Online Game Addiction Among

Senior High School Students in

Private School
 INTRODUCTION AND TOPIC BACKGROUND

In the 21st century many young generations are starting to use the Internet. Online
games on mobile phones have become extremely popular among new generations that leads to
the spread of online game addiction on a global platform particularly from students in Private
School as observed by the researcher. According to recent researches, online gaming has
become one of the most addictive Internet activities to date (Wan ＆ Chiou, 2006). Based on
established researches, this monograph research is interested in discovering the reasons
behind why young people start to play online games as well as how playing such games affects
the daily lives and activities of them.
Based on information gathered from the Sweden’s Official Gaming Website (2009) the
market for computer and video games has grown and continues to grow at an accelerating pace
within the Scandinavian regions, including Sweden. Gaming has become a massive industry.
Over the past three years, this growth has been seen to reach and surpass 3 billion SEK (which
roughly approximate 375 million USD). Even in light of the recent recession the gaming industry
has held on strong with an increasing volume of game sales in 2009.
Addiction is one of the several ethical concerns arising from the use of mobile games.
Candy crush saga, as an example, is a mobile social game which had negative impacts as there
were users who became addictive to the game. Mobile games are casual games that can be
played on smartphones. Typically, mobile games are played in a short period of time in contrast
to PC and console games. The mobility and the wireless connectivity of smartphones allow
users to play mobile games wherever and whenever they like. With the advancement in mobile
technologies, graphics, and the mobile gaming experience itself, there are studies that show
that users are able to play more than what it is expected. In IOS and Android, games are the
number one app category that is downloaded from both platforms.
Mobile gaming addiction is a growing concern that increases the user’s risk for physical
and psychological health problems. A strong attachment to mobile games may interfere with
school and work-related activities and can damage family life. Video game addiction is part of
the so-called Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and is often associated with Gambling Addiction.
Gambling Addiction is compared to Mobile game addiction as both are impulse control
disorders. Addiction seemingly affects the brain’s dopamine level which keeps the users from
coming back for more. Additionally, in general, IGD has also been linked to a poorer academic
performance of students in educational institutions. However, in a study conducted by Samaha
and Hawi (2016) in smartphone addiction, revealed that there is no relationship between
smartphone addiction risk and academic performance.
Computer games have become a very popular leisure activity among children and
adolescents in recent years. In fact, based on popularity alone online gaming garners a larger
share of ‘favorite’ votes among young people than physical team sports such as ice hockey and
football combined. There are many benefits of the Internet as it not only acts as an
entertainment tool, but also an important professional resource for work, communication as
well as education. However, despite all of its inherent advantages, the Internet also has its
drawbacks.
Although the Internet could be very productive, it can have a drastically opposing effect.
For some people who play online games, the Internet acts as an enabler. It is used to feed an
addiction, which by its very definition interferes with daily life, work and personal relationships.
According to a report of Syracuse University on the Science Daily website (2007), online games
may have significantly negative consequences, especially in the lives of students, through
causing distraction and interfering with important reaction of out-game life actions, such as
academic performance, health, and social life. For purposes of clarity, in the rest of this thesis
online games will also be referred to as "Massive Multiplayer Online Games" or "MMOG".
The purpose of this study is to formulate a theory as to what causes video game
addiction in mobile phones among students in Private School. The overall goal is to determine
what causes students to become addicted to computer games, while trying to understand more
about the social norms and daily habits of computer game addicts.

II. Guide Questions

A. How did the students in Private School become addicted to online games?
 B. How did online games affect students in Private School as to health, relationship with
friends, relationship with family, study habits?

III. Definition of Terms

Game Addiction. A psychological or a physical dependence on something. Individual
with game addiction can thus be said to have a psychological dependence on Massive
Multiplayer Online Games or to exhibit excessive or compulsive use of computer and video
games.
Online Game. A game that requires a connection to the Internet to play; they are
distinct from video and computer games in that they are normally platform-independent,
relying solely on client-side technologies normally called “plug-ins”. Normally all that is required
to play Internet games are a Web browser and the appropriate plug-in normally available for
free via the plug-in maker’s Web site.

IV. Methodology
Research Instrument
An eight-item questionnaire is used to identity whether the interviewees are
addicted to online game. This questionnaire comes from Dr. Kimberly S. Yong (2006)’s
resources as shown on Appendix 1 and Appendix 2.

