Some Sociological, Medical and Legislative Views on Video Game Addiction (A Slovenian Case Study)

Millions of people worldwide play video games; also in Slovenian post-modern society. Most of them do it for enjoyment, yet a small number of individuals show traits associated with addictive behaviour when interacting with their games. The authors in the article point out that, compared to drug abuse, there exist some more approachable life-related activities that can lead to addiction. They stimulate the excretion of endorphins and lead to the transformation of consciousness. Addiction to video games is an ostensible attempt to satisfy the immanent human need for meaning. The economy of the Slovenian young consumer society inspires it and is based on “learning” of these alienated needs. The modern hyperpragmatic society makes it possible for young people to have a fragmented identity and places them under the pressure of constant choice of (formally open opportunities). The purpose of this paper is to familiarize the reader with possible causes, clinical signs and methods of treatment of this disorder in Slovenian postmodern society, and explain the reasons why currently no medical textbook in the world contains any information regarding video game addiction. We intend, further, to demonstrate that gaming has become a type of “sport” in certain countries and demonstrate how potentially devastating even this type of addiction can be. The authors present the results of a research, which was undertaken on a sample of 350 individuals, to determine the appearance of indicators of behavioural addiction to video games and their connection with some family factors. They determine that through addiction to video games, post-modern societies have developed an addictive identity.