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A School Psychologist Talks About Video Game Addiction
Description
Is your child spending too much time playing video games? Is video game addiction a real problem among kids and teens today?
On this episode of the Supercast, we talk to school psychologist, Dustin Fullmer who actually teaches a video game addiction class at the Jordan Family Education Center. It is a class that is more popular than ever before as parents try to figure out if video gaming has become an unhealthy habit for their own children and what can be done to turn things around.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Is your child spending excessive time playing video games? Is video game addiction a real problem among kids and teens? Today on this episode of the Supercast, we talk with school psychologist, Dustin Fullmer, who actually teaches a video game addiction class at the Jordan Family Education Center in Jordan School District. It's a class that's more popular than ever before as parents try to figure out if video gaming has become an unhealthy habit for their own children.
Anthony Godfrey:
All right, we are here at Joel P Jenson Middle School to talk with some students about how they feel about video games or which video games they like best and what they like about them. Tell me your name please.
Student:
I'm Landon.
Anthony Godfrey:
Landon. What video game do you play the most right now?
Student:
Definitely Minecraft.
Anthony Godfrey:
Minecraft. Now that's a very creative game. What do you like about playing Minecraft?
Student:
Mainly party games on it.
Anthony Godfrey:
Just tell me a little bit more about that.
Student:
Well, Minecraft is a survival game, explore someone's creativity and challenge one's survivability. So last deal on a Minecraft so far is called high pixel. I spent 700 hours on a single game mode.
Anthony Godfrey:
700 hours.
Student:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Are there some things that you didn't get to do because you were doing Minecraft?
Student:
Not really.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. So how did it feel after doing 700 hours of Minecraft?
Student:
Like about halfway through, I got phone down, so I stopped playing full volume.
Anthony Godfrey:
How many hours would you say you play in a day?
Student:
Three.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. So you just consistently play and after the 700 hours, did you get to where you wanted it to be in Minecraft? Did you accomplish what you were hoping to accomplish?
Student:
Most of India.
Anthony Godfrey:
What do you like most about playing video games?
Student:
It's an escape from reality.
Anthony Godfrey:
All right. Tell me your name.
Student:
I'm Brandon.
Anthony Godfrey:
Brandon, what video games do you play most?
Student:
Well, I usually like to play on my phone. I like to play Geometry Dash a lot.
Anthony Godfrey:
Geometry Dash. I haven't heard of Geometry Dash. Tell me about that.
Student:
Well, it sounds like a math game, but it's honestly really not. Basically, you're this cube and you jumped over spikes and it's a game of rhythm and timing and memorization.
Anthony Godfrey:
So jumping in, avoiding things, actually matches up with some of the video games that I used to play back in the 1900s. Have you ever heard of Pitfall?
Student:
No. I don't think I have.
Anthony Godfrey:
How about Activision?
Student:
I've heard of it.
Anthony Godfrey:
I think that's like a video game company. It's very well done. And how about Atari?
Student:
I've heard of that.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Yeah. I used to p