TITLE

Social media obsessives and compulsive gamers share addictive traits, experts say

DESCRIPTION

This is an extremely thorough article with an excerpt from the book “The Age of Addiction:  How Bad Habits Became Big Business.” The article begins with a brief historical analysis:  “As late as the 1970s, the word seldom referred to anything other than compulsive drug use. Over the next 40 years, however, the concept of addiction broadened….Medical researchers have discovered that substance and behavioral addictions have similar natural histories. They produce similar brain changes; similar patterns of tolerance; and similar experiences of craving, intoxication and withdrawal. And they reveal similar genetic tendencies toward similar personality disorders and compulsions.”  The article then moves from the historical to discuss other problems related to the internet, social media, use of mobile devices, video and computer games and how all of these have had a negative impact on many leading to addictive/compulsive behavioral problems.

The article can be used as an application of Psychology as it relates to Health Psychology, Addictions, Obsessive-Compulsive disorders.

SOURCE

Newsweek, June 12,  2019, by David T. Courtwright

LINK TO RESOURCE

https://www.newsweek.com/compulsive-gamers-social-media-obsessives-addictive-traits-1443439

(Tiny URL)  https://tinyurl.com/yxgdquxg

CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

•How does the old view of addiction differ from the more current problems that are now labeled as addictions?

•According to the article:  what are the current types of behaviors that are labeled as addictions?

•Are there differences between the use of the terms “addiction” and “compulsion”?

•The end of the article has a quote:  “We not only live in an age of addiction. We live in an age when the commercialized temptation to downshift our brains from disciplined, cortical pleasures to baser ones has never been more intense. Like never before, bad habits are big business.”   How are we to understand this aspect of modern living and what future predictions can be made?

•Ask the students if they agree with the discussion of modern addictions.  Can the students relate the article to either their own personal knowledge (self and others) and apply their knowledge to these phenomena?