Video Game Addiction = Cocaine Addiction?

We have all played a video games, and not realized the grave consequences that these games can lead to. It seems harmless playing Grand Theft Auto or binging your favorite TV show on Netflix, yet Adam Alter has something else to say. His interview with Mike Pesca brought light to these dangers through counterarguments and strong rebuttals.

Pesca and Alter immediately hooks the audience with humor which is one of the best ways to make sure that the audience is focused and ready to receive the information that you are providing to them. For most of the interview it contained Pesca, the interviewer, plays the devil’s advocate about the joys of technology and Alter support his argument with logos and ethos. One example of logos the counter arguments that Pesca revealed was the “fatal flaw” of these video game companies is that they are too good in the way that they have perfected the game and made it fun and users have the ability to connect with other users and play with them. Alter eloquently rebuttals this by saying that he is not against people interacting with each other but the fact that 50% of the 100 million users of World of Warcraft are addicted to the game which leads to his concern. He also strengthens his argument with pathos by showing that he is a credible source because he incorporates many different sources of research on the topic of addictive technology. This allows their audience to be at ease about the information that he is giving is trustworthy and reliable.

Now that the audience can trust Alter and his argument, he begins to express his ideas on how we can control this addiction. The first step that he points out is people have to become enlightened on the danger and realize that a game addiction is just as concerning as a drug addiction. Alter also suggests that people need to make the conscious decision to stop regardless of how tempting it is to continue on social media or Netflix because there is “not an end” to these technologies.

Alter and Pesca helped bring light to their audience about the increasing concern for the addictive qualities of technology through strong rebuttals based of the rhetorical devices of logos and pathos. There words should encourage to think twice about how much time the invest on these long term damaging activities.