Gaming Disorder: A new mental health condition and addiction

It’s not Turkle’s view on society and technology neither it is just a theoretical perspective, the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies gaming disorder as a condition which is capable of tiring addiction.

Since it has been a news agenda for the last few years the impact of smartphones on the social lives of children and the parents are worried about it, Apple’s digital health initiative was also ridiculed by analysts  that the company seems not willing to reduce the smartphone usage by any means since it heavily relies on smartphone revenues.

Tim Cook himself points out his excessive smartphone usage and its potential harms, the company worth nearly $1 trillion is alert to the potential harm from smartphone usage.

The gambling review conducted by the UK government highlights how online gambling is becoming a significant social hazard. The Newspapers are now full of stories of apps which surprisingly use smartphone technology to keep users away from smartphones.

According to Jaron Lanier, who writes about the computers and technology says why should you delete your social media accounts, and he puts mental health as a top reason to do so in his new book.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized gaming disorder, the potential harms to individuals and wider society from the technology is the precursor of developing this disorder that has a great potential to affect mental health.

In the UK, media outlets have been overlooking the increasing problem of gaming disorder because they are more familiar with video and music content. But, according to the statistics, more than 30 million Britons has played some sort of electronic game over the past 6 months. Moreover, the Sunday Times reported yesterday that UK game sales hit $3.4 billion last year which is almost equivalent to video music combined.

But there are some limitations, the most important of all is, electronic gaming is quite different from gambling and it can never be an addiction like gambling, both of them are enjoyed by millions of people with no or little harm to the others.

It seems just like gambling, gaming is a journey similar to nicotine a generation ago, new media technology is changing our lives so rapidly, the medicalization of our new habits is important because it will prompt greater surveillance over the issue by regulators as well as parents.