By playing games on smartphones to break boredom, the risk is to spend more and more time there until you develop an addiction.
- 270 million people play Candy Crush worldwide.
- According to the Daily Mail, the game is particularly popular with women aged 25 to 55.
- Since 2018, video game addiction has been recognized as a disease by the World Health Organization.
Killing time on public transport, waiting for an appointment or keeping busy during a break: there are a thousand and one reasons to play games on your smartphone. If they make it easy to have fun, Canadian researchers have shown that there is a risk of addiction, especially when you play them to fight boredom. Their work, carried out on this subject, has been published in the specialized journal Computers in Human Behavior.
A vicious circle
Chanel Larche and Michael Dixon, the two authors of the study, recruited 60 people for this study: all played the game Candy Crush, the principle of which is based on colored candies, which must be associated to make them crash and accumulate points. People were playing at levels ranging from 77 to 3307. The higher the level, the harder the game becomes: “meaning there was an imbalance in the challenge-skill balance, low intensity and low arousal“, specify the authors of the study about the easier level, compared to a higher level, which was more stimulating and made you want to continue playing. The scientists wanted to determine if the players were more likely to continue when there was intensity or when there was not. At the same time, they collected information on the participants. According to their results, people who play because they are bored are more immersed in the game than others.”Those who play to escape feel more intensity and positive effects, compared to other players, which kind of a vicious circle where video games become a remedy for depressive states“, notes Michael Dixon.
A risk of addiction
According to him, playing games on the phone is a bad reflex: “Even though it improves the mood, it creates an urgent need to keep playing.“He believes that prolonged and repeated playing time can lead to addiction, and reduce the time available for other activities, considered healthier.”It can make depression worse“, he warns. Chanel Large recommends that developers of these smartphone games develop tools to reduce risk, such as an option to limit playing time.
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