Online Game Addiction

In this modern era, computer and internet are common media used by people to do their daily activities. Internet is also related with entertainments. One of the entertainments is game.  Moreover, game was created to cope with stress and refresh our mind. Like an adventure and fantasy games, it could make us feel the experience of the characters that we control in the game. I have played online games a lot. Therefore, by the time I play games, I know some bad effects of playing online games.

Generally, addiction of something is related with unhealthy activity that disrupt people’s daily activity and responsibility. Addicted online game players usually play games for many hours at a time and consequently, they spend their time uncontrollably. Normal players will play a game only for two hours at a time while others can’t stop playing for over eight hours. Consequently, their body is physically inactive for a long period because some people will sit and play without mind their health.

Lack of social life result from too much playing games. Online game players often spend their time at homes or in internet cafes for a day only for completing their certain missions or just want to play for fun. The effect of this kind of isolation can lead to a lack of communication skills. Many games especially a massive online multiplayer game like Dota 2 involves a real form of e-communication and coordination with others, and these interactions often result in real communication that can be healthy for the players. These communities and the form of communication infrequently become a valuable social interaction that needs to be maintained like in the real life. We should help if our friend got trouble or we should visit our friend if they got sick, but there is a problem if we have never met them because they are just virtual friends that help us to complete some mission. Take for example, people who stuck in their game world are never get out from their homes, they just have friends from games who never come if they got sick.  As a result, they do have social life but it only exists in these games, while their true social lives and personal relationships may suffer.

Another effect of online game addiction is the distruption of the player’s grade. While many players manage to enjoy online games and still focusing in their study, some others may skip the classes and focus their mission to get valuable items in the game. They often end up with bad grade and couldn’t pass the course. Playing online games for long periods of time and having sleep deprivation often makes the user of the online game seems tired and makes them not focus when studying in the college.

The causes of online game addiction are so many, but these effects above mightresult in very serious problems. Playing online games should be a fun activity to enjoy, but just like everything else, the amount of time spent to play online game should be balanced with social life. Therefore, game players should learn how to balance their time between studying and playing games to make their life more enjoyable.

          By: DINDA MAULANA

Public Persuasive