Playing too hard
WHO classification of gaming as an addiction points to challenges of intricate half-lives, lived out on consoles
The WHO’s classification may well pave the way for a deeper exploration and a wider conversation on the stories young people are participating in.
Since the turn of this century, an excessive and obsessive immersion in video games has been linked to mood swings, isolation, a single-minded pursuit of virtual goals and, most seriously, a number of deaths. If these symptoms appear familiar, it is because some or all of them have been associated with various forms of substance abuse. On Monday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) seems to have come to the same conclusion and has classified “gaming disorder” as a separate addiction.
Predictably, and understandably, there has been some concern that the move will cause panic among parents: After all, it is bad enough that kids don’t keep up with their schoolwork and refuse to play outside, but does an evening whiled away on a screen and a controller now mean that they are junkies? And, if not, does a simple, sedentary distraction really merit a separate classification as a disease? The fact, however, is that modern gaming is as close to the Tetris gameboys that young parents are familiar with as an abacus is to a supercomputer. There are movie-grade realistic graphics, involved storylines and in some cases, a level of hyper-real sex and violence that can make the real world pale in comparison. Then there’s the fact that long hours on the console have been linked to epilepsy, depression and health problems associated with excessive sedentarism.
The WHO classification is not, in any form, a ban or even an indictment of video games. Alcohol can be consumed responsibly and marijuana has never been directly linked to an overdose death — yet, there is some justification for monitoring their use. The intricate half-lives in fictional and virtual worlds present a new set of challenges and problems. These cannot necessarily be subsumed in the old definitions of substance addiction. But the WHO’s classification may well pave the way for a deeper exploration and a wider conversation on the stories young people are participating in.
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