Level Up, Relationship Down - 1402 Words

Level Up, Relationship Down Imagine having a door shut in your face. That is how it feels when someone ignores you as that person is playing video game. You are on your way home after a long and difficult day at work. The traffic slows you down and adds up the stress to your already-worn-out body. As you are nearing your home,you notice that the lights in your home are on and you realize that you have a family to come home to and you are grateful for it. You immediately feel relieved because you know that a quality conversation with your children and/or other family member will ease the stress and pain that you are experiencing. Therefore then, you park your car on the driveway and rush yourself into the house, expecting that warm welcome†¦show more content†¦However, how does the advancement of video games affect our relationships with one another? While a group of people strongly believe that it is helping bring people together, the addiction, the over competitiveness mentality, and the frustration t hat video games generate are, in reality, pushing people apart. Video games are addictive. It makes its users forget themselves and their surroundings, including their loved ones. What makes people addicted to video games is the fact that video games are constantly rewarding people for every little in-game act they do when playing the game. For instance, one gains virtual currency or skill points for every point, rebounds, blocks, and steals one records in the game NBA 2K. Another example, one gains money and reputation points every time one finish a mission in the game Grand Theft Auto. The constant rewards are a type of positive reinforcement that people do not easily receive in real life and this makes people want to keep playing the games over and over again: â€Å"The addition of a stimulus [will] increase the probability that a behavior will be repeated† (Grison 212). In this instance, the addition of a stimulus is the rewards (virtual currency or reputation points) that video games give to its users and the behavior that is expected to be repeated is the act of playing that video games. In an article for the video-game-addiction.org, Meghan Vivo, the Content Media Relations Director at Elements Behavioral Health,