’s doing what exactly he is doing. I do not have an answer why he does what he does but at least he’s doing something that he can be good at. However the reasons could be from a feeling of detachment from society or running away from a deeper problem that is put deep inside oneself and not directly confronted. Gaming is not the problem. It is merely something that is used to console and comfort. The excessive use of it, however, is what can hold harmful effects to normal behavior and social attitudes. It could turn into developing real psychological problems like social awkwardness , depression, difficulty in a job enviroment and relationships, being disconnected from reality and in some cases can develop into antisocial disorders. (Meek 2) With the number of gamers and games increasing each year, (Sinclair) changes need to be done for our future generations to be more engaged and more responsive with society. Beginning with parenting in such way that sets a good example of what it means to be a responsible and productive citizen, such as active parenting and atively pursuing a better responive citizen. Raising children is indeed extremely difficult, time consuming, emotionally and physically exhausting, and is something to not to be considered lightly before having a child or children. To raise a child, is not only providing for their needs and showing affection, but also shaping the next generation of our society and what we as humans leave behind. An example is a very powerful and useful tool that we possess. A young child is very apt to learn and react to



Cited: Zur Institute on the Internet. (a) Ofer Zur, Ph.D. 2011. Zur Institute LLC. 3 March 2012. Zur, Ofer, Ph.D. (c) Handling Internet Addiction Dissorder, (IAD) Chicago: University of Chicago Publishing, 2001

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