Environment
The research locale of this study is in the Selected Private School in Tagbilaran City,
Bohol. The subject of the study were the students who were addicted to mobile online games.
 Figure 1. Tagbilaran City, Bohol Location Map

Respondents
The researchers chose to conduct a qualitative research with the method of interviews.
In the research, snowball-sampling was used to find appropriate interviewees, which means
that the researchers identified a few Senior High School Students with the characteristics the
researchers required; asked them if they know of anyone with the same or similar
characteristics that the researchers are searching for; and through them, the researchers could
connect with more people that are having the same or similar characteristics.
Snowball-sampling is useful when it is difficult to identifying potential subjects, in which
it is easier and more convenient for us to find and identify the interview persons we require.
The respondents chose to interview first are common acquaintance of the researchers who has
well-known problems. After finishing the first interview the researcher asked if the respondents
had any friends who are in a similar condition.
Snowball-sampling was used to find four students to interview. Two of them are Grade
11 students, two are Grade 12, and four of them meet the criteria for game addicted to the
online games.
The results were then divided into our four themes. They are: health, family relations,
friend relations, and school performance. We came up with these themes by looking at our
transcription, and found that our interviewees all had problems with sleep (health theme), and
with their diet, as well as having problems with most of their social relationships such as friends
and family thus we made it into two themes (relationship with family & friends themes) and
lastly we understand that any addiction can have impacts on current studies or work
assignments, therefore school became our last and fourth theme.

V. Presentation of Data Gathered

A. How did the students in Private School become addicted to online games?
 The first questions that the researchers went through with the respondents is the
reason, how the students become addicted to the online games. According to the answers we
got from the four interviewees, we conclude and infer several possible reasons of online-game
addiction.

Firstly, all of our interviewees spent more time to mention the feelings and pleasure in
which the game provided for them. The first respondent said that, “I have never felt such
satisfied and happy before in doing other things. So gradually I have no interest in other
activities or school work”, pursuing this kind of excitement, teenagers cannot control
themselves but keep playing the games. All the interviewees admitted the excitement
computer games bring joy and interest to them. In addition, “When I pay all the attention to the
games, I will forget the failure of examination, and forget a lot for pressure and problems,” the
second respondent said. In the same way, the interviewees in the study said that they felled
more interesting and more hobby in virtual world and tried to avoid and escape problems in
out-game life when playing games, and the certain degree of addiction for them mainly relayed
on games, an invisible and a happy world. However, after immersing the playing games for
some time, they would meet more and more problems that were coming up due to the
addiction of online games, which may lead them to have a stringer willing to avoid these
problems.
For the second reason, we believe it owes to the online games themselves. “Facebook-
games are boring, you just sit there and click you know, but mobile games can be more exciting,
and you sit there playing with your friends”, the first respondent mentioned. It is no doubt that
the games are designed to be attractive and addictive. The purpose of designing the games is to
make the game players never want to stop playing. Thus, they are looking for ways to make
their games more attractive and interesting, so the players will spend lot of time and money in
the games. From what he said, we can see that not only her own willingness to win, but also the
game itself is designed addictive, which means they attract people keep playing without stop by
providing gorgeous scenes, challenging stages, upgrading systems, role playing, rewarding
strategy and so on.
 Thirdly, the reason of being addictive to the players with computer games could be the
influence of their friend networks. All the four interviewees said that many of their closest
friends are actively playing games and quite active. In this case, we believe that influence by
their friends is also an important reason for online games addiction. “The first time I played
mobile online game is because one of my best friends strongly suggest me playing it”, the third
respondent said. Curiosity is the human instincts for everyone. If the friends around them play
the games and extensively talk about it, it is easily to make people become curious about in the
game and hope to try it. Interesting, one of the interviewees said that he would love to play the
games only because his friends like to play it. As the third respondent said that he loves to play
it with his friend because “It may be the feeling of playing it in a team makes me happy or we
have common language. If they are not online, I will feel boring to play by myself.” Even though
he wants to go out for some other activities, when his friends ask him to play, he gives up other
activities and play with them since he does not want to say no to his friends. Following with the
thinking way, we believe if the online games are more vapidity to make more friends of the
players, who does not like to play online games, the situation may be changed.
Fourthly, the interviewers who immerse the online games had poor or inadequate social
communications and limited number of friends. “I don’t go out much anymore. I used to go out
to play with my friends when I was younger. I want to start going out with friends again, but it’s
hard because most of them have new friends. It’s hard to find new friends as I’m not a very
social person.” said by second respondent. In the investigation, the interviewers mentioned
that they sometime preferred to meet friends who would not like to play online games.
However, their friends were hardly to play with them because they often have their own close
friends. Poor or inadequate social communications could be the main reasons without more
close friends for the interviewees. Further, the online games are easily to become the friends of
the interviewees since they have the similar interesting and purpose. Otherwise, the game
players may fell alone and boring.
Finally, we infer from the interviews that another possible reason could be their living
environment. Among the Senior High School students studying at Private School, online game
addiction is a natural effect of them.
 Instead, they turn to play online games to find people like them to be friends or to
spend their spare time. As a result, most of their friends are rooted on the online community,
which contributes to other game addicts. This situation induces them to create a sort of hostile
to the environment surrounding them and they prefer to be addicted in the online games since
they would have no one in reality to confide.

