Extreme Gaming Must Be Acknowledged as an Addiction so That Those Afflicted Can Receive the Appropriate Help

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We live in a world where are least one form of technology is available in almost every American household. Thus, the temptation to use these technologies for pleasure or work is always existent. Unfortunately, this obsession with using technology can create harmful addictions. One notable addiction that has made great strides in taking over the lives of many, is gaming. After various incidents where obsessive gaming has resulted in morbid obesity, dangerous acts, and other issues, society has begun to wonder whether it may be a bigger problem that imagined. Despite this, people still fail to take more action against obsessive gaming, and give it the appropriate attention. Thus, society needs to become more informed about this issue and realize that it is a growing phenomena among people of all ages, and then take the appropriate measures to combat it.

Video Games Mimic the Reward of Taking Drugs, and Males Prove to be More Prone to the Influence

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A common feature of video games is that they are deliberately ineffective and intentionally postpone the ultimate moment of gratification. Most games require a series of steps that must be accomplished to advance to the next level. After the player finally beats one level, they can feel a moment of satisfaction, but must do it all over again for the next level. This repetitive behavior of wanting to achieve a goal, getting a minor reward, and then having the ultimate gratification postponed, is what ultimately creates a dependency on gaming. This is quite similar to the sensations of taking a drug. The user will feel the instant gratification of pleasure, but that sensation is only temporary and so the user will want to re-create the feeling even more. This cycle is what makes gaming so dangerous, as well as what keeps the public so blind. Only those who truly look at the issue will see this pattern, and so obsessive gaming has never been realized by a large group of the public until recently.

Ultimately, males are the ones that are most influenced by this pattern. Studies show that 3 out of every 5 gamers are male, and so males are at a higher risk of developing an addiction.  Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, Kent Norman, explains this fact in more depth.

Many Argue that Gaming Cannot be Classified as a Proper Addiction Because it is A Form of Enjoyment

Despite the tell-tale signs, many are still wary of classifying intensive gaming as an addiction because of their definition of an addiction. An addiction is considered to be a strong and urgent need to constantly have something. Most people equate this to a substance addiction, like that of drugs or alcohol. People may think this way because gaming is often viewed as a form of relaxation and enjoyment, and so they do not want to admit that it is developing into something more than that. It turns out that gaming falls under a different addiction classification, and that is a behavioral addiction. Professor Norman provides more insight into the differences between the two types of addiction.

Thus, gaming shares many of the same characteristics as someone with a substance addiction. The differences lie in the fact that gaming involves more thoughts about the subject, rather than physical attachment.

A Gaming Addict Feels the Same Sensations that are Felt by Substance Addicts

One of the biggest questions that comes to mind is how something that is meant to provide enjoyment and leisure can be comparable to something incomprehensible as an alcohol or drug addiction. The world "game" indicates that the player will enjoy themselves and reach some sort of accomplishment by the end, but that is not always the case. Gaming can lead to obsessive, reclusive, obese and violent qualities in a player, many of the same characteristics of a substance addict. Especially now with the thousands of games that are available to people of any age, the side-effects of the gaming world have begun to reveal themselves; so much that gaming should be classified as a real addiction so that the appropriate measures can be taken to alleviate people of it.

Some Students Prefer the Traditional Class Setting to a Blended or Online Course

According to the CDC, Asian Americans Are the Thinnest Americans

A released by the Center for Disease Control shows that the group of people least likely to be overweight are Asian Americans. This conclusion took many factors into consideration like Body Mass Index, cholesterol level, and blood pressure. Asian-Americans fell in the best ranks for all of these indicators, compared to whites blacks, and Latinos, leading to the conclusion that they are the best fit Americans are Asian Americans.

Packard Fellowship Awarded To UMD Faculty Member to Provide Funding for Research on Earth's Core

Faculty Member was Awarded Fellowship for Efforts in Science and Engineering
   
Nearly 2 million data lines fill the screen of Vendran Lekic's computer screen every day, each presenting seismic waves that are detected from of the more than 1,700 seismic stations around the U.S.

  In recognition of his efforts to integrate computer science and geological studied, Lekic joined the ranks of 17 other early career U.S. scientists and engineers who were awarded a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering last week.

Lekic's Past Research Has Helped to Create a Platform for His Current Studies

 Lekic's research is based on ground vibration recordings, which he and his students use to detect the scattering of seismic waves across the North American tectonic places. In conjunction with the National Science Foundation's Earthscope Facility network, the data is collected from the 49 states and Puerto Rico and makes up about 3.8 million square miles, Lekic said. From this data, Lekic is creating a map that will not only cover all 48 contiguous states, Alaska and Puerto Rico, but also dive deep int the Earth's crust and core. Lekic has already used the seismic information to investigate why and how the crust moves over the Earth's mantle.

