. . . from journalists?

Really?

There’s a thought!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7746471.stm

Posited here is the idea that MMORPGs are not addictive in the traditional psychological sense. A guy named Bakker, who runs the Smith & Jones Centre in Amsterdam – the first european clinic for gaming addicts – sums it up thus; “the more we work with these kids the less I believe we can call this addiction. What many of these kids need is their parents and their school teachers – this is a social problem.”

Not suprising, considering that the vector is a social tool, rather than a perception-altering chemical. MMOGs may be drawing in people who don’t fit the normal psychologocal addiction profile because they may not be scratching exactly the same itch.

Personally, I still think that thw 10% Bakker admits are traditionally or cross-addicted are a demographic that we need to take care of, but the other 90% present an equally interesting problem. Though they arguably fit the definition of psychologocal addiction:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiction#Psychological_dependency

they need a different form of treatment. Social treatment. Is that proof positive that their dependency has social or interactive roots in addition to physical ones? We seem to be on the threshold of something interesting in our history as a social species.

Assuming we can’t understate the importance of this kind of media to our future communicative endeavors, from whence comes social responsibility for the medium? Law? Education? Dora the explorer?

those pesky journos, maybe?