Video-game Values

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They find themselves lying to cover their use; it affects meal and sleep patterns, disrupts family relationships and friendships, throws their lives out of balance, affects school or work. One in four. That means that if nearly 80 percent of American kids and adults play video games, and one in four is an addict-

. This is obviously a serious problem-

is devoted to treating computer and video game addicts.

The addiction issue is even more intense for the players of violent video games-games in which the player is a "first-person" shooter-having to kill electronic people to stay in the game. Tests have shown that players of these games-the overwhelming majority of whom are male-have a powerful physical response to playing. Their heart rate increases, their blood pressure increases, their adrenaline and testosterone levels soar. Their body and mind are in the same heightened state as someone in actual physical peril. Asking them to turn off the game is like asking them to walk away from the middle of a fight and go to bed. It's nearly impossible-emotionally or physically.

Add to this findings that flickering video game images confuse the brain's waking and sleeping signals, and lack of sleep can become a common ailment for the heavy player. This can be part of the explanation for a Japanese study that found that

and less able to concentrate on other tasks than non-gamers.

Violent video games have been found to alter players' emotions in marked ways. Researchers at Harvard have determined that

in playing video games. Adults process the game in their analytical forebrain, while young players process the game in their amygdala, the seat of emotions. In other words, children enter these virtual worlds emotions-first, experiencing success and failure, joy and sorrow with the same stakes and feelings as they do the real world. They can't differentiate yet. Attorney Jack Thompson, who has represented parents of kids killed by teens who, like the Columbine killers, were heavy video-game users, testified in Congress, that "

the entertainment they consume, because the images are then wedded structurally to the part of the brain that controls emotions and behaviors and uncontrolled behaviors." Another study found that youths who are heavy gamers can end up with "video-game brain," in which key parts of the frontal region of their brain become chronically underused, altering moods.

Another frightening emotional response to violent video games is

That means that gamers are more likely to read ambiguous social cues as hostile. The driver in the next car glancing over at you, kids whispering in the cafeteria, laughter in the classroom-people who spend hours trying to survive in a virtual world where everyone is out to get them soon begin attributing the same motives to real people in everyday life. And they react to this perceived-hostile world with increased aggression. Studies show that prolonged use of violent video games bolster aggression in both children and adults. Researchers at used standard measures to categorize children as aggressive or non-aggressive. Then they measured the number of fights in which they were involved over a year's time. They found that non-aggressive kids who played lots of violent video games were more likely to have gotten into fights than "highly hostile" children who did not play such games. And children deemed "highly hostile" to start with increased their likelihood of actual violence from 28 to 63 percent if they played violent video games.

Why is this?

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