Dear parents and students, my name is Matthew Harris and I am a Secondary Chaplain at LJBC. I recently had the opportunity to attend a counselling training course in relation to video game addiction. I was excited to attend the seminar and learn about the topic as gaming is something that I am personally interested in and passionate about.

The seminar started with an overview of gaming in our culture today. They talked about; how the industry has grown, how viewership of eSports tournaments is actually higher than most regular sports these days and how the percentage of young boys and girls involved in the gaming community has grown immensely.

There are many reasons why young people take up gaming as a hobby, some of these being; a clear purpose and set goals within the game, a belonging and community, a sense of identity, freedom and escape, and a sense of achievement.

However just like everything else, too much of something is often quite negative. Video games are designed to stimulate our brains in a way not dissimilar to flashy TV advertisements and as alluring as social media. So how do we know when enough is enough? The presenter identified three key concerns, which when observed could indicate a potential risk of addiction.

These concerns are;

Impaired control – a young person is having trouble limiting their time spent playing video games.

Increased priority for gaming - They prioritise gaming over important social aspects of life or real-life commitments.

Escalation of gaming time despite negative affects – A young person will continue to increase their time spent gaming, despite clearly negative physical, social or psychological effects.

It is important to realize that games play an important part in our culture today, and that part is only growing larger. Many young people use games to socialize and there is much data to indicate that gamers have improved problem solving abilities, reflexes and cognition. The average time spent gaming per day across the population is 1.5hours. However, if we feel that we are playing for an above normal time per week or that one of the above concerns is applicable to us, its time to take a step back and reevaluate.

Some further valuable resources for both gamers and parents can be found at the following sites:

Netaddiction.co.nz and Olganon.org

Matthew Harris

Secondary Chaplain and Science Teacher