Does Video Addiction Only Affect Boys?

The quintessential image of video gaming is a teenage boy playing games in his room. Although that seems to be the stereotypical picture of gaming of the past, video gaming is not strictly limited to boys. More than 1.2 billion people around the globe play video games which provides a variety of games for every person and every gender. With Ms. Pac Man taking arcades by storm back in 1981, males and females put their 25 cents into the arcade machine to become enamored with the wacka wacka sounds. Ms. Pac Man modeled beautiful eyelashes, lipstick, and a bow as she was chased by ghosts while she ate away to the center of the board. Fast forward to Candy Crush Saga with 69 percent female players, Dragon Age: Inquisition with 48 percent female players, Pokémon Go with 63 percent female players, and Just Dance predominantly all female, these are games which attract women. Overall there have been more games historically produced which were intended to attract the male population more so than females. Although statistics show that there are more women are gamers today than in previous decades.

In 2006, 62 percent of males made up gaming with 38 percent being females.
In 2018, the gap was bridged with 55 percent of gamers being male and 45 percent female.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently designated video gaming as an addiction. A gaming disorder is defined in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as digital-gaming or video-gaming that is characterized by an increased priority to gaming over other activities, never-ending acceleration for gaming, and impaired control over gaming. 15 percent of gamers meet the criteria of addiction by the WHO which does not seem like a lot, but addiction affects 315 million gamers of all ages around the world including approximately 45 million Americans. 28 percent of gamers are under the age of 18 and the 18-35 age range produces 29 percent of gamers which makes up half of all the gamers. The kicker of all the statistics is that only 15 percent of teenage boys are gamers which means the stereotype of yesteryears has changed its demographics over the years due mostly to marketing, ease of technology, and developing games that appeal to specific ages and genders. The face of video gaming continues to evolve along with the technology and special effects that continues to attract gamers from all over the world.

Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center employs a well-trained medical staff that is qualified to manage the stages of withdrawal for our adolescent clients. We offer on-site detoxification to help keep our clients as comfortable as possible.

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Does Video Addiction Only Affect Boys?

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