# Titles - Why Video games addict us and how to stop - Why video games addict us - Why are we addicted to video games - Why are you addicted to video games - The psychology of video game addiction - How to cure your video game addiction - How I cured my video game addiction - Are video games ruining your life? - How I cured my video game addiction in a year - Why We're Glued To Video Games # Thumbnail - Aidan on the couch with a pillow gut eating three cookies in his mouth with a gaming controller versus Aidan lifting weights in the gym. - Aidan laying on the ground, his face getting morphed into glue into a PC with a video game on. Or a video game console like the XBox or a video game cartridge like League Of Legends. # Script # Analyzing Video Game Addiction Through Three Major Psychological Theories Any avid video gamer will tell you one of the most frustrating problems they experience is other people not understanding their video gaming. *Why not get a real job? Why not learn a useful skill?* *Whats so fun about it?* Video gamers like us can spend hours every day destroying people in Bed Wars Minecraft, navigating conflict in Disco Elysium, and building empires in Civilization 6. But sometimes, it can go too far, and our fun hobby turns into a problematic addiction… How do we navigate this video game addiction? The secret is in understanding the psychological methods behind how video games captivate us are the very same as the ones which motivate us in real life. Turning your real life into a game. # Three Psychological Theories Underlying Video Game Addiction ## Flow Theory In his book, Flow The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defines flow as the feeling of becoming so absorbed in a present activity you lose consciousness of the self. You can experience flow anywhere—while dancing, writing, or climbing. I once entered a gremlin like state and played Minecraft for seven hours straight trying to drain the sand from an ocean temple in Minecraft. I had problems… There are seven elements for entering the flow state which I distill in the framework ACTIONS. I called it this because if you fulfill all of the seven elements of it, you can take any action with confidence it can become a flow experience. **A**ttend (Attend only to information which matters) **C**larify (Create clear completable goals and rules) **T**ao (Stay in the Goldilocks zone) **I**terate (Receive unambiguous feedback) **O**perate (Sense of control over actions) **N**on-attachment with time (Detachment from time) **S**elf-goal (Foster an Autotelic personality) You don’t need to know all of the parts of this framework. Just know the most important element for entering flow is the third element of flow in ACTIONS: T for Tao; an activity must fall inside of our Goldilocks zone, the zone in which the challenge of an activity and the relevant skills you bring to it are in balance. The activity must not be so difficult you give up, like writing an essay in hieroglyphics, but not so easy it’s boring, like counting to 100. We want it to be just challenging enough to stay engaged but not so challenging we become frustrated.  This is why I use the word Tao to summarize the element in ACTIONS. The Tao is a Daoist concept that brings forth the idea all activities have a balance point for each individual person. Similarly, every activity has a corresponding Goldilocks zone where there is a balance between challenge and the players corresponding skills. Video games have perfected the art of keeping us in our Goldilocks Zone. We have difficulty settings to tailor or difficulty experience. As we level up and our skills increase, the challenge of the game increases with us. In real life, we can make more non video game activities flow experiences by asking ourselves how we can get in our Goldilocks Zone. For example, I keep my writing practice challenging as I increase in skill by keeping a list of things I can improve on and focusing on one to implement each writing session. This writing session I’m working on integrating a graphic representation of some sort. Wow, you can see I succeeded up above! ## Self-Determination Theory Self-Determination Theory created by psychologists Richard Ryan and Edward Deci in the 1980s suggests people have natural tendencies to seek out challenges and needs that lead to growth and fulfillment in autonomy, competence, and connectedness. According to SDT, fulfilling these needs leads to enhanced motivation, self-regulation, and well-being. %%explaing what SDT is and how I relates to intrinsic motivation. Then going to tie into how video games build it so well and how we can build it in real life.%% **Intrinsic motivation is motivation to do something that emanates from the self.** The classic example is your motivation to play video games. We often play video games as an end in themselves rather than for some tangible outside reward. Personally, I play for the satisfying screams and blood of my enemies as their souls float to the dark depths of the black hole that is death in Total War Warhammer III. Intrinsic motivation can make you do activities without any need for extrinsic rewards. **Extrinsic motivation, however, is motivation to do something because of an outside self-reward or punishment.** For example, doing an assignment mostly so you don't miss the deadline comes from extrinsic motivation. You are motivated out of fear of a loss to your grades. Without the deadline, you likely wouldn't do the assignment. Same with pursuing a major at college because your parents or society said it was a "good idea. Real life can give us intrinsically and extrinsically motivated rewards as well. Bit theres a big difference between video game rewards and real life. According to Rigby S. and Ryan R. in their book [[Glued_to_Games]], video games are so engaging compared to other pursuits because of the immediacy, consistency, and density of the rewards they provide. ## The Octalysis Framework [[How I Gamified My Life To Enjoy Learning and Studying Part 1]] the octalysis framework # How To Fight Your Video Game Addiction Try to get these psychological needs in other areas of your life outside just video games. Jane McGonigal conducted a meta-analysis of more than 500 research papers[^1]. She wanted to understand the context around healthy versus unhealthy gaming. She proposes three tactics which you can use to encourage healthier forms of gaming: - Ensure you are playing with purpose rather than for escape. Before playing a game ask yourself: are you playing to escape real life or to build self-esteem, connection, to explore, or to love better? - Keep gaming under 21 hours a week. The mental and emotional benefits of gaming lower drastically when you play more than three hours per day. - Try to avoid aggressive, competitive games against strangers online. Playing with people you know is more likely to lead to Harmonious Passion rather than obsessive passion. I can attest that playing League Of Legends competitive alone with strangers online was one of the most low mood negative periods of my life. However, no research shows that League Of Legends increases hostility or aggression when played with people you know in real life. # References [^1]: Jane McGonigal, SuperBetter (New York: Penguin, 2016), 415–424. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). _Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness_. Guilford Press.