Much to the surprise of girls who complain about the time boys waste on video games, Internet gaming is actually an issue with pros and cons.
The Internet plays a prominent role in the lives of students: online registration, quizzes on Blackboard, research and social Web sites are all online.
The Web has woven itself into the fiber of our lives, and experts now see online games as both helps and hindrances. In 2002, the online gaming world got a jolt when 21-year-old Shawn Wooley from Hudson, Wis., committed suicide while playing a game that consumed his life — EverQuest, an online role-playing game. His mother found his body at his computer amid pizza boxes and fast-food wrappers.
Alcoholics or drug addicts have places to go for help, but there was no one there for him because no one knew how to help, according to the article “Death Reveals Depth of Internet Addiction” by the the Associated Press.
Wooley’s story may sound extreme, but stories like Wooley’s are becoming more common, and patients addicted to video games are under doctors’ care and medicated for their gaming problems.
On the other end of the spectrum, educators’ use of computer games is hardly on the decline. BYU-Idaho students who remember Oregon Trail and Number Crunchers, not to mention Mario Teaches Typing, know that these computer games were fun and educational, and the trend continues.
At the helm of educational computer games is Educause, a non-profit organization for responsible use of technology for education. Games present active, immersive learning environments where users integrate information to solve a problem, according to Educause.
Thus, computer games create a more realistic learning experience for school children. Stimulation is higher and students use more of their senses to learn more completely, when the games are used responsibly.
Still, continued studies will be required to see the link between these school computer games and the online gaming addiction like Wooley’s as this relatively new technology progresses.
On campus, the Counseling Center is available for students with Internet-gaming addiction.
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