Cambridge IGCSE First Language English
Comprehension and Summary
Text 4B
Teenage gaming addicts
Are teenage boys addicted to
computer games? Well, this is hardly
a new question, but it needs to be
revisited periodically, so here goes...
I thought I’d start with some field
research, so I asked my teenage son
and stood back to await the blast of
his wrath... but he was actually quite
philosophical.
‘The trouble with old people is that
they just don’t understand what’s
going on. They ask questions like,
do you spend all your time watching
television and playing on the
computer? Are you always talking
on your mobile phone? Well, the
answer is a simple ‘no’. I don’t have
a computer, or a television, and I
never talk on the phone. But I do
have a gaming console, a tablet and
a smartphone, and I use them most
hours of most days, usually with all
three on the desk in front of me simultaneously. Am I
addicted? No. Am I a highly accomplished multi-tasker
employing multiple communication tools at once?
Yes. I’m also top of my class at school, in three sports
teams, play a musical instrument and love cycling and
snow-boarding. Go figure.’
A robust response, and, as long as you understand
the distinctions he is drawing – they never talk on their
phones, but they do text all the time, take, send and
receive photos, share and listen to music, run their
social lives on multiple platforms and access more
computing power than an Apollo mission, all on their
‘phones’. They don’t own a television because they
stream visual content on their tablets and, of course,
play games (not ‘computer’ games, how dated can you
get...?) on their consoles – what he says is entirely true.
My son is a typical, well-adjusted, well-balanced,
tech-savvy teenager who runs his busy, varied and
very social life through high-tech platforms. But are all
teenage boys like him?
Sadly not. News has come through this week that in
China, the government claims that up to 24 million
teenage boys are addicted to computer gaming,
spending up to 20 hours at a time in front of a screen,
engrossed in a game. The most severe cases are sent
Unit 4 Virtual existence
to residential centres such as the one run by Dr Tao
Ran, a psychiatrist who is also an officer in the Chinese
Army, one of 300 such centres in China. He explains:
‘Internet addiction leads to problems in the brain similar
to those derived from heroin consumption, but it can
be even more damaging. It destroys relationships and
damages the body without the person knowing. All my
patients have eyesight and back problems and suffer
from eating disorders. In addition, we have discovered
that their brain capacity is reduced by eight per cent,
and the psychological afflictions are serious. If someone
is spending six hours or more on the internet, we
consider that to be an addiction. 90 per cent of my
patients suffer from severe depression and 58 per cent
have attacked their parents. Many have committed
serious crimes.’
Teenagers are sent to these centres for months at a
time and are subject to a regime of military discipline to
help them to break their habit. Dr Tao claims a 75 per
cent success rate, but it is hard to know whether his
patients are truly cured. If the government’s figures are
to be believed, he will busy for years to come.
So, in the light of that, I’m pleased that my son is only
looking at his devices ‘most hours of most days.’
© Cambridge University Press 2018