Video games is being used as a social platform and seems like an engaging and relatively harmless pastime to some. It’s true, a half-hour here or a half-hour there is not that bad.

However, regular or irresponsible video gameplay breeds many adverse effects and can be severely inhibiting and damaging for the individual’s mind and their mood.

A study done by M.J. Koepp in 1998 revealed that video game play releases a level of dopamine (the “pleasure and drive” chemical in the brain) comparable to that seen when amphetamines are injected intravenously. 

This amount of dopamine can be released in other natural events in life, it’s duration is usually very short, it subsides, and then the person goes back to normal levels. These types of experiences are healthy and create joy.

Part of the issue with video games and social media comes in when you consider how long an artificial and highly stimulating experience like this can be dragged out; virtually endlessly.

When you spike dopamine too high for too long in the brain, like with video games, it damages the brain and causes it to release less and less dopamine in normal life the more and more often that an individual plays.

Thus, dependency ensues, and overall satisfaction with life goes down. An imbalance in dopamine also leads to many, many other issues that could be discussed at great length.

It is crucial for desire, enjoyment, and motivation, affecting nearly every area of life. (There are 12 different types of dopamine, but we won’t get into that in this article)

It is important that we be aware of the dangers of these things.

Many are not privy to the potentially detrimental effects of these technologies until they are already held down in the chains of addiction and feel they cannot escape.