**Project 365 Edition: Freshman Year in College. Starting 8/20/2011**

This blog was originally a blog devoted to a great high school class of mine, but I've decided to transform it into a Project 365 blog (a photo blog where you post a picture everyday for a year). I fell in love with the layout of crayons and cuteness (and wasn't savvy enough to redo it) that I'm just staying here! My teachers may very well still get notifications when I post, but whatever. If so, hi Bolos and O'Connor! :P Feel free to un-link yourself if you get bored/annoyed of me...

I'm not sure how keeping up with the daily posts will work for me (especially seeing my track record of weekly posts in that class) but I thought it would be a neat idea to at least get a feeling of the first year of college, of freshman year. Making new friends, new habits, and living a new life. Also apparently being corny as hell. Maybe this new life can include actually posting each day. Probably not. Let's cross our fingers for me?


Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Who needs drugs when we have video games?

So, cracked.com. I could do a blogpost all about that site, it's great, read it. But, I'm just going to talk about an article I found on it, or rather, my sister found and showed me. It's scary and whether it is completely true or not, it all makes sense. Anywho:

Poll: How many of you have played video games before?
How many of you are addicted to at least one?
Ok, so maybe this isn't the best time to be asking this question to my fellow 4 level high school students, but you get the point. I'm sure you know someone who is/was obsessed with some type of game. 
This article is entitled 5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted, and reading these ways I just cringe inside, because they are so true. I could go on about all the ways but I would never do them justice. I would just read the article if I were you, you will get amusement (and fear) out of it.

What I'm really getting at is how scary this is. I have found myself addicted to certain games, repetitive and boring, yet still pulled into them, and I know plenty of people who have addictions. The way these games are crafted to keep you coming back for more, to keep you going, that there are scientists just for this job. The science of gaming addiction. I'm not kidding. It's ridiculous. Games no longer care if someone buys their game and never plays it. It now feeds into the internet, and real money. There are games that require real money to be sent in to do certain tasks, receive a certain "golden key" that will open a "special door". These types of ploys are everywhere, and people soak them right up.

Yet getting at my title, video games are just as dangerous as drugs. It's true. The article links to another article about a couple starving their own child, and there have been more deaths associated with video games as well. People coop themselves up in rooms all alone, addicted to their fictional friends, or their online friends. And they think they're fine. People need real connections to the world, and without these they can find themselves cut off, depressed, only feeling better when back int heir games. Thus, the viscous cycle continues.

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