Video game addiction: past, present and future

Abstract

Gaming addiction has become a topic of increasing research interest. The last decade has witnessed a significant increase in the number of empirical studies examining various aspects of problematic video game play and video game addiction. This paper begins with a brief past history of how research into video game addiction has changed over the last three decades (i.e., the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s). It then examines more thoroughly the contemporary research literature by analyzing the (i) prevalence of problematic video game use and video game addiction, (ii) negative consequences of excessive video game use, (iii) factors associated with problematic video game use and video game addiction, and (iv) the treatment of problematic video game use and video game addiction. The paper concludes by looking at the trends in the field and a somewhat theoretical examination of what the future of video game addiction might be.