8.5 percent of U.S. youth addicted to video games, study finds
by Griffin McElroy 
{ Apr 20th 2009 at 3:30PM }
Using these criteria, we've been addicted to the following at some point in our lives: Pokémon cards, Pogs, Skittles, Spelling Bees, laser tag, gardening, dating, Lego bricks, Frisbee golf and blogging. Yet somehow, despite our multitude of unshakable, soul-crushing dependencies, we turned out just fine.
You can check out the Entertainment Software Association's response to the study after the jump.
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Here's what ESA senior vice president of communications Rich Taylor had to say about Gentile's study:
"This is a report more in search of media headlines than scientific truth and facts. In an interview, though not in the report itself, Dr. Gentile said, 'It's not that games are bad. It's not that games are addictive.' Medical experts, including the American Medical Association, have already rejected the fallacy of video game 'addiction,' and we completely agree."
"Like all forms of entertainment, computer and video games should be a part of a well-rounded lifestyle that includes healthy eating and exercise. It is up to parents to determine when and how often their children should play any game. For our part, the industry already provides a wide range of tools and information, including timers and parental controls, to help caregivers ensure that entertainment software is used appropriately."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
B3astofthe3ast @ Apr 20th 2009 3:34PM
And I loved every second of it.
WiredKnight @ Apr 20th 2009 5:00PM
I was going to say it's a good start. :)
Tiptup300 @ Apr 20th 2009 11:16PM
STUDY: 8.4 percent of U.S. youth doesn't know exactly what addiction is.
Rob @ Apr 20th 2009 3:42PM
Video games: The 1950's comic book scare of our time. God do these people never give up?
FluxWaveZ @ Apr 20th 2009 3:43PM
...And that's why Nintendo should of called their current-gen console "Wiid".
Slogan would have been: "As addicting as the real thing!"
...sorry
WINterfang @ Apr 20th 2009 4:01PM
I hope you are proud of that. *shakes head in disapproval*.
Ghen @ Apr 20th 2009 3:45PM
mmm pogs. I got addicted to them as well. Did you do them orally or crush them up and inject 'em?
Drew -- PS360: uphillbothways @ Apr 20th 2009 5:26PM
The only way to take pogs is to slam them.
Double-slammer!
Aaahh. That's the stuff.
offday @ Apr 20th 2009 3:46PM
I'd love to see a study on how much time and money is wasted doing stupid, pointless studies.
BlaqueBeird @ Apr 20th 2009 3:55PM
Maybe we should do a study to see if people are addicted to doing pointless studies.
Duke @ Apr 20th 2009 4:06PM
I'm addicted to pointless studies.
Drew -- PS360: uphillbothways @ Apr 20th 2009 4:45PM
I'm addicted to pointed studies.
mmmm...OUCH!
Jeff @ Apr 20th 2009 4:52PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ7J7UjsRqg&feature=channel_page
Latin_Trident @ Apr 20th 2009 3:47PM
I wish I got paid ridiculous amounts of money for stupid studies.
I will do a study about how often dogs wag their tails when they are hot. $5 million please!
Tyler @ Apr 20th 2009 4:01PM
and since there are billions of dogs, you would only need to test about 100 of them! Piece of cake!
I want to do a poll of how many people like to pop popcorn, and add buncha crunch to it... 100%, because I only tested myself.
$25mil please!
WINterfang @ Apr 20th 2009 4:07PM
There was a stupid about if girls with implants are more likely to have sex that girls without it.
I want to be a test for that study =(.
pseth @ Apr 20th 2009 4:26PM
researchers actually don't make a lot of money. The average starting salary for an academic psychologist is $50K. That's after 9+ yrs. of college.
Markez @ Apr 20th 2009 4:17PM
You'd still be ugly with breast implants. That'd cause spurious results.
Popfrogs @ Apr 20th 2009 8:53PM
@Markez: I only advocate breast implants for two kinds of women: post-mastectomy cancer patients and those poor girls who are thin as a rail and have nothing more than erasers. Anyone else, including bodybuilders, gtfo.
