The adult generation – anyone old enough to remember vinyl, arcade games and VHS – has largely come to accept technology as a necessary part of daily working life. Love it or loath it, computer literacy is now a basic requirement. While our parents retrained or retired, blissfully ignorant of the inner machinations of the Pentium chip, we were schooled in the art of word processing and the mystic runes of Excel, learning how to programme the video player in our spare time for good measure.
The arrival of the Internet and the discovery of CGI technology changed this forever, altering our perceptions of entertainment and introducing the notion of being ‘permanently connected’ to the world ‘outside’. The values that had kept technology in the corner, out of the way, and largely an expensive luxury all but disappeared.
Technology today is the new rock ‘n’ roll: cheap, sexy, and full of promises to be everything we’ve ever wanted. For the younger generation – anyone who stares blankly at the words ‘vinyl’, ‘arcade games’ and ‘VHS’ – WiFi, iPods and online gaming are the bread and butter of existence. The result of this, however, isn’t as benign as we might think: it appears our love affair with the circuit board is beginning to show its true colours. “The tendency for addictive use of mobile telephones or especially the Internet (particularly chats and Messenger type programmes) is much more frequent than what we believe,” explains Carme Tello i Casany, Director of Research and Education at the Child and Youth Mental Health Centre in Lleida.
The centre recently hit international headlines in the story of two young children admitted for treatment for addiction to their mobile phones. The children, aged 12 and 13, were taken to the centre in Lleida by their parents who claimed they couldn’t carry out normal functions without their mobiles in-tow.
“Unfortunately, it is not an isolated case,” says Carme. “We’ve also noticed that many parents are hooked on the Internet and their mobile phones too, especially chats that have sexual or prize-winning elements. For children and adolescents, however, the problem is more serious. There are many difficulties in young peoples’ ability to distinguish between what is real and what is virtual. This can cause serious psychiatric disorders, especially in what we would consider ‘normal’ psycho emotional evolution.”
An unhealthy reliance on technology can easily be overlooked and confused with more ‘typical’ child and adolescent disorders. “The most frequent symptoms include behavioural disorders, low self esteem, difficulties in reflection, a need for instant gratification, problems sleeping and failure at school,” states Carme. Given that these symptoms could describe a large minority of under 18s, the real numbers of those affected could be a lot higher.
The problem is not confined to Spain, however, as the Smith & Jones clinic in Amsterdam can testify. The centre treats young people who have fallen into serious patterns of addictive behaviour, and among its programmes is one designed specifically for addiction to videogames. It was the first centre in Europe to develop a dedicated approach to the treatment of console and Internet game playing. Videogame addiction is not officially recognised by international psychiatric authorities, and there is currently fierce academic debate as to whether it should be diagnosed as a bone fide mental health disorder. The Smith & Jones clinic has witnessed clear signs, however, that overuse or compulsive playing can trigger serious addictive behaviour.
“We received a boy who had taken to the habit of playing 18 hours a day,” Keith Bakker, a consultant at the Dutch clinic, was quoted as saying. “However, we didn’t have the facilities to treat him. It was then that we recognised the need for a specialist and unique approach to the treatment of adolescents with serious game playing problems.”
The Smith & Jones clinic’s approach looks to break the compulsive cycle that keeps gamers at the controls, the so-called ‘need to win’ mentality commonly present in cases of gambling addiction. The clinic has seen withdrawal symptoms from videogame use as serious as those associated with alcohol and drug dependency, and its programme of detoxification looks to reintegrate videogame addicts into the ‘real world’ using techniques similar to traditional substance abuse treatments. “We had one case where the child couldn’t be separated from his game even for visiting the bathroom,” explained Keith. “He kept an empty bottle next to him for urinating in.”
Such cases are indeed extreme, but they suggest the overuse of technology can only increase the more society is bedazzled by the blinking lights. Making products highly desirable to an ever-younger market, despite the ethical issue, encourages a consumerism that can itself turn addictive. However, separating technology from real world emotions is proving ever more diffi cult the more advanced the microchips become.