B. How did online games affect students in Private School as to health, relationship with
friends, relationship with family, and study habits?

Health
The results showed the congruence on the basis of impact on the health of the game
players, and the first aspect is eating habits for both Grade 11 and Grade 12 students. They
noted a downturn in their health habits with both sides and admitted an increase in the intake
of unhealthy junk food as well as eliminated mealtimes from their schedule in order to spend
more time gaming as a direct result of their gaming addition. It should be noted from the
nature of the answers the participants gave that both student categories formerly enjoyed
healthy eating habits that were however deteriorated by the start of their gaming addiction. “I
tend to eat a lot more junk food when I play games, and I can’t spend an hour cooking food,
therefore I’ve gained over-weight,” the first respondent said. From the response we can deduce
that prior to becoming a gaming addict, the student used to engage in active cooking which is
always a healthier alternative than eating junk food. As the student started devoting more of
their time to play online games, this habit dwindled in exchange for an easier alternation that
would permit i.p. A to commit more time to gaming. As a result, this respondent, gained over-
weight and eating habit was changed so thus the health is becoming worse. “I only eat once a
day, as compared to eating 3 times a day as I did before when I started playing. I’ve lost about
10 kg because of my new habits, and I usually just cook fast food ”, respondent 3 said. Rather
than substitute good food for junk food, respondent 3 completely eliminated meal times from
his schedule in order to spend more time gaming. Whenever he eats, it is fast food, thus leading
to the same health situation as respondent 1, respondent 3 only eats once a day, which lead
respondent 3 to lose about 10 kg. These two different types of people (the one who are eating
too much junk food and those who don’t eat enough) are very common in the online-game
community. By these two answers that were gathered from Grade 11 student and Grade 12
students, not giving yourself time to cook a proper dinner is hazardous to a person’s diet. It is
clear to see that online games change the eating habits of students for the worse, thus the
health is becoming poor.

Apart from eating habit, one of the other important health factors we got from
interviewees was decreased sleep. The results of question 2 in the questionnaire, ‘Do you tend
to stay up late due to online games?,’ revealed that our interviewees actively sacrificed sleep to
stay up playing online games. “When I used to play World of Warcraft I went to sleep at about
00.00 or 01.00, but now I play CS, we all tend to sit up until like 03:30 to 04:00 playing matches.
So, yes. I tend to stay up late when playing games”, as respondent 1 said . The case revealed a
decreased sleep problem, and this is a major problem among our interviewees. Sleep play a
large role in ensuring the overall health of the body system and a lack of sleep can lead to
neurasthenia. (Zhuo, 2007). We fully understand that the gamers can get carried away when
playing games and forget about the time, but it’s rather dangerous. If one stays up late
constantly, a lack of sleep can lead to the health becoming worse.
Through our interviews, we compared Private School with our interview findings and
found that players not only have decreased sleep but some of them also have shoulder pain, a
higher wright than normal, even impaired vision because of playing online games. Some of
these health problems have major effects on their daily lives. Such as decreased sleep you’ll feel
tired and unfocused if you go to class after a whole night of gaming, severely harming your
ability to study well. A lack of sleep can also lead to neurasthenia, for instance, the players pay
too much attention on games, when they are sleeping their brain become sensitive on any
sound or light, which causes them to suffer from insomnia that eventually can lead to nervous
breakdowns ( Zhuo, 2007). And eating fast food is O.K. once in a while, but when players eat it
on a daily basis it really takes a good toll on their body, the high amount of carbohydrates gives
them too much energy, and it will lead to them gain a higher weight than normal thus it will
eventually lead to obesity (Bowman, et al, 2004), and increase risk of some health problems
such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes (IASO, 2012).

