Video games might be the form of technology that frustrates parents the most. They are like kiddie crack, sucking kids into an altered state of existence for hours at a time to the exclusion of everything else. A lot of families wage regular battles over their children’s video game use, creating conflict in the home that carries over into other aspects of life.

One mother, describing her 7-year-old son’s obsession with Fortnite, says “On a good day he gets home from school and the rule is to do homework first, but as soon as he’s done, he wants to play videogames. If I tell him no, he’ll just sit there and not do anything. It’s like he doesn’t have the capacity to entertain himself. A bad night is when we just come home and I’m so exhausted I let him play videogames until bedtime and then he’s livid when it’s time for bed.” (Jargon 4-3-2019)

Why kids love video games

The comparison of video games to crack isn’t all that far off. Playing video games produces a type of natural high, boosting levels of feel-good chemicals in the brain while activating the brain’s reward centers. They are a delightful visual display, a game, a casino, and an interactive fantasy all rolled into one. Add a social community, as the most popular modern games do, and they become even harder to resist.

One study found a 75% boost to baseline dopamine levels in the brain just from the anticipation of playing a video game. This is much less than the boost received from hard drugs, but it’s more than one gets from eating a pleasurable food such as a candy bar or doughnut. (Jargon, 2019) It’s also important to note that whereas drugs alter the physiology of the brain in artificial ways by introducing a chemical substance that alters and ends up damaging brain cells, video games produce these boosts naturally, relying on the body’s own natural responses. So while video games and other addictive technologies induce a brain response similar to that of drugs, they aren’t destructive in the same way drugs and alcohol are.

That said, the two are quite similar when it comes to their allure. “Videogames are engineered specifically to keep people playing,” says Douglas A. Gentile, who researches technology’s impact on children. “They’re designed to hit the pleasure centers of the brain in some of the same ways that gambling can.”(Needleman, 2018) Brain scans show that playing video games lights up the reward pathways of the brain like the Fourth of July, sending a surge of feel-good chemicals throughout the player’s body and brain. (Walsh, 2007, pp. 264-65) This delivers a surge of both adrenalin and dopamine, along with endorphins, which basically turns kids into little adrenalin junkies.Video games might be the form of technology that frustrates parents the most. They are like kiddie crack, sucking kids into an altered state of existence for hours at a time to the exclusion of everything else. A lot of families wage regular battles over their children’s video game use, creating conflict in the home that carries over into other aspects of life.

One mother, describing her 7-year-old son’s obsession with Fortnite, says “On a good day he gets home from school and the rule is to do homework first, but as soon as he’s done, he wants to play videogames. If I tell him no, he’ll just sit there and not do anything. It’s like he doesn’t have the capacity to entertain himself. A bad night is when we just come home and I’m so exhausted I let him play videogames until bedtime and then he’s livid when it’s time for bed.” (Jargon 4-3-2019)

It’s a problem I’m sure many parents can relate with.