Soon to be released, The Wheelman videogame has already stirred-up controversy within unexpected circles. The game, starring actor Vin Diesel, uses Barcelona as its ‘open world’ environment. Translated, that means it’s the streets of the Ciutat Comtal that are shot-up. The format of the game follows the style of the popular Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series – one of the most successful computer game models ever created. The Ajuntament wants the game withdrawn before it has even been released, believing that it encourages a wholly negative impression of the city.
Phil Robinson, Senior Public Relations Manager at Wheelman developers Midway Games, doesn’t agree. “We’re really trying to empower players and let them feel like they’re in control of a car chase movie. If it was a fictional city, then I just don’t think it would work as well,” he responds. “I think there is some relationship between a real-life setting and the success of a game. It’s certainly not going to guarantee that success though. If you’re setting a game in a real-life place you need to fill that world with compelling game play.”
Given the potential difficulties young people can have in distinguishing between the real and the virtual, then surely using real life environments for fictional game play is a potentially dangerous combination. “It obviously depends on how such games are used, what value we place in them, and ultimately if it helps in our development as people,” says Carme Tello i Casany. “Like most things that can be misused to an extreme, it’s down to the individual as to how and what it will be used for.”
Parents often fail to realise that it is the self-empowerment and personal control element within videogames that makes both their impact and appeal incredibly durable. We’ve long accepted that the negative influence of violent movies is something our children should not be exposed to: in the case of GTA, is someone who spends their evening ‘driving’ around a virtual city, conducting drive-by shootings, picking up prostitutes, using their services and then bludgeoning them to death to recover their money likely to see the real world through slightly different eyes the following morning? How about someone who spends 18 hours a day in front of such influences? $500M of first week sales for the latest game suggests the true impact is a lot harder to measure.
For the entertainment business, such concerns seem of little importance – overuse of their products is beyond the control of the average multinational software corporation. In extreme cases the industry can even be charged with encouraging it, with longer save times between levels and live 24/7 Internet gaming environments allowing users to spend unlimited time in front of the screen. Combine this with the compulsive ‘need to win’ mentality and a potent mix of addictive components are on hand. “If someone buys Wheelman with the prime motivation of seeing a virtual Barcelona and just driving around, pulling handbrake turns at a hundred miles an hour... they’ll feel the effort that’s gone into the game and hopefully won’t be able to put it down,” admits Phil Robinson
One person who will be hoping that isn’t the case is Carme Tello i Casany. “We can’t go against advances in technology, but its value shouldn’t be increased just because it’s easily obtained. Possession doesn’t magically give unlimited power and parents have the responsibility of controlling what children use technology for. It can be very difficult to just spend time with children, and sometimes it is easier to satisfy them with material things. I don’t want to blame parents because the majority suffer a lot in these situations and often don’t know how to handle them, but it is the responsibility of the family to work as a cell to protect children.”
It seems society pushes young people to ever-more individualistic forms of entertainment because it no longer knows what to do with them, and the vacuum of modern childhood becomes easier to fill with a handheld console or 3G mobile phone. As such attitudes become accepted parts of normal life – for adults and children alike – the danger of overuse, dependency, and all the social, behavioural and depression- related problems that can arise risk being overlooked. “It is essential to treat children and adolescents so that they not only accept they have a problem, but also so that the family – especially the parents – collaborate with the treatment,” remarks Carme. “We try to help patients in a number of ways by giving them tools to develop their addictive situation, but also to help parents understand it; for them, to help lower the stress levels within the family environment and improve the quality of life for the entire family is very important.”
As with any question of misplaced values, it is down to society to propose alternatives that keep potentially harmful elements in their place. Technology is one of the great measures of human advancement, but if we allow ourselves to believe that all that glitters is gold then we risk exposing ourselves – and our children – to a world that is no longer of our own making.
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