Internet Gaming Addiction

Having an internet gaming addiction does not mean playing video games for two hours a day. The real definition of an internet gaming addiction is when playing video games is uncontrolled and it begins to affect other aspects of your personal life outside of the screen. Video game addiction mostly appears in children because the games are directed for them to play. Video Games is not just your Xbox 360 it also includes computer games, arcade machines, and even your cell phone. The games you play on your cell phone could potentially be the most dangerous because unlike console games your phone can go anywhere you go and in most situations you never leave your phone at home.


Some symptoms of internet gaming addiction are as follows:
-Getting upset when you can’t play.
-Needing to spend more time playing video games to feel happy or satisfied.
-Not being able to quit playing or play less
-Not wanting to do things that you used to enjoy doing
-Having problems outside of playing such as a sleep disorder and continuing to play with these problems
-Lying to people who were close to you about how much you are playing


Only between 1% to 9% of gamers are addicted and usually boys and men are more likely to be addicted than girls and women. Despite the small percentage of people who are addicted to video games that is still approximately 2.1 million people just in the United States. A few ways to prevent internet gaming addiction is to decide how long you are going to play and stick to that time limit, leaving devices outside of your room at night to prevent you from wanting to play on them through the night, and exercising or go outside to prevent from staying on your game for long periods of time.

Dangers of Apps like SnapChat and Instagram

Social media platforms such as snapchat and instagram were meant to share photos and talk to other people but people like to manipulate the app to use it for bad things. On snapchat when you send someone a photo saying something they can only view it once, and if you do view it twice or take a screenshot the person who sent this photo will know. Apps like this make it a lot easier for people to cyberbully other people because when you can only see the photo for 10 seconds most of the time you can’t snap a photo of the message and then it is just your word against theres. People doing things like this on snapchat can cause many people to go into a depressive state or feel a sense of loneliness. If someone keeps telling you that you aren’t enough there is a point where you have to cave in and believe them which can have very bad consequences. Although snapchat can be fun make sure you watch out for other people trying to ruin it for you.

Instagram is another platform that can cause things like being self conscious about your body and fomo (fear of missing out). There is this invisible social standard for girls on how they should appear. If you don’t look good enough to please someone else they could say so many bad things about you that you will start believing it and start not liking your body. Things like this cyberbullying is what leads to unhealthy coping mechanisms just because you didn’t uphold someone else's standards. fomo is a actually fear that many people face and may not even know it. When you scroll through instagram you may see that your friends went to the mall without you and you didn’t get an invite to go. When this happens some people become anxious because they start thinking that they are having fun while the anxious person is not present. This is something that you cannot prevent because no matter what anyone says people will still post what they are doing and you aren’t going to get invited to every trip. Just because you are not there does not mean that they don’t want you to be there, it could just mean that you weren’t with them at the exact moment they planned it. Instagram can be a deceivingly dangerous app and don’t let what other people are saying and posting dictate your life.

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