Is There A Real Explanation For The Video Game Phenomenon?

How many times have we heard that video games generate dopamine in the brain and, therefore, are addictive!

Likewise, we have all also heard about the risk factors and protective factors for addictive symptoms. If I have friends who encourage me to consume, these are a risk factor, while if I have social circles that do not consume, they prevent it. But beyond these patterns when describing a problem of this kind, it is necessary understand the tendency to play video games too much as a product of a certain form of confrontation with the world

Beyond the reductionist perspective on the excessive use of video games

With the risk and protective factors we can make a list, from hereditary elements to the psychological integrity of the person (with all its repertoire of attributes such as self-esteem, resilience, impulsivity, etc.), family, friends, emotional-sexual relationships and the academic work context, among others.

But… What if our young people’s perception of reward for participating in this world was a factor that led them to play video games? And this does not justify it, nor does it seem correct to me if this were the case, but to a certain extent it can put on the table one more factor that explains the problematic use, which we must view together with the others already exposed.

The effects of uncertainty on dependency

So that, The way we narrate reality can influence the perception of reward We all know Skinner’s pigeon experiment, but perhaps not many know that, a posteriori, when the reward of hitting the lever and receiving food was very delayed in time, so distant and negligible, in this situation, even giving a variable reward, this was so insignificant that the animals stopped pressing the lever.

This may well be happening with our young people during their time in the educational system; a phenomenon that, in recent years, may have been exacerbated by the uncertainty that is spreading throughout the world. In 2020, Victoria Fugariu and collaborators published an experiment in which they subjected four groups of rats to four degrees of uncertainty respectively, while the members of a fifth group were addicted to amphetamine.

The researchers observed that the brains of the group with the highest degree of uncertainty and that of the rats addicted to methamphetamine showed the same desire to consume methamphetamine, the same degree of risk taking in decision making (impulsivity) and similar amounts of dopamine receptors. That is, it seemed to be observed that Uncertainty makes individuals more susceptible to addictive stimuli

Understand the dynamics of gaming to understand a part of the world

Along these lines, the book “Videogames: The Last Black Mirror” talks about all the concerns that a teenager may have in his confrontation with the world, validates them and focuses them on the right path, thus achieving a better and healthier perspective for face reality.

The content of this work straddles deep reflections and personal experiences as a psychologist and gamer, all based on scientific references.

Whether you like playing video games or not, The gaming phenomenon increasingly has more social reach and it is important to know its foundations ; We all have a close friend who plays a lot. And as psychologists, it is essential to understand these game dynamics to understand this new generation of gaming and content creation. This book provides a different approach to what you already know (dopamine, variable reward systems, social validation of gaming by the big stars who create content…).

It is obvious that this generation comes from a comfort zone of well-being and that compared to others it has hardly had to overcome adversity; However, if there is no longer a zone of comfort or well-being, we will have to change that point in the narrative of reality to generate resilience.

It is worth reiterating that the act of validating the confrontation with the world in an appropriate way is going to be much more beneficial than pointing the carrot in front of the donkey just for the sake of it. Let’s enter this world, take reflections and foundations, and we will see how to truly awaken the motivation of this generation by feeling much more emotionally validated.