SoulBlade @ Apr 20th 2009 3:47PM
"It is up to parents to determine when and how often their children should play any game."
No shit. Sadly, a lot of parents probably don't want to hear this since they can't blame anybody else... plus it would require them to do more work
BigD145 @ Apr 20th 2009 7:49PM
"It is up to parents to determine when and how often they and their children should watch TV."
Where's this study?!
sony boy @ Apr 20th 2009 3:48PM
that's their fault and their parents should play with them more often.
EricC @ Apr 20th 2009 6:01PM
You might be on to something. Every time I start playing video games with my kids, they stop playing within 5-10 minutes. =)
Blank-Mage @ Apr 20th 2009 3:49PM
8.5%? Are our priorities really so out of order? We can do better. I want the near future to have light-cycles, dammit.
PSN: Erdie (Now equipped with Wii!) @ Apr 20th 2009 3:53PM
Nice parenting!
Jardal @ Apr 20th 2009 3:54PM
You stole money to buy skittles and pogs?
I'm willing to bet this article is more sensationalized than the study
Blank-Mage @ Apr 20th 2009 3:56PM
I got's da shakes! Fo' da RAINBOW!
sinai @ Apr 20th 2009 4:44PM
video games is not an addiction... HAVE YOU EVER TASTED DICK SO YOU COULD TASTE THE RAINBOW?
Dirty @ Apr 20th 2009 3:55PM
Everyone is going to be all "blame the parents", and Im like "feel sorry for the parents". Kids are filthy beasts who suck your free time up and whine until they get their way, you cant even beat them these days without some fat Linda getting all up in your business. Not only that but you have some jackholes who don't have kids spending all this time doing studies about how crappy of a parents you are.
Please note - I do not have children, and do not want them in the immediate future. Mostly because they are filthy beasts as noted above.
Tyler @ Apr 20th 2009 4:12PM
Why feel sorry for the parents? They have kids, the parents need to get over themselves and realize that the world DOES NOT revolve around them. They brought a new life into this already F^^^ed up world. It is their JOB to make sure they help that kid as much as possible.
If they can't parent, they shouldn't have kids. It is their own fault.
However,
I think that people getting in parents business is crap. Kids need to be spanked at times, hell I was spanked a lot. But I deserved it.
Farseer (GDI) @ Apr 20th 2009 4:36PM
If you do not like children, then you, sir, made a good choice to not have them.
It's then children who loose when the parents are not committed to raising them - if only more non-committal parents would make the choice (like you have) to not make them in the first place...
Daringone @ Apr 20th 2009 3:57PM
Crap!!! I'm addicted to not working!!!
butaneko @ Apr 20th 2009 4:11PM
Seriously. I had to remove the Firefox icon from my quick launch menu to discourage impulse internet use. Help me Jesus!
uncle jesse @ Apr 20th 2009 6:05PM
and yet, here you are
Sal @ Apr 20th 2009 4:00PM
Take this study back 30 years, replace video games with baseball, bicycles, or SOM, and you have my life growing up. So I guess I was an addict. :-(
Deeznuts420 @ Apr 20th 2009 3:58PM
lil dude has a mean left hook
ToRo @ Apr 20th 2009 4:00PM
I hate it when they throw around words like addicted,killer,banana,Vaseline,duct tape and violence.
MarkHawk @ Apr 20th 2009 4:01PM
Well when you say it like that of course it sounds like a bad thing.
8.5 percent of U.S. Youth enjoy okaying games so much that they continue to play games when they can.
MarkHawk @ Apr 20th 2009 4:02PM
grrr playing* (what are the chances of getting an edit button for 10 minutes after posting?)
DBuck_Eye @ Apr 20th 2009 4:02PM
I know I was once addicted. Once I tried to stop and spent the next two weeks vomiting with a fever from the withdrawal. Oh wait. No I didn't.
holyice7 @ Apr 20th 2009 4:05PM
Bah, so they're spending a little extra time on a hobby. As long as the kids aren't melting the discs down and injecting them into their bloodstreams, we'll be fine.
