News Photo by Kayla Wikaryasz On Tuesday, Gaige Tarsney is seen working at the front desk of his video game store in Alpena, K-otic games. Tarsney said he believes that video games have been used as “scapegoats” for the mental health concerns among American youth.

ALPENA — Video game addiction is a debated topic in America as concerns for youth mental health are on the rise.

Researches Shabina Mohammad, Raghad A Jan, and Saba L Alsaedi from the Department of Anatomy and College of Medicine from Taibah University conducted a study into video game addiction in 2023 called “Symptoms, Mechanisms, and Treatments of Video Game Addiction.”

The study’s abstract states, “Many studies have shown that video game addiction leads to changes in the brain that are similar to those that occur in substance addiction and gambling.”

The abstract also states that evidence has shown an association between video game addiction and depression, as well as other psychological and social problems.

Logan Kroll, a Rogers City resident, said he was a pre-teen when “video games really took off for me.”

“I’d stay up playing video games all night,” Kroll said. “During school I prioritized video games especially when it came to online games.”

Kroll said as a teenager his schooling suffered because of his preoccupation with gaming.

“Someone who’s brain wasn’t developed as it is now, you get a kind of tunnel vision at that age,” Kroll added. “Classes I wasn’t doing well in, not because I didn’t know what I was doing there, were classes I was almost failing because I wasn’t doing my homework.”

Kroll said he lets his five-year-old son play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater because there “is no real violence except for a guy falling.”

“There is something there that clicked with him like, ‘This is so cool!'” Kroll added.

Kroll added that he’s been trying to encourage his son to play outside more instead of playing video games, and said he thinks “younger kids should be outside.”

“I don’t think adolescence is a bad time to get into video games,” Kroll said. “Kindergarten to fourth grade, they should be outside.”

Kroll added that he isn’t opposed to his son making friends online and hopes his son enjoys playing video games as much as he does.

Shyla Prevost, an Alpena resident, said that she puts strict rules in place to monitor her children’s video game usage.

“I have a rule that they can’t play any games during the school week,” Prevost said.

She explained that her kids used to “play outside all the time” and now that they have been introduced to video games, “that is all they want to do.”

Prevost stated that her children don’t want to play with other kids outside and would rather interact with other children online.

“The only way to get them to go outside is to tell them to,” Prevost added.

She said that she’s seen her children acquire a “really bad attitude.”

“My middle and youngest have grown quite an attachment to video games,” Prevost said. “Their behavior is completely different. If I don’t let them play, I get a lot of talking back.”

She added that her middle child “can get pretty nasty about it” when Prevost doesn’t allow them to play video games.

She explained that her children have to play video games in the living room and are never allowed to play online.

Gaige Tarsney, owner of K-otic Games in Alpena, says that he believes that anyone can get addicted to anything and video games are no exception. However, he said he believes that video games are treated as scapegoats for children’s behaviors rather than addressing poor parenting.

“Video games can definitely be addictive,” Tarsney said. “I believe it is a parenting problem rather than a video game problem.”

He said he doesn’t think it is a child’s fault for getting “addicted” to video games. He said there are controls that parents can put into place that monitor a child’s use of video games.

“I don’t think the video game is the problem,” Tarsney reiterated.

Tarsney said that the gaming community is attractive to people who “don’t have the social abilities” or “live on the outskirts and don’t have the outreach” to have thriving social circles.

He said he understands the concerns for violence in video games because “you are controlling the game” rather than watching or listening to violence unfold in other forms of entertainment.

However, he added that he believes that video games “always become a scapegoat” as other controversial forms of media have in the past such as music, movies, et cetera.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.