Dec 6, 2021 08:00 AM
https://unherd.com/2021/11/whats-china-g...st-gaming/
EXCERPTS: Can you be addicted to video games? In 2018, the WHO decided to create a new entry in its big book of recognised diseases, the International Classification of Diseases, or ICD-11. That entry was “gaming disorder” or “internet gaming disorder” (IGD), also known as gaming addiction, which involves “impaired control over gaming… gaming [taking] precedence over other life interests and daily activities… [and] negative consequences”.
You can even be treated for it. You can get specialist treatment at a dedicated NHS clinic. South Korea has gaming “rehab centres”. Gaming addicts have “lost interest in their own lives” and “do not feel the passing of time in the real world”, according to a doctor who treats the condition there.
[...Worry is that ...] the WHO decision will pathologise normal, healthy behaviour, like playing video games after work to destress.
The question, then, is why has the WHO done it? They didn’t need to; the American Psychiatric Association hasn’t yet added it to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists hasn’t formally recognised it.
One possible answer is that the WHO has been pressured into doing it. [...] There has been huge concern about video gaming in several east Asian countries.
In Japan and South Korea, there have been years of worries about the “hikikomori”, young adults who shut themselves off from society, living in their parents’ homes, never leaving, eating delivery food, watching Netflix, browsing the internet and playing games. The phenomenon has also been widely reported in China, Hong Kong and Singapore. These countries are huge consumers and producers of video games, and notably of spectator e-sports, and people have been quick to blame video games for the condition.
And this has led to a widespread reaction which looks suspiciously like a moral panic. [...] Societies are entitled to ban anything they want, of course. But the concern is that they’re hiding behind science to do it... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Can you be addicted to video games? In 2018, the WHO decided to create a new entry in its big book of recognised diseases, the International Classification of Diseases, or ICD-11. That entry was “gaming disorder” or “internet gaming disorder” (IGD), also known as gaming addiction, which involves “impaired control over gaming… gaming [taking] precedence over other life interests and daily activities… [and] negative consequences”.
You can even be treated for it. You can get specialist treatment at a dedicated NHS clinic. South Korea has gaming “rehab centres”. Gaming addicts have “lost interest in their own lives” and “do not feel the passing of time in the real world”, according to a doctor who treats the condition there.
[...Worry is that ...] the WHO decision will pathologise normal, healthy behaviour, like playing video games after work to destress.
The question, then, is why has the WHO done it? They didn’t need to; the American Psychiatric Association hasn’t yet added it to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists hasn’t formally recognised it.
One possible answer is that the WHO has been pressured into doing it. [...] There has been huge concern about video gaming in several east Asian countries.
In Japan and South Korea, there have been years of worries about the “hikikomori”, young adults who shut themselves off from society, living in their parents’ homes, never leaving, eating delivery food, watching Netflix, browsing the internet and playing games. The phenomenon has also been widely reported in China, Hong Kong and Singapore. These countries are huge consumers and producers of video games, and notably of spectator e-sports, and people have been quick to blame video games for the condition.
And this has led to a widespread reaction which looks suspiciously like a moral panic. [...] Societies are entitled to ban anything they want, of course. But the concern is that they’re hiding behind science to do it... (MORE - missing details)