"Internet Gaming Disorder" in China: Biomedical Sickness or Sociological Badness?. (May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bax, Trent
• Other Names: Liboriussen Bjarke guest-editor.; Martin Paul guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Games and culture. Volume 11:Number 3(2016)
• Page Start: 233
• Page End: 255
• Publication Date: 2016-05
• Subjects: Internet gaming disorder -- Internet addiction -- China -- youth -- DSM-5 -- deviance; Games -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Video games -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Computer games -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Interactive multimedia -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 303.4834
• DOI: 10.1177/1555412014568188
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1555-4120

Abstract

"Internet addiction" in China and elsewhere is considered a serious social problem. In China, some psychiatrists have claimed 10% of all Internet users—60 million—are potentially "addicted" to the Internet. Following on the heels of the publication of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM-5 ), this qualitative-based research article critically investigates the new concept Internet gaming disorder, a category recently included in the DSM-5 as a condition "warranting more clinical research and experience before it might be considered for inclusion in the main book as a formal disorder." This article takes up this challenge and responds in the following way: When we investigate the social existence of online gamers labeled Internet addicts in China, and then subject their social existence to the DSM 's own definition of a mental disorder, we discover not a clearly understood mental disorder called Internet gaming disorder but more so an issue of social deviance.