Media addiction

According to http://www.sethbarnes.com/?filename=media-addiction-is-killing-us-in-7-ways media addiction consists of seven seperate stages.

News - We aim to stay informed by watching the news, and it has as huge impact on the way we think.

Noise - We grow accustomed to a back drop of noise, for example, through an ipod or television, which in turn causes us to think less.

Moral decay - Our morality is under steady assault by an entertainment industry pushing sex, violence, and profanity.

A.D.D - The amazing number of media options available to us turns us into a nation of A.D.D. channel-flippers who can't focus on anything for very long.

Mind-numbing - We are diverted from the life-giving, creative activities like a long conversation or playing make-believe (both as children and as adults). We trade the interactive right-brain activities for passive, mind-numbing, left-brain activities.

Poor people skills - Our children are spending more time in "virtual relationships" online than in real ones. We're watching a generation growing up with poor people skills. When we interact with people in real life, we perceive them three ways: body, soul, and spirit. Over the web, we just exchange information, and the data we do exchange is often reduced to dull sound-bite-sized packets that convey little. Myspace is impoverishing our children, rendering them ever more superficial.

Bad decision making - The "un-delete" button on our computers is protecting kids from the consequences of their actions. By protecting a generation from the effects of its folly, we are filling the world with fools. This subtly feeds a relativistic perspective that calls into question absolute truth.

Legislation

Personally, I feel that it is up to the parents of a child to legislate how often they play a game, or what games they play. The issue of violence in games however should not be an issue due to the age restrictions on games, however parents should moniter what games their child are buying. In order to control media addiction, i feel that it would be suitable to place an advisory amount of time that should be spent playing on a game, and the dangerous effects that can occur for playing too much. This therefore makes it up to the person whether they want to harm themselves with media addiction, or to obey these guidelines.

http://www.videogamer.com/features/article/could_you_live_with_a_gaming_curfew.html
"But now there's something going on in Seoul. Back in April, Korea introduced legislation that put a curfew on online games. Thanks to this new Cinderella Law, between midnight and 6am all users under the age of 16 are locked out of online titles."

This law has been introduced in order to keep children from being addicted to online games, whilst also keeping their attention to their school work. This law enables children to focus on important things such as sleeping, as many children are known to play online for the entire night, which results in a poorer school performance.

Application to theories

Media addiction is an example the two-step flow model, where gamers will relate to a character in the game. For example, some studies have shown that some people have actually believed themselves to be the main character in a game, and then gone on to complete certain 'tasks' in the real world, such as murdering a member of their family. This is an example of extreme media addiction, but even the slightest addiction to media can be related to the two-step flow model, for example by feeling that they must play the game in order to help the character which they have built a relationship with, and therefore spend more time in the virtual world that in the real world.