CHAPTER II

Review of Related Literature

Online games addiction can be defined as the compulsive use of the computer in
an attempt to overcome anxiety or depression, it is already considered as a disease
nowadays. A person can be diagnosed as a computer addict if he/she spends a lot of
time in front of the computer, either playing games or surfing the internet. A lot of factors
can be taken into consideration as to why computer addiction exists. One example of
this is computer games with gambling among teenagers, teens participate in this event
hoping to gain profit from it and when they do, they’ll continue to do it due to the amount
of money that they gain from winning. Computer addiction is similar to all the other
types of addiction because they have a common goal; and that is to let their victims
escape from their problems in real life.

Online games addiction is a very alarming issue today and the main causes of
computer addiction are: online chatting, shopping, gambling, pornography, and gaming, the
worst types of computer addiction are computer games with gambling. Computer addicts waste
a lot of money in gambling and because of this, they acquire serious debts. These forms of
computer addiction can truly destroy one’s lifestyle and his/her social health. Serious debts have
been incurred these computer addicts. Some have even lost everything, their family, homes,
studies, and even more extreme, their lives.

Ever since technology developed, a lot of new things have flourished; an example of this
is the internet. Through the use of the internet, we are able to access and read about things that
we never even knew existed, our mind is fed with constant information. But these gifts of
modern technology are being misused. Most of the computer addicts are the youth and they
forget to eat and sleep because they cannot leave their computers. Youths have become
computer addicts and spend half a day to play. Some reports stated that youths don’t eat and
sleep because of playing computer games or surfing the internet. Computer addiction interferes
with daily life, and it is considered to be a serious problem that even government makes a step
to prevent this problem.

This study provide compelling evidence for the similarities between different
types of addictions, notably substance-related addictions and Internet and gaming
addiction, on a variety of levels. The aim of this review is to identify all empirical studies
to date that used neuroimaging techniques to shed light upon the emerging mental
health problem of Internet and gaming neuroscientific addiction from a perspective.

On the molecular level, Internet addiction is characterized by an overall reward

deficiency that entails decreased dopaminergic activity.

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 On the level of neural circuitry, Internet and gaming addiction led to
neuroadaptation and structural changes that occur as a consequence of prolonged
increased activity in brain areas associated with addiction.

On a behavioral level, Internet and gaming addicts appear to be constricted with

regards to their cognitive functioning in various domains.

The purpose of this paper was to critically appraise the research literature to
determine if playing MMORPGs impacts upon the psychosocial well-being of
adolescents and young adults. A video game is usually defined as an electronic game
that is played by a controller and provides user interactions by generating visual
feedback. According to Edward Castro nova (2008) in his book of Synthetic Worlds: The
Business and Culture of Online Games, he described online game as Massively-
Multiplayer-Online Games (MMOG). An MMOG is a game capable of supporting
hundreds or thousands of players and is mostly played using the Internet. Nowadays,
online games have become extremely popular among the young generation thus
leading to the rise of online game addiction issues especially among the students.

In the research conducted by Ahn and Randall (2008), they were able to discover that
Massively-Multiplayer-Online Games or MMOG affects both the social.

In the past decade, research has accumulated suggesting that excessive Internet
use can lead to the development of a behavioral addiction. Internet addiction has been
considered as a serious threat to mental health and the excessive use of the Internet
has been linked to a variety of negative psychosocial consequences.

In the research conducted by Ahn and Randall (2008), they were able to discover
that Massively-Multiplayer-Online Games or MMOG affects both the social and
academic lifestyles of students. Based on their surveyed data, students who are
addicted in online games registered more F grades as compared to non-addicted
students. This statistics corresponds with the amount of playing time of addicted
students on the MMOGs. Their surveyed data also shows that approximately 50% of
MMOG addicted students were also reported as actively engaged in a physical
altercation. Addicted students are mostly involved in arguments with their teachers and
as well as their friends.

According to the research conducted by Zhang (2007) and Zhuo (2007) on online
game addiction, the physical symptoms of Internet and online game addiction were
cervical spondylosis, neurasthenia and insomnia. Cervical spondylosis is a spinal injury
caused by having the same sitting position for hours while playing games. On the other
hand, Neurasthenia is a psychological disorder marked especially by easy fatigability
and often by lack of motivation, feelings of inadequacy, and psychosomatic symptoms.
It results from when players engage in hours and hours of game playing with no virtually

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sleep intervals in between. This causes sleep sensitivity and disorders which induce
addicted players to wake up several times during the night and as such this leads them
suffering from insomnia which can cause mental anxiety and eventually result in
nervous breakdowns and general tiredness.

In Cebu, online game addiction is also becoming an issue. In one of the episode of I-
Witness, Kara David was able to interview youngsters namely Doc, Mark and Ice who
resort to illegal activities just to fund their addiction to online gaming. Doc, Mark and Ice
are part of a young generation spending a lot of their time on computer games. Some of
them undergo illegal activities to fund their vices and they can go on gaming for 24-
hours without any sleep. 22-year-old Doc is a scavenger and vagrant, but once he gets
his money out of collecting garbage, he goes to his favorite Internet shop to play. Mark,
20, is an out of school youth. He lost his investment money and stole from his mother to
pay for his Internet rentals.

In one of the article of Phil Star which is “Battle on Vs Kids’ online games addiction”,
Samuel Pagdilao (Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) director
Chief Superintendent) stressed the need for measures to protect children from being
hooked on online computer games. He said many children spend hours in a computer
shop playing online games.

According to Bachhuber and Saulnier (2012), playing online games is an

effective way of enhancing a student’s reading comprehension. Through formative
testing, they found out that online games can help a student improve his/her grammar,
vocabulary and comprehension because they can have an interactive way to learn
English or any other language.

Treatments for Computer Addiction Counseling and Therapy.This may entail behavioral
therapy which will retrain the mind to perform different actions when it has certain
thoughts. Counseling or therapy can also focus on treating underlying mental health
conditions that caused the addiction such as anxiety, depression, social trauma or other

Changing Interests. One method of getting past a computer addiction is to focus on new
interest. For instance, you might take part in a new gym membership, spend time at
movies with friends or go out for walk.

Group Support. Many different options for a group or community support are
available to assist those who are addicted to computers. Just getting out and interacting
with others can be very rewarding to the computer addict.

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