Internet Game Addiction in East Asia: Challenges & Opportunities

Abstract

Game addiction has become of particular concern in Asia due to the rapid spread of mobile and social games. Successfully harmonizing the tension between promoting digital technology for economic development and the negative consequences of that development has become one of the most urgent agendas for many Asian countries. This chapter not only examines the current circumstance of game addiction in the cases of South Korea, China, and Japan, but also explores its causes in those nations. To do this, it first explores what constitutes addiction and then introduces some criteria of game addiction. This chapter proposes that lessening game addiction in East Asian nations is dependent on how effectively each Asian nation can create a healthy gaming culture in a society. Asian nations must commit to a comprehensive effort to improve a stressful school environment with a narrow-minded focus on academic achievements, while also to cultivating an atmosphere of harmony and sympathy among colleagues and classmates in the education system and the workforce.