Video Game Addiction

Guests: Brett Merrill, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist; Joseph Hilgard, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center; Douglas Gentile, Ph.D., Developmental Psychologist  Video Games represent one of the largest entertainment industries in the world– here in the US, some 34 million people play at least 5 hours a week. But few players stop at just 5 hours.  The average time spent playing is 22-hours.  That’s the equivalent of a part-time job spent playing in the virtual worlds of games like World of Warcraft, Call of Duty or even Minecraft. So, perhaps it’s no surprise that people are now being diagnosed with an addiction to video gaming. People lose jobs, destroy relationships and develop severe health problems as a result of too much time spent gaming. This hour we’re talking about the power – and price – of video game playing.