Relationship with Friends

The second theme we have carried our study into is the relationship with friends.
Though our interviewees, we found their social network have changed as a result of being
addicted, and their networks of friends become small. As respondent 1 and respondent 2 said:
“Some friends who don’t play game have complained about I play game quite
often”( respondent 1); “All my closest friends today are playing games, I have friends who don’t
play games; I honestly don’t see them very often” (respondent 2). We found losing out-game
friends who don’t play game is a common consequence of spending too much time alone in
front of the computer. When the friends of them who play game more than the friends who
don’t play game, they tend to cherish their in-game friends more than their out-game friends.
Thus, they start losing contact with their out-game friends. It should be noted that one of the
respondent respondent 4 said,“My girlfriend broke up with me because I spent lots of time
playing games, so that no time to communicate with her.” This complaint about lack of self-
control is a common result with the respondents, the time and effort in which it takes to
maintain a relationship and has become far less important than the time they spent playing
MMOGs. The report from Iowa State University (2011) stated that if people become addicted to
games it may have the unfortunate effect of increasing social phobias (such as seeing and
talking to people), and thus directly interfere with out-game life socializing. Their computer
game addiction may also lead to problems in their relationship with lovers, relationships with
friends whom are not playing games and major flaws in their social network (Young, 1999).

Relationship with Family

The third theme of our research regarding the social impact of online game addiction
deals with its effects on the relationship with family members. One of the common themes that
were evident in these results was secrecy. The interviewees’ parents either did not know that
their children were addicts or that they even played these online games at all. In the case of the
Grade 12 respondents, since they don’t live with their parents any more now, it’s hard for
parents to know the true extent of their children’s addiction. It was revealed that though the
parents are aware of their children’s gaming habit, they trust their children to make the right
decision and can be in charge of themselves. And now they don’t live with their parents, but
their relationship with their parents are the same. As respondent 3 said, “ Now, I don’t live with
them anymore I can play much, but our relationship remains same”. The fact is that the
relationships of the Grade 12 interviewees with their parents don’t change anymore due to
playing online game. The common results for Grade 11 students revealed that they play online
game at least 14 hours every day and hided their game addiction from their parents. As a result
of game addiction, they angry frequently with their parents as compared with they did before
and had communication problems with their parents. Thus their relationships with family have
suffered from negative consequences. “I spent 16 hours a day playing online games, but my
parents don’t know I play game so much”, respondent 1 said. Her parents don’t know she was
addicted and played so much. This is one of common conditions in that the respondents of
Grade 11 students admitted that they tried to actively keep their addictions from their parents.
“When I can’t go to next game scene, I couldn’t control myself and always get angry. I can’t
communicate with my parents, I would angry with them for no reason,” as respondent 2 said.
From what respondent 2 said, we can infer that he already has a communication problem with
his parents because of his game addiction. Most of students in Grade 11 who are studying in
the Private School are being sponsored by their parents who support for all their expenses
while they are here. Thus, they don’t want their children to spend up to 14 hours per day to
play games instead of studying. So it’s fully understandable that our Grade 11 interviewees
don’t want their parents know they spend most their time on games. On the other hand, Grade
11 parents want their children to listen to them because they feel they know the best for their

children. Even though their children leave home, they hope to contact frequently with them.
Actually, the parents do not know that their children have kept addiction habit as a result of
playing games with more time of spending. Our interviewee respondent 1 and respondent 2 in
fact have increased anxiety and communication problems with their parents. Young (1999)
referred that fifty-three percent of serious relationship problems happened between addicted
students and their parents were caused by Internet addicts. We found that people who are
addicted to games will likely have increased anxiety, which may lead to that their relationships
with different people will becomes worse and worse. So we can understand why the
interviewees respondent 1 and respondent 2 who are both Grade 11 mentioned that their
relationship with their families is affected by their gaming addiction. The manners of parents
between Grade 11 and Grade 12 to consider the playing game addiction of their children are
quite different.

Study Habits
The fourth theme we have created is study habits. The results revealed that all of the
respondents have faced negative consequences in their study habits as a direct result of their
online game playing. “After I was addicted to online game, the time I have spent on study
became more less,” as respondent 1 said. One of the common results showed that our
interviewees spent less and less time for studying as their gaming hours increased and it also
showed that the degree of deterioration extended further with more time playing than less
time. Another common result we got as respondent 3 said, “My school performance has gone
down quite a bit because of games.” They got worse school grade than before. “I am tired
cause I play lot, and sleep less. I can’t follow teacher, always distracted in the classroom,” as
respondent 2 said. The gaming addiction has a difficult for himself to stay in class.
Unfortunately, some of the respondent’s reactions to this negative trends show that they do
not care so much about the influence as long as they could keep playing their games. Wan and
Chiou (2006) mentioned that gamers are likely to have bad grades in school, as they tend to
give games greater priority, thus reducing the time spent on his/her studies. Young (1996) also
stressed that fifty-eight percent of his subjects reported that owing to being addicted to
Internet, they have had noted a decline in their study habits and a significant drop in grades
and an increasing amount of missed classes.