RA: “Computer Game Addiction.”

In this article, Joe Ahn and George Randal of Clemson University take a look at online gaming addictions to see if this is a real problem. The short article reports several statistics done on 8th and 9th graders showing that those who are addicted seem to get in more fights, argue more with teachers and allude that they do worse in school than non addicted students of the same age. The problem with this is that the researcher gives no indication that bias due to background has been accounted for—ie. their family stability, socioeconomic level, etc. This is one of the major problems in this article. It’s never really said how the research was collected or why it is supposed to be accounted for as true. It’s strange because the paper seems to be only interested in informing an unfamiliar audience (I’m not sure exactly what the target audience is). The paper states in the beginning that the authors will address ways to prevent or stop addiction. However, by the end of the article, the authors have merely stated both sides of the issue and end by saying “Let’s learn to use (online games) responsibly.” Development of every idea would be very helpful in this paper.