The overpowering stench of body odor fills a poorly ventilated room as a desk, piles high with empty soda cans, overflowing Twinkie wrappers and empty Cup O Noodles containers.
This very image can end up being the story of some people’s lives if they let video games take over.
Video games are often seen as a great way to relax and temporarily escape reality.
But if people spend too much time playing games, their priorities change and their social lives, family connections and even schoolwork may suffer as a result, experts said.
“It can get to the point where you get so caught up in games and you believe it to be a priority, that it becomes a daily schedule for you,” Krystal Jones, 18, video game design major, said.
“I see playing games as a way to relax,” John Porter, 19, computer science major, said.
Porter adds that he plays video games an average of three hours a day and that addiction to gaming can be a real thing.
“I played video games all spring break, and I still haven’t done my speech because I’ve been playing too much,” Porter said. “They get in the way of everything.”
However, Jones sees playing video games as a way to focus on her career.
“I use them in a way where I’ll play them and apply them to my career instead of neglecting other activities,” Jones said. “I play them to keep my priorities straight and not lose sight of my future.”
Jones also said that despite her heavily game-oriented life, she still puts classwork and life ahead of leisurely gaming.
Although the common demographic for video gamers would be teenagers and young adults, it’s not just limited to younger audiences, Julio Farias, associate professor of psychology, said.
“It’s not just the kids, it’s society wide,” Farias said. “Everybody is into this new way of connecting and socializing.”
Ben Espiritu, an employee at the Gamestop located across Crenshaw Boulevard, said that while most people begin gaming in middle school and high school, he still sees plenty of college students becoming addicted as well.
As a sales associate, Espiritu encounters a myriad of customers, some of whom he suspects are addicted to video games.
“It’s just the way they dress; the raggedy clothes and the bed hair because they were up too late playing video games the previous night,” Espiritu said.
Espiritu said that it is the story and the challenge in video games that get people addicted.
No specific type of game can be more addicting than others, but rather it just depends on the preference of the person according to Hub.com
Psychcentral.com claims video games, like any other activity, are one to be enjoyed in moderation, but different people have different ideas of what is a reasonable amount of time to put into playing video games.
Farias said that all forms of technology can be beneficial, but it is when they start affecting someone’s regular life that technology can become a negative influence.
“I think older people tend to look at it as a completely negative thing,” Farias said. “Our knee-jerk reaction is that these users always need instant gratification.”
For Jones and Porter, being able to know when it’s time to put the controller down is crucial when other more important aspects of their lives suffer.
“I’ll play and I’ll get into it, but there is a certain point where I’ll realize I need to do other things,” Jones said.
Farias said that people spending too much time using technology can best be helped with therapy, but even before it gets to that point, everyone should try to recognize they are forming a bad habit that may stick with them in their lives.
“If they just have more one-on-one, intimate, real-life relationships with people, they wouldn’t be so obsessed,” Farias said.