...
Excuse me for a bit...
Mako @ Apr 20th 2009 4:08PM
Wow. I just learned from this... I was addicted to playing outside. I got irritable when I was grounded.I would sneak out to satiate my habbit.
pseth @ Apr 20th 2009 4:10PM
I read the paper and these are pretty standard means for assessing psychological dependence. I don't see why you all have such a gripe
Perhaps one of the big problems that people have with seeing games as "addictive" or not is that it seems unlikely that there is a physiological dependence. First of all, physiological dependence is not necessary to establish dependence/addiction. Rather, as with many psychological problems, it simply needs to interfere with normal functioning. There seems to be some support of this. Children identified as addicted by their criteria appeared to have other problems (e.g. higher rates of ADHD, school problems). This is correlational and requires further research (using longitudinal methods) but it is generally supportive of the notion.
Additionally, one of the anaylses they did was to see if those who met criteria self-reported that they were addicted to games. And, indeed, those who met criteria were more likely to say they were addicted. So if the people who are found to be addicted are willing to admit it, why can't you accept that?
And sure, based on these criteria, you COULD be addicted to a lot of things (including pog). This does not mean these findings are invalid, however. If addiction interferes with someone's functioning it should always be considered important - even if the majority of people who engage in that activity don't become addicted. Not everyone who drinks alcohol becomes addicted to drinking. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be concerned with the people who do.
Erluti @ Apr 20th 2009 4:18PM
hooray! A smart person willing to be fair on an issue!
acefondu @ Apr 20th 2009 4:15PM
I would imagine more people are addicted to TV's or Cell Phones since more of those are out in the world.
Tyler @ Apr 20th 2009 4:15PM
Wow. This study is crap.
Lets look at this:
Which normal kid is going to sit there and do homework?
NONE
Which normal kid is going to play a video game instead of homework?
ALL
Which normal kid would do their homework if parents got involved in keeping video game time limited?
ALL, though fits may occur.
This 'study' doesn't show anything conclusive. Kids will ALWAYS choose the more fun thing, unless directed by a parent to do the educational thing.
Now, the stealing money to buy games is a real problem...
The rest can be solved through stricter parenting.
pseth @ Apr 20th 2009 4:27PM
I suggest you all read the study and keep an open mind before drawing any firm conclusions. The original paper can be found here:
http://www.drdouglas.org/drdpdfs/Gentile_Pathological_VG_Use_in_press.pdf
The paper is actually very cautiously written. My own personal assessment is that it is of good quality. This is corroborated by the fact that it is going to be published in Psychological Science - one of the top journals in psychology. This is a very exclusive journal with a very strict review process. >90% of articles submitted to this journal are rejected.
It should also be noted that the paper is not saying that games are addictive. Rather it is saying that 8.5% of kids meet criteria for addiction. Addiction can result from both the qualities of the addictive stimulus and/or the addictive nature of the person.
I think Joystiq and the ESA are blowing this waaaaaaaaaaay out of proportion and are actually passing more judgment than the person who conducted the original study.
CrabBattle @ Apr 20th 2009 4:16PM
lil kid is addicted to falcon punches... can't blame him
dantebk @ Apr 20th 2009 4:17PM
Your greasy hands, your salty lips
Looks like you found the chips
Your belly aches, your teeth grind
Some tater tots would blow your mind
And you don't mind if they're not cooked
You need your fix, I guess you're hooked
And late at night you always dream
Of bacon bits and sour cream
You like them even if they're lumpy or tough, oh yeah
It's pretty obvious to me you can't get enough
You know you're gonna have to face it
You're addicted to spuds
Might as well face it, you're addicted to spuds
Might as well face it, you're addicted to spuds
Might as well face it, you're addicted to spuds
F.E.F Red Fury @ Apr 20th 2009 4:18PM
I'm addicted to Fallout 3.