Smartphone games have had a huge impact on our daily lives and society since their popularization. Let’s take a look at the causes of smartphone gaming addiction and the social problems it has caused.
Smartphones were first released about 30 years ago. The first commercial smartphone was the “Simon Personal Communicator” developed by IBM, which was announced in 1992 and released to the market in 1994. This device is considered to be the first smartphone with features such as email, fax, and note-taking in addition to phone calls. Since then, with various technological advancements, smartphones have rapidly evolved to where we are today.
Smartphones have been popularized since roughly 2007. This was the year Apple released the first iPhone, which revolutionized the smartphone market with its user-friendly touchscreen interface and app ecosystem. Then, in 2008, Google released the Android operating system, and various manufacturers entered the smartphone market, leading to a rapid increase in smartphone penetration.
Today, smartphones are used for a variety of functions, including calls, texts, social networks, and the internet, and have become primarily a tool for relaxation. Before smartphones became widespread, it was rare to see people glued to their phones because of their limitations, but now it’s not uncommon to see people glued to their phones on buses, subways, and even in meetings. Some users are even secretly using their phones in public. According to a study by the University of Derby, smartphone gaming is spreading like a virus, with one in eight people now infected with this ‘virus’. This is causing new social problems, such as a growing disconnect between friends and family. So what’s causing people to become addicted to smartphone games?
On the surface, you might think it’s because smartphone games have become more accessible. It’s true that the popularization of smartphones has made countless kinds of games available for free, and the establishment of a nationwide infrastructure system has provided an environment where smartphone games can be accessed anytime, anywhere. However, simply having few time and space constraints is not enough to explain everything.
As the smartphone gaming market continues to expand, the temptation to play games that suit your tastes while relaxing is great. In addition to online games, where the game is played in real time, offline games are also accessible to beginners, as they only require you to access the game in your spare time and make a few adjustments. Once you get tired of the old games, you seek pleasure from new ones, and the cycle of smartphone gaming repeats itself. Compared to the complexity of school and work, the rewards are easy to come by, and the feelings of pleasure are so pleasurable that people seem to become addicted to gaming. Game companies capitalize on everyone’s need to feel accomplished and encourage competition among smartphone game users, forcing them to invest valuable time in their games.
Information competition aside, many of the services offered through smartphones are designed to be addictive. Basically, service providers use a variety of tactics to attract users, and one of the most effective is to create a sense of competition. In the case of the parent company, the game is designed to encourage people to compete with each other by revealing the scores of their friends and acquaintances. We also use methods that encourage cooperation. Nowadays, game companies are using your connections to increase the number of users by giving you items as gifts when you introduce the game to non-game users, or by exchanging items between users of the same game.
In addition, each person may have a role or appearance they want to play, but are unable to achieve due to real-life conditions. Smartphone games allow you to escape the limitations of reality and transform into a hero, heroine, fairy, wizard, billionaire, or any number of other characters. The great reward of using magic to become a savior in a virtual game world is hard to match in real life. Sometimes, social rules and laws create a sense of rebellion, and it’s not uncommon for people to satisfy it with games. The desire that cannot be fulfilled in real life can be recaptured in smartphone games, which is why people are drawn to play games all day long.
It’s a logical leap of logic to argue that the root cause of the “virus” that is smartphone gaming is getting people addicted is simply because games are fun and convenient. Companies have produced games that are more stimulating, more violent, and more easily addictive in order to make more profit, and individuals are drawn to them to fulfill their need for fulfillment, vanity, or escape from the real world. Like any other leisure activity, smartphone gaming can have a positive effect on stress relief and improving relationships with others when enjoyed as simple play. However, it is important to recognize that excessive gaming can have a serious impact on our society.
