Addiction to Video Games Harms Some
Exeter’s rigor inside and outside the classroom places students under heavy amounts of stress. Many students play video games with dorm mates and friends as a way to relax at the end of a hard week. But for some Exeter students, an enjoyable hobby can turn into an obsession detrimental to their education and social life.
“We get them to the appropriate people and that involves a thoroughly trained mental health counselor. We very often loop in the parents and dorm faculty because it takes a multi faceted approach to help solve this issue.”
One of the school’s four on-site counselors, Dr. Christopher Thurber, said that he sees about one or two students a term who struggle with video games. “Addiction is classified through medical literature as when a person is continuing some behavior despite its having a significant negative effect on their social functioning, emotional functioning, or vocational functioning—in the case of students, vocational functioning is how you’re performing academically,” Thurber said.
Dean of Student Health and Wellness William Coole believes that video games can be helpful to people in general, not just students. “There’s a significant positive aspect to gaming. It helps people focus well on specific tasks, there’s problem-solving involved and it produces in us a hyper sense of involvement in a task which is always positive,” he said. “Anything that trains us to be present in a singular task is good.”
Thurber agreed that video games can be important for Exonians. “The stressful nature of this [Exeter’s] environment, and the way that you’re engaging your brain throughout the day in classes is different [than it might be off-campus]. We all need time to play, and video games are one convenient way to play especially after check-in,” he said.
Upper Payton Gulliford said that gaming provides much needed stress relief. “Exeter can be really stressful especially towards the end of the term, and it’s during those times that gaming can afford us a breather,” he said.
However, video games can certainly pose a problem if left unchecked. “It can go wrong, and that’s when people get deep into it and they don’t want to socialize or get their homework done because of it,” Coole said. He added that this can be a larger problem at Exeter than at other schools. “If you take an hour out of an Exeter student’s life, that’s a large chunk of time. You can barely find time to eat and socialize and study. The potential is there for it to be much more disruptive.”
Thurber added that video games are created in such a way as to keep their playerbase playing the same game. “Video games are designed by really smart people, and I don’t just mean by good coders. They are all fundamentally the same: they all rely on what’s called a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement,” Thurber said. “You get opportunities to be rewarded, but variable ratio means that it’s not predictable when you get those [rewards]. It’s how slot machines are arranged.”
That’s not to say that Thurber is opposed to video games. “I’m not anti-technology no more than I’m against chocolate, but it depends on how much you have,” he said. “If people like playing video games, that’s great as long as they can balance that out with sleep and homework and friends.”
Webster dorm head Alex Myers agreed, adding that students must be careful when they are engaging in video games. “Playing video games can be a fun way to connect with others and can provide some stress relief. It just needs to be done in moderation and at appropriate times,” he said.
Severe gaming problems are not an issue for most students. “Based on the knowledge I have, gaming is a problem for a very small percentage of kids,” Coole said. “Maybe it’s much more pervasive and I’m just not hearing about it because the kids are seeing their advisors and counselors, but those problems where I have to come in are very small.”
When gaming does become a problem at Exeter, however, it is treated like any other addiction. “We get them to the appropriate people and that involves a thoroughly trained mental health counselor. We very often loop in the parents and dorm faculty because it takes a multi faceted approach to help solve this issue,” Coole said.
Other than self-help, concerned friends can also urge a student to seek help from adults on campus. “Often, counselors will talk with the students who call in and are concerned about a friend to help them make a plan. It’s usually the case that when a student expresses directly or indirectly about a peer, that peer isn’t overjoyed that their life has temporarily become more complicated, but they’re simultaneously relieved that they are getting some help,” Thurber said.
Medical Leave is an option reserved for the severest circumstances. “Looking back to last year, I can say there were maybe two or three kids who we were really concerned about that warranted a medical leave and that’s pretty standard,” Coole said. “The whole reason behind a medical leave is we feel the student can’t adequately address the health issue while still maintaining a good work environment because of their academics.” He added that what students do during medical leave is a collaboration between Exeter and their providers at home, and that the majority of students who do go on med leave for gaming do come back.
Senior Nader Babar, a proctor in Wentworth, said that although he hasn’t seen any gaming problems in the dorm, he is prepared to help with any issues that arise. “We keep an eye out for any signs that a student is having trouble, whether academically, socially or otherwise in day to day life and step in to talk to them and help them,” he said. “If issues become too serious, then the entire dorm team (faculty and proctors) would address it together. I think gaming is mostly positive and can even be for socializing especially when someone with a console has others around or has an open door so that students can play together.”
Gulliford added that he and his friends only game when they are free. “We only play during the weekends. Games are just games and we know when we have to work. When we do play, there’s no shame in calling it early because we all understand that we have homework to do.”
Senior John Woodward, who games during the weekends as well, feels that students should be free to game as they like. “I think that we’re responsible for ourselves and for the most part, I think we do ourselves justice,” he said. “Problems depend on how people label them– you can call socialising too much a problem– so for the most part you have to help yourself and friends keep tabs on one another.”