Problematic Internet Use, or PIU is something that has been described in ranges from drug-like addiction to a person’s lack of self control. As a member of the first generation to be born and raised online and now in college, I see a massive amount of PIU. It is a real problem that causes real harm to real people. The problem I will focus on is gaming. I am sure there are studies on it and someone calculated how much money the economy loses due to gaming. However, I will discuss the individual, intangible damages that can occur, why online gaming can lead to PIU, and compare what I have found to Caplan’s Theory (which will be introduced later).
My personal experience with online gaming consists of the little flash and javascript games like the ones at addictinggames.com. I have once or twice tried games like Starcraft or Age of Empires online, but the learning curve to be competitive wasn’t worth my time. However, I have witnessed many other people with PIU involving games. The games I am specifically thinking of are World of Warcraft, Age of Empires and Diablo. The World of Warcraft and Diablo are games where an avatar is created to represent the player, and the Age of Empires game, the user is an invisible commander directing and raising troops in battles. I know people who have gotten hooked for short periods of time and played through a couple of days of class, I know someone who played one game through an exam on accident, and finally the worst of the scenarios that I know of, someone had a habit of staying up really late with other “guys in the dorm” playing games to the point where he was getting less than 4 hours of sleep, and ended up getting removed from the Varsity Sport he was on because he couldn’t keep up his grades or concentrate in practice. He also did not return the following year to school.
Clearly, PIU is a real problem that causes real, personal problems and damages. What is it about online gaming that can do this? I think that while there are the characteristics of socializing online, helped by removing gated features and interactional control, I think that online gaming has a much more physiological reason. I think people spend hours on end playing video games because they are socializing with other people and completing missions and being entertained, but they do not have to expend energy to do so. Playing Madden 2011 or whatever is out, for 6 hours straight is nothing compared to playing football for 6 hours straight, or doing anything task oriented that involves action for 6 hours straight. I will mention that the problem isn’t as bad for people who play offline, but I think it is also because people last much longer when doing anything socially, and when physiological problems don’t arise, people can just go for hours.
Caplan’s Theory (Theory of Problematic Internet Use and Psychosocial Well-Being) rides on an idea of a one way cycle of preference for online interaction leading to excessive and compulsive online interaction, which then worsens their problems offline leading to the beginning. I think this can be very simply applied to the online gaming world. People start to play to much World of Warcraft and they screw up in sports and school. Then, wanting to feel some sort of success instead of the intense failure they’ve had all day, they play World of Warcraft without realizing how much time they’re on again, and so on and so on. Caplan mentions that if you have a psychosocial problem it will probably be made worse and make you more addicted to excessive internet use.
I think that Caplan is right in that PIU isn’t because of the internet’s addictive personality, but it is because of addictive people finding a medium that can cater to their wants more easily. Like I mentioned before however, I think online interaction, and especially gaming is easier physiologically, leading to more extended periods of time searching for gaming success, social success, or just raw pleasure and entertainment.
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