Video game addiction — also known as problem video gaming — is an issue the media loves to hype (along with “Internet addiction“). Such gaming addiction is hard to define, but like pornography, some professionals say they “know it when they see it.”
One of the possible hypotheses put forth about these kinds of technology addictions back in 1999 was that what we were seeing wasn’t a behavioral addiction at all. Instead, it was suggested we were seeing the predictable adaptive behaviors of humans to unfamiliar stimuli in their lives. In this case, that stimuli was entertainment technology.
Emerging evidence suggests that this may be the case. And the really good news?
Video game addiction may resolve itself on its own — simply with time.