Is Fortnite as "addictive as cocaine?" For this psychologist, the answer isn't as straightforward as it seems.
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GamingTranscript
00:00A grandmother unplugged the video game console and the child threw the grandmother to the floor.
00:05It's obviously an extreme case, but the common denominators here are parents and caretakers trying to turn off the game and unplug the games.
00:13These games, just like other addictive substances like alcohol and drugs, serve a very important purpose.
00:33They allow people to escape momentarily.
00:36The problem comes when it becomes the sole coping mechanism and they have a really hard time shifting away from it, turning the games off.
01:06Take a game like Fortnite. It's kind of like poker in a sense where if you want to play poker online, there's always another hand.
01:21You can play a hand for a short amount of time if you go out, you can play a hand for a longer period of time if you stay, and it really depends.
01:36We can't really say that it's the video games in and of themselves that are the addictive piece of the puzzle here.
01:49We're living in a world where instant gratification has been something that kids have been experiencing since they were toddlers.
01:55So the idea that you can pick up a phone and just tap it and get an answer, things come very easy.
02:00But in school, middle school and high school, things don't come very easy.
02:03Not all children, but there is a segment of children who have a difficult time with that.
02:07And so if you have a device in your hand or a video game that's very easy and it's accessible, sometimes even transportable and mobile,
02:14it's easy to understand why a child is going to opt to engage in that activity rather than getting their head in the books and completing the very difficult work that's in front of them.