Midterm Paper: Online Gaming Addiction

According to BBC News, South Korea is one of the most technologically connected societies in the world. With access to 24-hour cyber cafes, known as PC Bangs, people can easily get sucked into the world of online gaming addiction. People travel from all over the world to game at the PC Bangs in South Korea. But this "gamer's paradise" has an uglier side. After gaming non-stop for 86 hours in a PC Bang in Kwangju, 24-year-old Kim Kyung-jae died. Investigating officer Detective Hong Gun-hee said, "PC bangs are open 24 hours a day - and there is every potential that another case like this could happen again." Cases of internet addiction like this are becoming more and more common.

Grace Lim, a Korean-American masters student, visited a PC Bang on her trip to Seoul this past year. She noticed that as soon as school let out, elementary, middle and high school students would fill up the internet cafes. When Lim was asked why South Korea sees more of this gaming addiction problem than other countries, she said, "There is a lot of stress in Korean society. Going to PC Bangs is one way to relieve stress and disconnect themselves from the real world. It's mainly the stress-relieving factor."

Though there are yet to be any proven causes of online gaming addiction, there are factors that have been known to contribute to the addiction. First is the obsessive compulsion connected to performing a task, such as feeling a 'rush' from shopping. An internet addict may feel the same 'rush' when he or she starts up the computer and logs into his or her favorite game. Another theory is that addicts may actually become addicted to the feeling the game gives them, not the game itself. For example, if a gamer feels a sense of happiness or pleasure while playing a game, he or she will consistently play that game to regain those same feelings. Another reason people become addicted to the internet is because of the social connections they create. Some people get involved in online relationships because they feel like they are taking less of a risk than if they were to pursue a relationship in person. This can grow to the point of people creating false personas for themselves online. Though this gives the addict a sense of adequacy, they are not improving their offline selves, thus leading to further feelings of inadequacy. There is also the theory that certain personality traits cause online gaming addiction. Much like people can be predisposed to alcoholism, they can also be predisposed to internet addiction. With just the right mix of an addictive personality, stressors and poor self-image, people can easily fall into a pattern of seeking emotional or mental quick-fixes via the internet.

As far as a remedy goes for this widespread addiction, support is the answer. Seeing a physician will allow the addict to find exactly what spurred the addiction to begin with; whether its cause was social or personal. There are also rehabilitation centers with programs that specialize in internet addiction. On a military base outside Beijing, a treatment center incorporates military-style discipline, along with counseling, confidence-building activities, sex education and sometimes medication. The treatment is meant to uncover any psychological or emotional issues that may have contributed to the addiction. In turn, this boosts self-confidence, bringing the addict closer to recovery.

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Midterm Project Proposal

I will be designing my own midterm project. I plan to discuss the growing gaming addiction mentioned in Digital Nation. Included in my paper will be the causes of the addiction itself as well as the physical and mental affects it has on addicts. This problem has gotten out of control in places like South Korea and China. Excessive gaming has lead to people removing themselves from their social lives. There have even been deaths caused by non-stop gaming. My paper will encompass the issues surrounding this rising obsession.

Social Media

Today many TV shows and advertisements try to look amateurish or "homegrown" to emulate what is often seen on the Web. Do you think professional production values will continue to drop, or do you think amateur user-generated content will get better over time? WHY??

We first discussed actual TV shows and advertisements which utilize the "homegrown" practice in current media. Advertisements such as the E-trade Baby Commercials and TV shows such as The Office are examples of this. However, we view the amateurish simulations more as a style and a fad, not necessarily a revolution within the production industry. While some companies and shows choose to revert to the user-generated production techniques, such as personal cam-corders, the remainder of the industry continues to move forward with the high-tech advancements production has made. Also, in producing much of the "homegrown" media, advanced technology is still being applied while trying to simulate user-generated content. It is an approach certain advertisers have decided to take, in an effort to seem relevant to their audience. Over time, user-generated content will most likely progress further as it has since it started. New user-friendly cameras and computer software are becoming readily available to the average person, requiring less professional skills, and so we think that as top production advances, so will the actual homegrown production.

2. Find a news article and write down tags you would use to define what the article is about. Now goto http://delicious.com/ , digg.com or another tagging site and see how others have tagged it. What did you learn from the differences or similarities in tagging?

Does Facebook Deserve the Hell it's Catching from Greenpeace?

Our tags: Social networking, Facebook, Greenpeace, economy, norms, politics, groups, coal, energy, renewable resources

Their tags: coal, Facebook, Greenpeace, social change, social network, social psychology

When comparing our tags with the tags from Digg, we found that the majority of our tags were the same. From these similarities we concluded that the main ideas and most important parts of the article were universal and apparent. However, there were a few tags from Digg that differed from ours. We found that as a group we gave more specific and detail-oriented tags, while Digg focused more on the holistic and general ideas in the article. For example, we tagged "renewable resources" and Digg tagged "social movement" and "social psychology." A possible explanation is that Digg users tagged broader terms, but since we were conscious of doing a good job tagging we were more thorough and specific.

3. Why is transparency such an important concept in the Social Media world? Is it MORE or LESS important in the offline world? Why?

Transparency is such an important concept because it disguises intentions and viewers deserve to be aware of the alternative motives behind what they see and read. Basically transparency regards the loop hole for advertisers and other social media in which they find ways to mask what they are doing or saying in order to make it more appealing to viewers.

Transparency is more important in the online world. It arises moral as well as legal issues. When viewers watch television they more aware of what is and what isn't an advertisement, however the transparency that is heavily present in the online world often fools its users. An example would be if a big corporation has formal plans and intentions of getting their message across the internet, but hires a smaller distant company to disguise its origin. In the online world, it is much easier to remain anonymous from your contributions, such as blogs. When viewers read blogs they are more likely to trust that the blogger is being objective, rather than being paid off to endorse another company or product.

The Persuaders

"The Persuaders" begins by questioning the increase in the amount of advertising we typically encounter in our daily lives. How would you assess the amount of advertising you see? Too much? Too little? Just right? In your view, what difference does it make to know that people today see much more advertising in their daily lives than people 20 or 30 years ago?

In my opinion, advertising has reached new heights the last couple decades. Anywhere you go, you are being bombarded by advertisements. What makes this difficult is the emotional aspect that marketers have attached to products or services. A TV commercial promoting a vacation to Jamaica doesn't just tell you how beautiful the place is, it tells you that you'll fall in love when you go there. An advertisement for a MacBook won't tell you how efficient the machine is. Instead, you are being told that you can recreate yourself when you use it. I feel like advertising hasn't even really evolved; rather it has reverted back to a place where the real tangible or intangible purpose for the product or service is forgotten. In The Persuaders, TiVo was introduced as a way to eliminate TV commercials altogether. As a result, advertisements are no longer reaching the people who use it.

Where are things headed in the future? What are some possible scenarios that could play out as far as the direction that future persuaders may take their marketing techniques.

I think that in the future, advertisers will continue to reach the public through movies and TV shows. Because of products like TiVo, advertising will strictly turn into product placement. So instead of a commercial for Crest toothpaste, a character in a show may brush his or her teeth with Crest. This also sends a subliminal message to viewers; they will end up associating their favorite character in a show to Crest, therefore having an emotional connection to that brand of toothpaste.