New Research Attempts to Create a Model of the Earth By Harnessing Energy

As of now, the deepest any machine has been able to dig was about 12 kilometers into the Earth's crust, a minuscule fracture of the roughly 6,730 kilometers it takes to get to the Earth's core. Using the seismic information helps geologists see the shapes and sizes of the Earth's layer. Lekic and McDonough are attempting to harness that energy to create another way to build a model of the Earth. "We are both interested in the energy that moves the tectonic plates and creates the magnetic shield around the planet," geology professor William McDonough said. As a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkley, Lekic formulated higher-resolution images of the Earth's mantle stucture, stemming from his creation of a global seismic velocity model. Not only is the mode able to give geologists a better understanding of plate tectonics, but it also helps explain the movements of continental plates and their evolution, Lekic said. "What we do is comparable to how an ultra let's us see through our bodies," Lekic said. "But this lets us see through the Earth."

Lekic's Research Also Focuses on Newly Discovered Particle, Neutrino

      Other than his seismology research contributions, Lekic is also a forerunner in the new geological field of neutrino geoscience. Neutrinos are a type of electrically neutral subatomic particle that are created during radioactive decay or some kinds of nuclear reactions. The particle, which was only discovered geographically in 2005 and physically detected for the first time last year, moves through every kind of object, McDonough said.

Lekic Hopes That This Grant Will Help Him Better Understand Earth 

 Lekic is now one of five alumni faculty members who have received the award while at this university, and he will be given access to unrestricted funds of $875,000 over a five-year period to support his extensive research on Earth's inner structure. Now that a large fund has been granted to his work, he hopes to spend more time plotting the seismic information in graphs and models so that he may better understand the Earth, Lekic said.

 "The great thing about this fellowship is its flexibility to go chase a really good idea to wherever it leads," said Orr, a Stanford University professor. "It is an incredibly valuable fund and gives the researchers an opportunity to take off with a good idea instead of waiting a year or more for federal money." "If you look at the field of those who get it and try to figure out from their research summaries and letters which are the strongest candidate, it's a difficult task," said Franklin Orr, chairman of the Packard Fellowship panel. "We always run out of fellowships before we run out of wonderful people to give them too."Lekic has also received several other career awards besides the Packard Fellowship, but this one might be the most important to date. 

Using Smartphones and Tablets Allows for More Inceased and Efficient Access to News

By Sandra59 and Dymond24


Smart Phones Encourage Fewer News Sources Because of the Convenience of Using Apps
People who rely on smartphones for accessing news tend to use fewer news sources than those who use computers tablets. The use of apps allows people quick access to a site. Across the world, over one third of people who use smartphones use only one news source a week, compared to 30% of people who use tablets or computers. Out of the people who use tablets, 45% say they also use newspapers and 84% watch TV to access the news. Studies show that smartphone users are more engaged and up-to-date with news as compared  to tablet users (76% v 66%). Therefore, not only are smartphones the efficient and preferred choice, but the users are also more informed.




Despite the Fact that Visuals are More Engaging Than Text, More People Prefer Written News Due to the Technical Problems that are Associated with Video. 
Over the last couple of years, various news mediums have agreed that the use of visualizations like pictures and charts are more engaging for reading. This causes the news mediums to incorporate them more into their stories. Video in particular, is reported to attract more new consumers. Despite this, research has shown that more people prefer to read their news than watch a video on it. This is due to technical problems that come with video, like the video is too small to view on a smartphone, or it constantly buffers. 24% of people would prefer to watch videos on a larger screen, while 18% argue that it takes too long to actually get the video to play smoothly. 

Studies show that smartphone users are more engaged and up-to-date with news as compared to tablet users (76% v 66%). Therefore, not only are smartphones the more efficient and preferred choice, but the users are also more informed, compared to users of other devices. Despite the overall consensus that visuals are more engaging, textual news still triumphs because of its ease of use.


Tablets are Becoming More Prominent, but More Users  Use Smartphones Over Tablets to Access News
On a global scale, statistics show that 37% of the world uses smartphones to access news, as opposed to 20% that mainly rely on tablets. To support this, it turns out that the 37% of smartphone users are older people. This makes sense because smartphones become popular a few years ago among the younger crowd, but those people are now becoming older. The popularity of tablets among the younger generation is explained by the fact that tablets are generally less expensive than smartphones, and so they are more accessible. In order to see this more clearly, we will focus on two countries: the United States and Japan. In the US, smartphone use to access news has increased from 28% to 31% from 2013 to 2014. In Japan, the numbers have increased from 19% to 26%. When looking at tablet use, the numbers have increased from 16% to 19% in the US, and 6% to 10 % in Japan. 
 

Both countries have greatly increased their use of technology within just one year. In both instances, the numbers have increased drastically, and the smartphones have led the way in accessing news for users.

In order for good interactivity to be possible, the benefits should outweigh the negatives.

111 Students Rate the Classroom Benefits of Different Technological Tools