the box

This page considers 'television addiction' and 'videogame addiction'.

It covers -

• introduction
• tv addiction
• game addiction

     introduction

Claims of television addiction or videogame/computer game addiction (and precursors such as pachinko addiction) offer a perspective on -

• media reception of claims of a new pathology or increasing epidemic
• debate within the health professions about the characterisation of disorders, the potential confusion of causation with correlation, and the appropriateness of specific therapies
• government responses to community pressure that reflect broader social discontents rather than particular medical problems.

Critics have recurrently claimed that games are addictive (or that they must be restricted because they result in violence and a loosening of sexual or other restraints). Some of those claims are highlighted here.

Critics have also claimed that television is addictive. Those claims encompass mere viewing of television and exposure to particular types of content, from soap operas to cartoons (hotbeds of violence) and feature films (inducing violence, sexual licence and substance abuse).

As with cyberaddiction, those claims are disputed by addiction specialists, by industry and by people who are sceptical about misuse of 'addiction' as an expression of what Alan Dershowitz dismissed as "the abuse excuse".

There is disagreement about what constitutes addiction to television (or to games), whether the supposed addiction is a manifestation of an underlying disorder, and the number of addicts. Is addiction to the box measurable? Is it simply a matter of a critic's perception that the 'victim' has 'over-used' the medium and thus is addicted?

 

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