#kidswithtechnology

The most appropriate definition of social in regards to this topic is “tending to form cooperative and interdependent relationships with others.” (Merriam-Webster, 2015). I have always wondered about the effects of gaming on kids, but I think social gaming is a step up, in terms of interaction. I have known group of men in their 30’s to gather together at someone’s house and spend a Friday night drinking wine and play Mario Kart. I think in this sense gaming is social because they all get involved and take turns. The type of gaming that concerns me is when individuals spend all day/night in front of a screen playing World of Warcraft (WoW) by themselves. A study looking into the motivation behind playing WoW and found specific associations between motives and in-game preferences or actions (e.g. type of achievements targeted, type of server chosen, affiliation with a guild). Longitudinal analyses showed that high involvement in the game is not necessarily associated with a negative impact upon daily living (Billieux et al., 2013).

It really concerns me when it come to adolescents. I hear more and more of kids getting diagnosed with ADD or ADHD and I wonder if it is because they are getting too much stimulation all the time that when it comes time to concentrate on only one thing, the get bored quickly and act out as a result. The book ‘Multiplayer’ confirms that gamers can have social problems “despite the fact that online games are highly social spaces, the player of such games have become anecdotally and empirically characterised as socially reclusive, inept individuals” (Quandt and Kröger, 2013, p. 99). Jim Hightower, an ABC radio commentator, expressed concern about the the impact of social interaction online when he stated, “While all this razzledazzle connects us electronically, it disconnects us from each other, having us interfacing more with computers and TV screens than looking in the face of our fellow human beings” (Quandt and Kröger, 2013, p. 99). I feel his concern is a reality and I wonder how much longer this will last, if it will ever change, or will be all walk around like zombies staring at screens, even when we are amongst loved ones.

References: Merriam-webster.com, (2015). Definition of Social. [online] Available at: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social [Accessed 9 Feb. 2015].

Billieux, J., Van der Linden, M., Achab, S., Khazaal, Y., Paraskevopoulos, L., Zullino, D. and Thorens, G. (2013). Why do you play World of Warcraft? An in-depth exploration of self-reported motivations to play online and in-game behaviours in the virtual world of Azeroth. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1), pp.103-109.

Kowert, R., Domahidi, E., Festl, R. and Quandt, T. (2014). Social gaming, lonely life? The impact of digital game play on adolescents’ social circles. Computers in Human Behavior, 36, pp.385-390.