http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/24/social-networking-site-changing-childrens-brains
While this article talks more about social networking, it does touch on computer games and the internet culture in general: the need for here and now, the quick access at a button, and the lack of consequence. Lady Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln college, Oxford, and director of the Royal Institution, believes that this internet lifestyle will have a profound, if not negative, impact on our society.
Quote:After all, whenever you play a computer game, you can always just play it again; everything you do is reversible. The emphasis is on the thrill of the moment, the buzz of rescuing the princess in the game. No care is given for the princess herself, for the content or for any long-term significance, because there is none. This type of activity, a disregard for consequence, can be compared with the thrill of compulsive gambling or compulsive eating.
"The sheer compulsion of reliable and almost immediate reward is being linked to similar chemical systems in the brain that may also play a part in drug addiction. So we should not underestimate the 'pleasure' of interacting with a screen when we puzzle over why it seems so appealing to young people."